McDowell Presbyterian Church

W-112

This congregation, first known as Central Union Church, was organized in 1822. The present brick sanctuary, an interpretation of the Greek Revival style, replaced an earlier structure ca. 1856. The entrance on the building's south side was likely for the use of free and enslaved African Americans, who worshiped from the balcony. During the Battle of McDowell on 8 May 1862, the church served as a hospital. Union and Confederate dead were reportedly buried in the congregation’s cemetery across present-day Route 250. The church is listed on the American Presbyterian and Reformed Historic Sites Registry, the Virginia Landmarks Register, and the National Register of Historic Places.

Department of Historic Resources, 2021

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

McDowell Presbyterian Church NRHP nomination (listed 2020). Sessional Records of the Presbyterian Church, Pendleton County, Virginia, 2 Nov. 1822. “Founding Documents of the Central Union Meeting House and McDowell Presbyterian Church,” Robert Sitlington Collection, Highland Historical Society Museum, McDowell, VA. Highland Recorder, 29 Aug. 1947. Trustees of the Presbyterian Church of McDowell, Highland County, Va., v. The United States, 3 Jan. 1907. http://www.mcdowellpresbyterian.org/a-bit-about-our-history.html Journal of Presbyterian History, vol. 77, no. 2 (summer 1999). Richard A. Armstrong, The Battle of McDowell March 11—May 18, 1862 (Lynchburg: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1990). Howard McKnight Wilson, The Lexington Presbytery Heritage: The Presbytery of Lexington and Its Churches in the Synod of Virginia Presbyterian Church in the United States (McClure Press, [1971]), 292. A. Emerson Johnson, Presbyterianism in Highland County Virginia (Highland Recorder, [1936?]), 9.