Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 06/17/1980
NRHP Listing Date 10/30/1980
NRHP Reference Number 80004185
Grace Episcopal Church at Ca Ira, once a town laid out in Cumberland County in 1787, survives as a visually engaging illustration of the stylistic hybridization that occurred with Romantic Revivalism in the antebellum period. Its temple form and precise Flemish-bond brickwork are an offspring of Virginia’s Classical Revival tradition fostered by Thomas Jefferson, while its Greek and Gothic details were adapted from builders’ pattern books. The pulpit is based on a pulpit design from Asher Benjamin’s Practical House Carpenter (1830). The Grace Church was erected in 1840-43 by Valentine Parrish, a local master builder, and is the only remaining building of Ca Ira, which enjoyed brief prosperity before the Civil War. The name Ca Ira is probably derived from a French Revolutionary marching song.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: October 4, 2021
