128-0234 Mount Moriah Baptist Church and Cemetery

For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF

VLR Listing Date 06/15/1994

NRHP Listing Date 09/08/1994

DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement

NRHP Reference Number 94001092

The Mount Moriah Baptist Church and Cemetery are situated on a wooded hillside above the bustle of a commercial strip in the City of Roanoke.  This African American religious complex consists of a plain wooden church and a half-acre cemetery with over 100 graves. Mount Moriah’s members comprise one of the region’s earliest black congregations, originating in a Sunday school for slaves established in the mid-1800s by Dr. Charles Lewis Cocke, founder of Hollins College. This group gained permission to build its first church in 1858. The present church, the congregation’s third, was built in 1908. The simple building has been little changed and preserves its original furnishings. The cemetery, expanded from a former slave burial ground, is nearby along an old road trace. A source of pride for the local Black community, the Mount Moriah Baptist Church and Cemetery has been a spiritual reference point for its members since its antebellum founding.

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: November 23, 2022