Christ Church Glendower

About this property

Christ Church Glendower is the oldest (and most centrally located) of the historic Episcopal church buildings in St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia near Scottsville. Christ Church Glendower is located in Keene, built of brick in 1831 in the Roman Revival style. It features a full Doric order entablature with pediments at each end containing lunette windows, and is surrounded by a contributing cemetery. The remaining two historic churches in St. Anne's parish are also discussed below. In the second quarter of the 18th century, European settlement expanded upstream following the James River into the area which today comprises Albemarle County. In 1732, Edward Scott (1700-1738), a burgess from Goochland County, laid claim to (patented) 550 acres west of what became the town, and established a ferry across the James River to what in 1761 became Buckingham County. Scott's Landing (which became Scottsville) is now split between Fluvanna and Albemarle Counties, but was once a major port on a horseshoe bend of the James River, particularly during the heyday of the James River Canal, which opened in 1840 and became unnavigable during the American Civil War. Meanwhile, the state-established Church of England established parishes to serve citizens' religious needs, as well as social functions including taking care of the poor and disabled. Albemarle County was founded during a gathering at Scotts' Landing in 1741, and the county formally received a charter from what became the Virginia General Assembly in 1744. Initially, the priest associated with then-vast St. James Goochland County parish (est. 1720) visited various settlements up the James River, and by 1738 set up arrangements for lay readers to hold services between his visits. Rev. Anthony Gavin (d. 1749) was a Spanish Catholic priest who traveled to England in 1715 as part of a Jesuit Catholic mission, but converted to the Church of England and published a sensationalist, anti-Catholic bestseller, A Master-Key to Popery in Dublin, Ireland in 1724. In 1736, the Bishop of London consecrated Rev. Gavin (who had married) and sent him to Virginia. The next year Rev. Gavin secured the Governor's appointment to this vast and unserved Piedmont parish. He diligently traveled among three widely spaced churches and established several more places of worship served by four lay clerks (and occasionally himself) in the developing western portion. Although Rev. Gavin initially bought slaves to work the 150 acres he received upon emigrating to Virginia, he came to oppose slavery as unchristian. When St. Anne's Parish was established with Albemarle County's founding, Rev. Gavin decided to remain at St. James Goochland.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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