Big Spring Baptist Church
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First Baptist Church (Big Spring Baptist Church)
1880. VA 754, 0.4 miles east of U.S. 460
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(Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
On a site overlooking the town, this church is an important landmark of Elliston's black community. Captain Charles S. Schaeffer, an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau and founder of the Christiansburg Industrial Institute (MO6), helped organize this and several other Baptist churches. A gable-end frame building with pointed-arched openings and a rear gabled baptistery, the church has an elaborate three-stage central entrance tower. Behind the church is an unfenced hilltop African American cemetery.
Writing Credits
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Data
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Location: Elliston, VirginiaRegional Overviews:Styles:Materials:
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Citation
Anne Carter Lee, "First Baptist Church (Big Spring Baptist Church)", [Elliston, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-MO20.
Print Source
Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 436-436.
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