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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Southwest Virginia » Lee County » Jonesville and Vicinity » Jonesville Methodist Campground Auditorium

Jonesville Methodist Campground Auditorium

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1828. U.S. 58 at Campground Rd.
  • (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

This rare surviving example of an early-nineteenth-century camp meeting auditorium is a large frame building set on the slope of a hill. Its hewn timber framing is supported by posts positioned along the center aisle, and the walls and gables are clad with weatherboards. The long sides of the structure are divided into eight panels hinged to the plate so they can be raised to provide ventilation. Simple wooden pews face the pulpit situated on a raised wooden platform located at the south end. The Jonesville Methodist Campground was established in 1810 to hold religious revival meetings for the Methodist Episcopal Church of Lee County. Because of its emphasis on individual choice and democratic theology, Methodism was attractive to frontier settlers in southwestern Virginia. The auditorium is still in use today for revival services and remains an important part of the community's religious life.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Judge James Wesley Orr House
Dickinson-Milbourn House
Lee County Board of Education Office Complex (Jonesville Institute)
Lee County Courthouse
J. A. G. Hyatt House

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Jonesville Methodist Campground Auditorium", [Jonesville, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-LE6.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 513-513.

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