—VLR listings are in the counties of Botetourt, Hanover (Ashland), Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Prince William; and the cites of Lynchburg and Williamsburg—
Among seven places approved for listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register in December are two churches integral to Reconstruction-era Black settlements, the houses of a James River canal lock builder and that of a one-time railroad company treasurer, and a 1920s subdivision tied to the College of William & Mary. The commonwealth’s Board of Historic Resources approved the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) listings during its quarterly public meeting December 10, which the Department of Historic Resources hosted but convened virtually due to the covid pandemic. The VLR is the commonwealth’s official list of places of historic, architectural, archaeological, and cultural significance. The history of Mecklenburg County’s Averett School and Wharton Memorial Church and Wharton Cemetery site—together known as the Wharton Memorial Church complex—involves the tireless energy and vision of the Reverend George Douglas Wharton (1862-1932). After graduating from Hampton Institute in 1880, Wharton came to Averett to lead a small congregation that met in a two-room log dwelling. During the next 50 years, Wharton boosted the community and church’s growth by founding a school (in the log dwelling), operating a country store, and starting a land company to allow African-Americans to purchase property. His efforts led to Averett’s emergence as a relatively self-sufficient Black crossroads hamlet, representative of similar communities that arose throughout Virginia and the South during Reconstruction. Today’s church complex is central to that story. In 1882, Wharton led construction of a new church for the congregation of Beautiful Plain Baptist Church. The congregation replaced that building in 1897 when it constructed its second church in a late Gothic Revival style. Renamed “Wharton Memorial Baptist Church” in 1922, that building burned in 1940 and the current church arose that same year on the same footprint and in a similar Gothic Revival style. The site’s extant Averett School, constructed 1910, replaced the log dwelling that housed the school. The new building served as the local primary school until 1940. The building was expanded in 1959, when it transitioned to a community gathering space and home for Averett Union Masonic Lodge. The Wharton Cemetery, formally organized in 1894, contains at least 240 marked graves, and may hold numerous unmarked graves. [See nomination] With a congregation tracing to 1877, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, near Gainesville in Prince William County, has offered a gathering place, safe haven, and served as an integral part of the social and religious aspects of the Black community known as The Settlement, which arose during the 1870s on two large agricultural tracts formerly associated with a mid-19th century plantation. In 1882, church trustees relocated a log church building to the current church property. After a fire—possibly due to arson—destroyed that building, the congregation erected a new church in 1889, and replaced that church in 1928. Although there have been several additions appended to the rear of the current church during the 20th century, the 1928 portion remains mostly unaltered—and even survived arson in 2012 when a fire severely damaged a majority of the building but left the main block fairly unscathed, save for smoke damage and several broken window panes. The church’s renovations—including those after 2012—reflect the growth and progress of The Settlement community. The Mount Pleasant Baptist Church cemetery contains an estimated 230 graves with a variety of headstones and includes veterans who served in every major conflict from the World Wars through the Vietnam War. [See nomination.] Glencoe, located in Botetourt County, is a two-story brick house with Italianate and other stylistic affinities completed in 1871-72 for James Madison Spiller and his wife, Caroline Kyle Spiller. As a canal contractor before the Civil War, James Spiller oversaw partial completion of the Cabell Lock and Dam on the Botetourt section of the James River & Kanawha Canal. As a lock builder, Spiller was well aware of the properties of water and damp, which may explain notable architectural features of the house: a raised limestone foundation encircled on three sides by a narrow dry moat with stone retaining walls. Spiller’s chief carpenter for Glencoe was Schuyler White Smith, the builder of the 1848 Botetourt County Courthouse. Notable on Glencoe’s well-preserved interior is a built-in punched-tin dining room cupboard and extensive faux-grained woodwork. Behind the house stands a two-story brick smokehouse (ca. 1871), and two slatted corncribs (ca. late 19th and early 20th century), one of which reused boards with graffiti associated with the adjacent Castle Mills. [See nomination.]Programs
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