Elk Run Anglican Church Site

Settlers began moving into this region of Fauquier County in the early 1700s. By the 1740s, a wooden church structure served Anglican communicants in Elk Run. It provided pastoral care as well as secular administration for this active frontier community. The first permanent minister, the Reverend James Keith, grandfather of Chief Justice John Marshall, served this church and the rest of Hamilton Parish from the 1740s until his death in 1752. A brick cruciform structure replaced the first church by the late 1750s. After the Revolutionary War and disestablishment, many churches were abandoned. By 1811 the Elk Run Church had fallen into disuse and ruin.