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Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » Charlottesville Metropolitan Area » Downtown Area » West Main Street from Ridge Street to 7th Street and Surrounding Area » Mount Zion Baptist Church

Mount Zion Baptist Church

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1883–1884, attributed to George W. Spooner and/or George A. Sinclair, builder. Later alterations. 105 Ridge St.
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)

Mount Zion Baptist Church played a central role in the formation of Charlottesville's African American community in the period after the Civil War. A group of former slaves established the congregation in 1867. The 1883–1884 brick structure replaced an earlier (c. 1875) frame church on the same site. Local lore holds that Spooner, a Charlottesville architect, designed the structure. In the Italianate idiom popular with Baptists after the Civil War, the church is relatively plain on the exterior with a dominant entrance tower and steeple and corbeled brick detailing at the eaves and in recessed panels on the tower. The interior is a large three-aisle space with galleries on three sides and some stock colored glass windows.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Charlottesville Public School Building
Ebenezer Baptist Church
200 Block of West Main Street
First Baptist Church
McGuffey Art Center (McGuffey School)

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "Mount Zion Baptist Church", [Charlottesville, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-CH22.

Print Source

Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, Richard Guy Wilson and contributors. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 149-149.

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