{"nrhp_refnum":"78003003","name":"St. John's Church","other_names":["Grub Hill Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3.8 mi (6 km) W of Chula on VA 609","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chula","county":"Amelia County","state":"VA","lat":37.39956353300005,"lon":-77.97019981799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-11-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small rural Episcopal parish church and its cemetery on a knoll in the farmlands of Amelia County, Virginia, about 3.8 miles west-northwest of Chula. The present brick building was consecrated in 1852.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a significant example of a small rural parish church that survives in a relatively unaltered state. It is a vernacular interpretation of the Gothic Revival as popularized in church architecture by the mid-19th century. The interior keeps its original furnishings and gives a complete picture of a 19th-century rural church.","narrative":"Grub Hill Church, formally St. John's, is a one-story brick parish church set on a small knoll in the farmland of Amelia County, Virginia. Bishop William Meade consecrated it on June 4, 1852, replacing a wooden church built on the site in 1762. The land came from the Tabb family, and the name Grub Hill recalls their slave quarters. The rectangular, gable-roofed building is laid in four-course American bond and shows a vernacular take on the Gothic Revival, with pointed-arched diamond-pane windows, paneled Gothic doors and brick corner buttresses topped with pinnacles. Inside, scrolled end pews, a rear servants' gallery, original carpeting and a baptismal font dated 1858 survive. A reredos and triptych carved by H. Jacob date to 1870. A cast-iron fence from the 1870s encloses the church and its cemetery. Its largely unaltered state makes it a clear picture of a rural 19th-century congregation.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as unaltered inside and out and well preserved; used sparingly, only for summer services, while the cemetery still serves the community.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.83692-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/10/6795/41679510/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/78003003.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003003/9927970386-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003003/9927970386-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Michael Kotrady","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grub_Hill_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Kotrady</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grub_Hill_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679510","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Church_(Chula,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7588630"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/amelia-county/st-johns-church-78003003/"}