Poplar Spring Church

Petsworth Parish, one of the four parishes of colonial Gloucester County, was established in the middle of the 17th century. The first parish church was located some four miles southwest near Purtan Bay on the York River. Across Route 17 were built the second and third churches of the parish, both called Poplar Spring Church. The first one, built as an earthfast frame structure in 1677, was said to have one of the first three-level pulpits in Virginia. The second church, completed in 1723, was one of the earliest churches in Virginia to have an organ. By the end of the 18th century, the church was abandoned.