New Providence Church

The Rev. John Blair, a minister influenced by the Great Awakening, organized New Providence Presbyterian Church about 1746. The congregation moved to a site seven miles west of here about 1760, and the present Greek Revival-style sanctuary was completed in 1859. The Rev. John Brown, the congregation's first permanent minister, served for four decades. His successor, the Rev. Samuel Brown, was married to Mary Moore, famous as a former captive of Shawnee Indians. In Oct. 1788, New Providence hosted the first meeting of the Synod of Virginia. In 1819 the Female Benevolent Society, an early women’s missionary organization, was founded at the church.