Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/12/2001
NRHP Listing Date 02/11/2002
NRHP Reference Number 01001570
Cedar Hill Church and its cemeteries were built in the late 19th century on a prominence overlooking the Buffalo Creek Valley in Rockbridge County. The church is a one-story, nave-form log building with weatherboard siding, stone foundation, and metal roof. The one-room interior is sheathed with plain and beaded boards. The church lot includes the old cemetery that was first used sometime after the church was constructed in 1874. The new cemetery, established about 1890 and still in use, has grave and plot markers of fieldstone, concrete, marble, and granite. Rockbridge County’s African American community established the simple log church. It was improved on the interior and covered with weatherboards in the early 20th century and used by the community as both a place of worship and as a schoolhouse. As educational and occupational opportunities lured blacks away from the countryside in the 1920s, activity at the church dwindled and ceased entirely in the 1930s, but former members and descendants continue to maintain the Cedar Hill Church and Cemeteries. It is opened once a year for a homecoming.
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: February 3, 2022
