Mattapony Church

The first church on this site was the Lower Church of St. Stephen’s Parish, built ca. 1674. The present sanctuary, an example of cruciform ecclesiastical architecture, was built ca. 1730-1734. After the Revolutionary War and the disestablishment of the Church of England, the building was abandoned. Members of a Baptist congregation began worshiping here early in the 19th century and organized themselves as Mattapony Church in 1828. Fire destroyed the interior of the sanctuary in 1923, but the building was restored and reopened. Buried in the churchyard are family members of Carter Braxton, signer of the Declaration of Independence.