Old Brick Church | |
Location | VA 10, near Bacon's Castle, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°6′30″N76°44′9″W / 37.10833°N 76.73583°W |
Area | 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) |
Built | 1754 |
Architectural style | Colonial, Rectilinear, Anglican Church |
NRHP reference No. | 86000002 [1] |
VLR No. | 090-0034 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | January 2, 1986 |
Designated VLR | September 16, 1982 [2] |
Old Brick Church (Lower Church, Southwark Parish) variously known as the Lawnes Creek Parish Church or the Lower Surry Church is a historic church in Bacon's Castle, Virginia.
The lower chapel of the Southwark Parish was a brick rectangular room church built in 1754 about a mile northwest of Bacon's Castle, in Surry County, Virginia. Its brick walls are irregularly laid in Flemish bond and English bond with a few glazed headers. The church remained abandoned from the Disestablishment of the Church of England in America until 1847. It was destroyed by a fire, reputedly set by recently freed slaves following the American Civil War in 1868, but its thick brick walls remained standing. Its ruins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Old Brick Church was typical of the Virginia vernacular churches of the colonial period. Prior to its destruction it probably resembled other surviving 18th century brick rectangular room churches in Virginia such as the circa-1743 Merchant's Hope Church in Prince George County and the Ware Parish Church in Gloucester. Its walls were fairly well preserved until 2003, when a large oak tree in the churchyard was uprooted by high winds during Hurricane Isabel and fell on the ruins of the church, collapsing large portions of its walls. The ruins have since been stabilized, and many of the original bricks were saved. There are plans to reconstruct the walls and restore the church to its colonial appearance.
According to local folklore going back more than a century, the ruins of the Old Brick Church are said to be haunted. Many credible people young and old over several generations claim to have seen the flying fireball. Those who have seen it describe it as simply a ball of fire. It rises from the church cemetery into the air about forty feet and slowly drifts across the broad fields towards Bacon's Castle. A former owner of the plantation saw the fireball out of his window and rushed outside thinking his barn was ablaze. Another person staying at the 17th-century Jacobean mansion woke up to find the ball circling his bed before flying back out the window. Many years ago a church meeting was being held outside in the graveyard and everyone in attendance claimed to have seen the ball of fire.
Surry County is a county in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,561.
Bacon's Castle, also variously known as "Allen's Brick House" or the "Arthur Allen House" is located in Surry County, Virginia, United States, and is the oldest documented brick dwelling in what is now the United States. Built in 1665, it is noted as an extremely rare example of Jacobean architecture in the New World.
Four Mile Tree is the name of a plantation near Jamestown, Virginia that once encompassed two thousand acres (8 km2), it was situated on the south bank of the James River opposite Jamestown, four miles (6 km) further north. On a hill near the water's edge a handsome old house overlooks the river. This plantation, was the seat of the Browne family for two hundred years. The first owner, Colonel Henry Browne, was a member of Sir William Berkeley's Council in 1643. The plantation house constructed circa 1745 remains well-preserved in its original historical state.
Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia and operated as a partnership between Preservation Virginia and the U.S. National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park.
St. Luke's Church, also known as Old Brick Church, or Newport Parish Church, is a historic church building, located in the unincorporated community of Benns Church, near Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, United States. It is the oldest church in Virginia and oldest church in British North America of brick construction. According to local tradition the structure was built in 1632, but other evidence points to a date of 1682; see Dating controversy.
Merchant's Hope was the name of a plantation and church established in the Virginia Colony in the 17th century. It was also the name of an English sailing ship, Merchant's Hope, which plied the Atlantic bringing emigrants to Virginia in the early 17th-century. The Merchant's Hope was owned by a man named William Barker who was a wealthy English merchant and mariner who patented land in Virginia.
Aquia Church is a historic church and congregation at 2938 Richmond Highway in Stafford, Virginia, USA. It is an Episcopal congregation founded in 1711, that meets in an architecturally exceptional Georgian brick building that was built in the 1750s. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991 for its architectural importance. It maintains an active congregation with a variety of programs and outreach to the community.
