VA-GA39 Fork Union Baptist Church

Marker text: FORK UNION BAPTIST CHURCH

Fork Union Baptist Church was constituted in 1798. Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist congregations shared as a place of worship the current church, built in 1824 and first known as the Brick Meetinghouse. Gen. John Hartwell Cocke, a local plantation owner who assisted Thomas Jefferson in establishing the University of Virginia, was its architect. It is the oldest Church building in Fluvanna County in continuous use for that purpose. In 1898, ten of its members became the original guarantors of Fork Union Military Academy. The church sanctuary was the site of the first and subsequent academy graduations until 1937.

Department of Historic Resources, 1999