053-0339 Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church

For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF

VLR Listing Date 09/17/1997

NRHP Listing Date 05/08/1998

DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement

NRHP Reference Number 98000452

Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church is significant for its historic architecture, and military and religious history. The large brick church was built in 1851 for an Old School Primitive Baptist congregation in Loudoun County. The church symbolizes important Baptist religious history, specifically the evolution of the Primitive Baptist movement. The austere architecture matched the wishes of a congregation that strove for simplicity and religious purism. The sharp-lined building features high quality brickwork, such as jack arches, and a corbeled cornice. The interior retains its pews and 19th-century altar as well as a fine column-supported gallery. The Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church was the site of a large skirmish between Colonel John Mosby’s Rangers and Union General Major William H. Forbes’s 13th New York and the 2nd Massachusetts cavalries. Two companies of the California Battalion were included in the Union force, the only Californians to fight in the war. Mosby’s forces prevailed. The Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church property also includes a cemetery with 200 burials (seven Confederate soldiers were interred here) and a stranded section of the old Carolina Road.

Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.

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

Updated: December 7, 2022