Westover Church
Westover Church | |
 Westover Church, 1930, by Frances Benjamin Johnston | |
   | |
| Location | 5 mi. W of Charles City off VA 5, Charles City, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°19′56″N 77°9′33″W / 37.33222°N 77.15917°W |
| Area | 40 acres (16 ha) |
| Built | 1731 |
| NRHP reference No. | 72001502[1] |
| VLR No. | 018-0028 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 05, 1972 |
| Designated VLR | August 15, 1972[2] |
Westover Church is a historic church located 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Charles City off Virginia State Route 5 in Charles City, Virginia, United States.[3] It was built in 1731 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]
Theodorick Bland of Westover, Walter Aston, and William Byrd I are buried near the original site of the Westover Church.[4][5] The tomb of Benjamin Harrison IV has also been reported to be on the grounds.[6]
History
[edit]Between 1611 and 1613, as the colonists moved west from Jamestown, several small parishes were formed, Weyanoke, Wallingford, and Wilmington, among others. These parishes later merged and became Westover Parish in 1625 [1]. In 1724 Westover Parish became and remains coterminous with Charles City County.
The predecessor of the existing Westover Church was constructed between 1630 and 1637 on the grounds at Westover. The present sanctuary was completed circa 1730 at its present site on Herring Creek about 1 ½ miles north of the Westover mansion.
The ending of support by public taxation for the Church at the start of the American Revolution in 1776, followed by the disestablishment of the Church of England in America in 1784 resulted in a period of decline. Westover Church was finally abandoned in 1803, and later even used as a barn for a period, during the three decades that services of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia lapsed completely in Charles City County.
However, in about 1833 religious services were revived by a missionary to the county, the Reverend Parke Farley Berkeley. At this time the Church structure was repaired and restored, principally through the efforts of the Harrison family of nearby Berkley Plantation and the Carters of Shirley Plantation a few miles west.
During the American Civil War the church was badly damaged by Federal troops, who used the church as a stable for their horses. Following the war, services were restored in 1867 and Westover Church has been used faithfully ever since.
Worshipers at Westover have included farmers, plantation owners, slaves, as well as US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Theodore Roosevelt.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ^ Mason, George Carrington (1942). "The Colonial Churches of Charles City County, Virginia". The William and Mary Quarterly. 22 (2): 114–135. doi:10.2307/1925293. JSTOR 1925293.
- ^ Bland, Theodorick (1840). "Appendix". In Campbell, Charles (ed.). The Bland papers: Being a Selection from the Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland Jr. of Prince George County Virginia. Vol. I. Petersburg, Virginia: Edmund & Julian C. Ruffin. pp. 145–149.
- ^ "Westover". Virginia's James River Plantations. jamesriverplantations.org. 1996. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
- ^ Bradford, David Thomas (1993). "Philemon and Mary: The Harrisons". The Bradfords of Charles City County, Virginia, and Some of their Descendants, 1653-1993. Gateway Press. p. 84.
- ^ "Westover Episcopal Church". Westover Episcopal Church. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
- Churches in Virginia
- Churches completed in 1731
- Churches in Charles City County, Virginia
- Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
- National Register of Historic Places in Charles City County, Virginia
- Episcopal churches in Virginia
- 18th-century Episcopal church buildings
- Brick buildings and structures in Virginia