Virginia’s Architectural heritage is always at risk…
Our mission is to look after and preserve one of Virginia’s oldest religious buildings originally organized in 1799 and built in 1845. Although long abandoned, the building and grounds are privately owned and under the careful stewardship of a board of directors and caring neighbors.
Pleasant Vale Baptist Church, which was organized in 1799 as Upper Goose Creek Baptist Church, was part of the New School (nonPrimitive) Baptists. In 1845, the congregation, which had been meeting in Markham, moved to the present brick building that was constructed on land donated by James Adams and whose family had lived in the area since about 1767.
Services were held regularly during the Civil War, even though the area was in the middle of the region called the Mosby Confederacy — the center of operations for John Singleton Mosby, known as “The Gray Ghost.” His raids used irregular troops whose tactics prefigured modern guerrilla warfare.
The one-and-a-half-story brick church, set on a stone foundation, is laid in three-course American bond and holds two entrance doors on the east end with four-light transoms above with 6/6 windows above each door on the second-story level. Tall multipaned windows are arranged symmetrically on the north and south sides of the church with stone lintels and sills. The church building is largely unaltered from its original appearance.
Repairs, stabilizing and maintenance…
The many forces of nature that act upon a building as old as this requires constant effort and enduring thoughtfulness. Not only does the elements take a toll on the 178 year old structure, but the Pleasant Vale Baptist Church is neither historically protected or landmarked. You can help us change that…
“The only thing I’m really interested in,” said her husband William Triplett, “is preserving the building and the grounds as a monument to what was.”
Let’s meet up in real life to share in the beauty of the Pleasant Vale Church.
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