Historic Scottsville includes six congregations and five church buildings dating back to the 19th century. Disciples of Christ Church is now the Scottsville Museum. Union Baptist Church, on Hardware Street, was founded in 1865 by the African American community for their place of worship.
| Congregation | Founded |
|---|---|
| Scottsville Presbyterian Church | ca. 1832 |
| Scottsville Methodist Church | 1832 |
| Scottsville Baptist Church | 1840 |
| Scottsville Disciples of Christ Church | 1846 |
| Union Baptist Church | 1865 |
| St. John’s Episcopal Church | 1875 |
From the late nineteenth century through the 1920’s, churches had a profound influence on this river community. According to a federal census of religious bodies taken in 1916, approximately 75 percent of all Albemarle County citizens over ten years of age said they were church members, compared to 61 percent of Virginia’s population as a whole.
For Scottsville church members, church life intertwined with social life. Young men often escorted their sweethearts to Sunday services while christenings, marriages, Sunday School classes, revivals, church suppers, and picnics afforded further opportunities for courtship and fellowship.
In addition to those within the town proper, others nearby serve local communities.
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Dr. James Turner Barclay
Minister and Missionary Dr. James Turner Barclay was a trained pharmacist, medical doctor, and the first minister of the Scottsville Disciples of Christ church in 1846, now the home of Scottsville Museum. Dr. Barclay continued his ministry and lived next door in the Barclay House until 1851 when he went to Jerusalem as his Church’s…
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Baptist Sunday School Children
Baptist Sunday School children pose for a photograph on Harrison Street in Scottsville. The image below identifies some of the children by name: Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our Heritage, CDB6Roll5Neg22A.tifRoll5Neg22A.jpgRoll5Neg22A.psd
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Reverend Peyton Harrison
Scottsville Presbyterian Church Elderand Church/Parsonage Donor In the late 1820’s, there was a resurgence of religion in southern Albemarle County, VA, and a six-member Presbyterian congregation was formed in the nearby village of Warren, just west of Scottsville. Peyton Harrison, a lawyer and owner of Belle Grove (later Valmont Farm), influenced the congregation to move…
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Scottsville Methodist Sunday School Class
The Young Man’s Sunday School Class poses with Mrs. Sprague, their teacher, just outside Scottsville Methodist Church. Top Row Standing, left to right: Bottom Row Seated, left to right: The top photo is part of the Robert R. Hunter collection. Robert resides in Richmond, Virginia, and is the son of Albert Cushman Hunter and Eva…
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Reverend James Ellison Daniel ~ Methodist Minister
Reverend James E. Daniel came to Scottsville with his wife and son in about 1920. He served as pastor of the Scottsville Methodist Church until ill health forced him to retire in 1925. Although officially in an inactive status, Rev. Daniel officiated at countless weddings, baptisms, and funerals in the years that followed. When this…
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Disciples of Christ Church
Wishing to revive the pure Christianity of earlier times, a group of local Baptists broke away from their church in the early 1830’s. They formed the Disciples of Christ or Christian Church in Scottsville and chose as their first minister, Dr. James Turner Barclay. Although Dr. Barclay was a trained pharmacist and medical doctor with…
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Scottsville Baptist Church
Scottsville Baptists built their red brick church high on Harrison Street in 1840 with property and funds donated by Anna Maria (Barclay) Moon and her husband, Edward Harris Moon. Before the church was built, Anna held services for her family and slaves in her own home at Viewmont, near Carter’s Bridge. Interest in the Baptist…
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Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Saint John’s Episcopal Church is located at the north corner of Bird and Harrison Street in Scottsville. This white frame church with Gothic windows and a scrollwork vergeboard was built in 1875 and was the second church in Saint Anne’s Parish. The photo above is from an early William E. Burgess postcard; at right, Saint…
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Antioch Baptist Church ~ Fluvanna County
Antioch Baptist Church is located in Fluvanna County about 13 miles northeast of Scottsville near the intersection of Antioch Road and Rolling Road. The church was organized in 1858 by 18 charter members, and five acres of land were deeded to the church trustees by John H. and Mary H. Burgess for a church site.…
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Mt. Zion Methodist Church ~ Esmont
Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Esmont began as a log meeting house built by the slaves of Benjamin Childress in 1828. When it was finished, Mr. Childress donated the house to the Methodist Conference. Later the congregation erected a brick building but because of a defective foundation, the church became unsafe, and the central part…
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Union Baptist Church
Union Baptist Church is the oldest black congregation in the Scottsville area and was organized in 1865 by the Reverends Henry Smith and J. A. Doll. According to Virginia Moore in her book, Scottsville on the James, the first pastor was Rev. Smith, and the congregation held prayer meetings in homes until they bought two…
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Christ Church ~ Glendower
Christ Church, Glendower, is located just east of Keene, Virginia, and about 4 miles northwest of Scottsville. Erection of this church began in 1831 and is the work of William B. Phillips, a Jeffersonian workman who designed and built a variety of homes and public buildings in his mentor’s mode. Bishop William Meade of Virginia…
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Scottsville Methodist Church
In March 1832, the Scottsville Methodist Episcopal congregation purchased Lot 26 from Martin and Mildred Thacker for $150. This church property sat two lots east of Valley Street on the north side of Main Street and was deeded to the following church trustees: Lewis Mayo, Beverly Staples, Nathaniel Moon, Lelan Morris, Martin Tutwiler, Horatio I.…
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Scottsville Presbyterian Church
The congregation of the Presbyterian Church was organized first at Warren with six members on October 18, 1927, as part of the West Hanover Presbytery. The elders of the church were John B. Hart and Samuel Harris, and by 1830, this church had grown to sixteen members, thanks largely to the influence and support of…
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Fluvanna Baptist Church
The congregation of Fluvanna Baptist Church gathered for a group photo by William Burgess, taken just outside their meeting house. The church, built in 1852, is located a short distance to the east of Scottsville on SR 6. Shown below is a postcard of this church, produced from a ca. 1910 Burgess photograph. Copyright ©…
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Arson Suspected in Two Destructive Fires on Main Street in 1976
Two Large Fires Raged On Scottsville’s Main Street in February 1976, destroying a church and four businesses at the center of town. They appeared to be the work of an arsonist who was never found. The photo above of the intersection of Valley Street (left) and Main Street (right) shows the Esso Station, run by…
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Barclay House
Name: Barclay House Date: ca. 1900 Image Number: B02cdB19 The Barclay House is a small townhouse on Scottsville’s Lot 31 and is next door to the Disciples of Christ Church (now Scottsville Museum) on Main Street. John B. Hart purchased this property without a structure in 1830 and resold the lot six months later for…