Yeocomico Church is a historic Episcopal church in Westmoreland County in the U.S. state of Virginia. The original wooden structure was built in 1655, but replaced in 1706 by a structure built of locally fired bricks. It is now the main church of historic Cople parish, which also includes the older Nomini Church, and St. James Church in Tidwells, Virginia The parish hall is in Hague, Virginia. Yeocomico Church, the fourth oldest in the state, was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
The Wythe House is a historic house on the Palace Green in Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. Built in the 1750s, it was the home of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of American jurisprudence. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970.
Jamestown Church, constructed in brick from 1639 onward, in Jamestown in the Mid-Atlantic state of Virginia, is one of the oldest surviving building remnants built by Europeans in the original Thirteen Colonies and in the United States overall. It is now part of Historic Jamestown, and is owned by Preservation Virginia. There have been several sites and stages in the church's history, and its later tower is now the last surviving above-ground structure from the days when Jamestown was the capital of Virginia. The current structure, active as part of the Continuing Anglican movement, is still in use today. The ruins are currently being researched by members of the Jamestown Rediscovery project.
Little Fork Church stands on a low knoll to the east of State Route 229 nine miles north of Culpeper, Virginia in a small grove of trees that enhances its naturally pastoral setting. The name Little Fork is taken from the junction of the Hazel and Rappahannock Rivers relatively close to the edifice. It is a large room church being 83 1⁄2 feet east–west and 33 1⁄2 feet north–south. Unlike most rectangular churches in Virginia, the pulpit stands directly north of the southern entrance door that is placed in the middle of the southern wall rather than in the far southeast of the building. Thus it shows some of the architectural characteristics of middle colony meeting houses such as those in Delaware as well as the Virginia Vernacular Church and the deep church.
Coventry Parish Ruins are the remnants of a historic Episcopal church located at Rehobeth, Somerset County, Maryland. Coventry Parish was one of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland established when Maryland's legislators established the Church of England as the colony's government-supported religion in 1692. These old parishes often had a church and several chapels of ease near population centers. This building, stands surrounded by farm fields and a historic Presbyterian Church near the Pocomoke River in what was then called Rehoboth but is now Rehobeth, Maryland to distinguish it from a beachfront community in Delaware.
St Mary's Whitechapel is an Episcopal church in Lancaster, Virginia, founded in 1669, and located three miles south of Lively, in Lancaster County, in the Northern Neck. The parish of St Mary's Whitechapel is notable for being the church of Mary Ball Washington, mother of George Washington, during her youth.
St. John's is an Episcopal church located in Hampton, Virginia, United States, within the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. Established in 1610, St. John's is the oldest English-speaking parish in continuous existence in the United States of America.
St. John's Church, also known as Chuckatuck Church is a historic Episcopal church located near Chuckatuck. Constructed in 1755, St. John's is the third church to occupy the site in a parish which was established in 1642. St. John's Church preserves an important role in the religious history of seventeenth century Virginia and as an architectural example of the evolving preferences of the Episcopal Church in the nineteenth century.
Mangohick Church, now also known as Mangohick Baptist Church, is a historic church located in the community of Mangohick, King William County, Virginia. One of two colonial-era churches still surviving in the current county, it was constructed in 1730 at the headwaters of Mangohick Creek, a tributary of the Pamunkey River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Christ Church is a historic Episcopal church located at Saluda, Middlesex County, Virginia. The present building was constructed in the 1720s, and is a one-story, rectangular brick building with a gable roof. It measures 60 feet by 33 feet, 6 inches.
Second Southwark Church Archeological Site is a historic archaeological site located near Surry, Surry County, Virginia. The site includes the remains of the second church to serve Southwark Parish. It is believed to have been erected by 1673, and replaced an earlier church built about 1655. The church was abandoned shortly after the American Revolutionary War, and stood in ruins through the American Civil War. A monument was erected on the site in 1927. A Virginia highway marker commemorating the church site is located near the junction of Virginia Routes 10 and 618.