Located in Fauquier County and the historically Black community of Foxville, St. James Baptist Church and Cemetery traces back to 1866, when formerly enslaved people from the John Fox plantation (located three miles away) formed the first African American congregation in Fauquier. The congregants initially worshipped together under the name Foxville Baptist Church at a bush arbor, until they constructed the first St. James Baptist Church building during the late 1800s. Rev. Leland Warring, a Civil War “contraband” who escaped to Alexandria by 1862, was appointed as the church’s first minister, and later established three more churches in Fauquier and neighboring Culpeper and Loudoun counties. A second church building, replacing the earlier one, was reportedly constructed around 1907 but burned sometime after 1914. The congregation erected the current St. James Church building by 1922, embellishing it with Gothic Revival–style windows and trim. Adjacent to the church, a circa 1922 two-story dining hall also provided meeting space for two Black fraternities. The congregation expanded the main church building in 1972, adding dining and kitchen accommodations, choir and treasury offices, and a choir lounge, restrooms, and pastor’s study. A 1998 structure connects the church building and additions with the dining hall. The church cemetery covers more than 1.22 acres and contains approximately 180 graves, with 1901 as the death date on the earliest markers. St. James Baptist Church and Cemetery continues to serve as a spiritual and social hub for Foxville and Bealeton-area residents and community.
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
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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