{"nrhp_refnum":"06001042","name":"Longs Chapel","other_names":["Long's Chapel","Old Athens Church","Athens Colored School","DHR file no. 082-5264"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1334B Fridley's Gap Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisonburg","county":"Rockingham County","state":"VA","lat":38.51274186000006,"lon":-78.76198621799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-11-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story frame church and schoolhouse, probably built in 1871, with an adjoining cemetery on a 0.489-acre lot on Fridley's Gap Road near Lacey Spring in eastern Rockingham County, Virginia. It served the former African American community of Zenda.","why_significant":"The nomination argues for significance under Criteria A and B for its role in the county's Black ethnic heritage and in education. It is tied to the early teaching career of Lucy F. Simms and is a one-room rural school from the start of public education for African Americans during Reconstruction. It is the only extant building in Virginia where Simms is known to have taught.","narrative":"Longs Chapel is a small frame church and schoolhouse on Fridley's Gap Road in eastern Rockingham County, Virginia, probably built in 1871. It measures about twenty by thirty feet and has weatherboard siding, a metal roof, limestone piers, a small belfry and an apse added around 1900. It was affiliated with the Church of the United Brethren and built under the direction of Jacob Long, a white farmer. The building served the African American community of Zenda, then called Athens, and doubled as a school until a separate school opened in 1882. Lucy F. Simms, later a prominent Harrisonburg educator, began teaching here in the 1870s, and this is the only surviving building in Virginia where she is known to have taught. Behind the chapel is a cemetery with fieldstone markers and carved marble monuments. Services ended in the late 1920s, and the last burial occurred in 1935. A preservation society formed in 2005 to rehabilitate the chapel and tend the graves.","period_of_significance":"1871-circa 1930","architect_builder":"Long, Jacob (contractor); Orndorff, T. J. (tombstone maker)","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Neglected for many years and used as a hay barn in the later twentieth century; stabilization is underway with the goal of restoration. The cemetery had become overgrown and was cleared recently.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.277524-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/13/6835/41683513/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/06001042.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06001042/c63c329971-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06001042/c63c329971-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longs_Chapel_on_Fridleys_Gap_Road.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longs_Chapel_on_Fridleys_Gap_Road.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683513","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longs_Chapel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15242814"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/rockingham-county/longs-chapel-06001042/"}