{"nrhp_refnum":"94000548","name":"Ebenezer Baptist Churches","other_names":["VDHR No. 53-140"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of VA 719 and VA 779, NW corner","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bloomfield","county":"Loudoun County","state":"VA","lat":39.058262173500054,"lon":-77.81121283317574,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-06-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two side-by-side stone Baptist churches, the Old and New Ebenezer Baptist Churches, with two walled cemeteries, near Bloomfield in southwestern Loudoun County, Virginia. The Old Church may predate 1769; the New Church dates to about 1855.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the Old Church is a well-preserved vernacular stone meetinghouse whose plain interior reflects Old School (Primitive) Baptist practice, and the New Church is a Greek Revival building built for the New School Baptist congregation. The New Church also holds a trompe l'oeil painting attributed to local artist Lucien W. Powell. Together they reflect the mid-19th-century split among Virginia Baptists, and the rural setting remains well preserved.","narrative":"Two stone Baptist churches stand about 100 feet apart near Bloomfield in rural southwestern Loudoun County, Virginia. The Old Church, a plain vernacular building of coursed field stone, may have been built before 1769 and was used by both Old School and New School Baptists. After a fire in 1855, the New School congregation received land next door and built the New Church, a stuccoed stone building in the Greek Revival style with a pedimented four-column portico. Inside, a trompe l'oeil painting attributed to local artist Lucien W. Powell suggests a columned apse behind the lectern. Two stone-walled cemeteries adjoin the churches; the older holds about 235 gravestones dating from about 1800, and the newer holds more than 1,700 graves from 1888 onward, including Confederate veterans. The site reflects the 1830s division among Virginia Baptists, and local tradition links it to Mosby's Rangers dividing a captured payroll in 1864. Restoration work has continued since the 1970s.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1769 to ca. 1876","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Worship ended in the Old Church by the early 1900s and in the New Church by about 1941. The Ebenezer Cemetery Company has restored both churches and cares for the cemeteries, which are well maintained.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.262981-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/6815/41681589/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/94000548.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000548/79a8c06db9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000548/79a8c06db9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Cecouchman","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EbenezerChurches_rear_old-new.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cecouchman</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:EbenezerChurches_rear_old-new.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"11000835","name":"Unison Battlefield Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/unison-battlefield-historic-district-11000835/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681589","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Baptist_Churches","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5331648"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/loudoun-county/ebenezer-baptist-churches-94000548/"}