Bush Meeting Tabernacle
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Purcellville Fireman's Community Center (Bush Meeting Tabernacle)
1889, Arch Simpson, builder. c. 1930, enclosure. Dillon's Woods between South and Nursery sts.
The Prohibition and Evangelical Society of Loudoun County started a summer revival in Lincoln during 1876. The meeting, named for the place where it was originally held, which was known as the Bush Arbor, relocated to Dillon's Wood shortly after it was established. The Tabernacle replaced tents which accommodated large crowds from Loudoun County and beyond.
The Chautauqua-like gathering was “an intellectual feast of music, art, and literature” with a “moral and spiritual atmosphere pure and inspiring,” as one visitor described it. The structure witnessed countless lectures, revivals, and concerts before closing in 1930. The subsequent enclosure of the building changed the open-air nature of the structure.
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