Old Stone Church exemplifies the sober architecture favored by the 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers, many of whom came to the Winchester region from Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley. It was built in 1788 as a branch of Frederick County’s Opequon Church, organized in 1736. The Winchester Presbytery, covering parts of what is now West Virginia, southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and northwestern Virginia, was organized in the church in 1794. The congregation merged with another in 1834, and the building was sold to the Baptists. In 1875 the Baptists leased the building to the city of Winchester as a school for African American children; it later was used as an armory by the local militia. The Presbyterians reacquired the church in 1932 and restored it to its original appearance between 1941 and 1950. The Old Stone Church building was more recently converted for use as a museum.
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