Grace Methodist Episcopal Church

In the small village of Lincoln, Virginia, in 1884, freeborn and newly-emancipated Black people, with help from the local Quakers, built one of the first Black churches in Loudoun County after emancipation.

 

Grace Methodist Episcopal Church originally held services in the Lincoln Colored School.  The church was organized in 1872 under the leadership of Reverend Henry Carroll.  In 1884, the trustees of the church bought land up the hill from the school from Mary Elizabeth Birdsall.  Skilled Black stone masons built a handsome native field stone and topped it with a cupola enclosing a bell that could be heard for miles. The building was dedicated on July 30, 1885, under the pastorate of Reverend John Bean, a circuit rider, whose churches included those in Middleburg, Leesburg, and other locations. Services were held on second and fourth Sundays. The building had no plumbing, so water was carried from the nearby spring located south of the building. Two outhouses, one each for men and women, were located on each side of the rear of the church and were reportedly "two-seaters." The location of the women's outhouse was recently discovered by archaeologists but the location of the men's is still a mystery.

After 1915, most of the congregation resided in Purcellville and nearby Cooksville and walked to Lincoln for services. The church was active and lively, and celebrated an annual homecoming in August attended by large crowds where potluck meals were shared. The church also celebrated “children's day” and enjoyed occasional joint-services with nearby Mount Olive Baptist Church. Money was scarce, so fundraising was constant. Among the more popular fundraisers were "Tom Thumb Marriages," staged weddings acted out by young children; and "Fan Drills," theatrical line-dances featuring young girls dressed up in colorful costumes including overskirts that "fanned" out.

The church served as community gathering place in Lincoln through the 1940s. In the early forties, Reverend Otis Jasper was encouraged by his church District Superintendent to have the congregation move to Purcellville where most of the members resided.

In September 1949, Grace Annex United Methodist Episcopal Church (now Agape United Methodist Church) broke ground for the new building on A Street in Purcellville.  Upon its completion, the old stone church in Lincoln was abandoned. Although the congregation maintains an active cemetery adjacent to the building, the old stone church has been out of use since the early 1950’s. It is now owned by the trustees of the Friends of Grace Multicultural Center.

 

In 2002, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation, along with the trustees of the Grace Church, united in an ambitious undertaking: to rescue and restore the abandoned building and to tell its story. With this goal in mind, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation found itself swept up in a project  originally called "Saving Grace.” The church building today has been renamed the Grace Heritage Site.

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You can read more about it here.