004-0007 St. John's Church

For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF

VLR Listing Date 04/18/1978

NRHP Listing Date 11/16/1978

NRHP Reference Number 78003003

Consecrated in 1852 by Bishop William Meade, St. John’s Church was a product of the reactivation of the Episcopal denomination in rural Virginia during the mid-19th century. It is on the site of a colonial church known simply as Grub Hill Church, a name derived from the “Grub Hill” slave quarters of the Tabb family, who gave the land for the building. At the end of the 18th century, John Tabb owned ten plantations in Amelia County and one in Dinwiddie County, along with a sizeable holding in the city of Petersburg. The present church, a country builder’s version of the Gothic Revival, has an honest simplicity that yet inspires admiration. It remains relatively unaltered and is enhanced by a pleasant rural setting, on a small but conspicuous knoll in the farmlands of Amelia County, west of Chula. The principal interior furnishings, including an ornamented triptych, are the signed work of a woodcarver, H. Jacob, completed in 1870. Owned by the trustees of Christ Episcopal Church in Amelia, St. John’s Church is used for occasional summer services.

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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark

Updated: February 13, 2023