Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/06/2006
NRHP Listing Date 03/20/2007
NRHP Reference Number 07000193
Suffolk’s Mount Sinai Baptist Church is primarily a Gothic Revival brick building, featuring the characteristic pointed-arch windows and towers as well as some elements of the Victorian style. It was built in 1921 for an African American congregation formed in 1867 by the Rev. Israel Cross, a former slave in Suffolk, known then as Nansemond County. The current church, which has additions from 1964 and 2000, was constructed by members of the congregation who were local brick masons, and designed by German-born architect Richard Herman Riedel. Mount Sinai would have been an impressive statement on the landscape, as most rural churches erected in Nansemond County at this time were made of wood. It reflects the relative prosperity of its members, who belonged to a trade, as opposed to the more common farmhands often making up a rural church’s congregation. A cemetery sits to the south of the Mount Sinai Baptist Church, containing 758 graves dating from 1920 to the present.
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: August 18, 2021
