Hedges Chapel

About this property

Hedges Chapel is a historic non-denominational chapel located at 668 Mountain Lake Road in Hedgesville, Berkeley County, West Virginia. It was built in 1850 and is a 1-story, three-by-two-bay, gable-roofed log building on a fieldstone foundation. It is sheathed in German siding, added in 1885 and topped by a corrugated metal roof. Also on the property is the church cemetery, with approximately 100 burials dating to 1872. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Hedges Chapel. For more than 160 years this one-room wooden structure of simple architecture has been a focus of Christian spirit, faith and comfort. It stands on a small hill overlooking the two-lane country road that leads the congregation to its doors, while its green-shuttered windows keep watch over the cemetery where some of its faithful rest. In the 1840s, the nearest church was six miles away, a difficult trip on dirt roads, especially in rain or snow. Church was a central focus for the community, and local residents began to feel the need for a nearby church of their own. In 1849 several members of the community decided to build a church, and. Mr. John Hedges donated land for the chapel and cemetery. It is for him that the chapel is named. Neighbors cut the trees, donated timber and other materials, and provided their labor. A neighbor who operated a nearby sawmill volunteered to saw and plane the timber for the structure and the pews. Local horses hauled the materials to the building site. Only nails and window glass were purchased; everything else was locally made. Construction began in the winter of 1849, and in 1850, the Hedges Chapel opened. In the chapel's early days worshipers came to services on foot and on horseback. Later, as the community became more established, the Hedges Chapel was built as a log structure, although its logs are no longer visible. In 1885 its exterior was covered with white-painted, German-style, wood plank, and its 15-foot-high interior walls were clad in plaster. The original logs remain between the two façades silently supporting the chapel, as they have for over 160 years. Originally the chapel had a simple shingle roof, replaced by a slate roof in 1905 and the current metal roof in 1939. Inside the building the congregation worships on the original pews that were built from planks Hedges Chapel was first established as a Methodist church, the Hedges Stony Lick Run Church. As years passed, chapel membership waxed and waned. In the 1960s and 1970s the chapel was closed, reopened and closed again. Finally, in 1977 Hedges Chapel had fewer than ten active members, and closed its doors seemingly for good.

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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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