Bethel Baptist Church, built in 1894, is a Gothic Revival brick building with decorative buttresses defining each bay. The Chesterfield County building features a steep, slate-covered gable roof. Many founding members descended from French Huguenots, and the form and detailing of the church appears to be based on French, rather than English Gothic, models. The interior displays a rib-vaulted chancel and tongue-and-groove, beaded-pine wainscoting and ceiling. This is the congregation’s third building, which replaced an 1820s meeting house. In 1907, 1980, and 1987 additions were made to the church for classroom and office space. Adjacent to the church sits a 1910 gymnasium, since used as the educational building/fellowship hall. During the antebellum years, the church had a large African American membership, and a separate black congregation formed during the Civil War. A handsome cast-iron fence encloses the cemetery, established in 1885.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia