Emmanuel Episcopal Church
Piedmont Parish
Some time before 1858, the Methodists and Episcopalians of the Community of Oak Hill, who had shared a church at Cool Spring since 1816, decided to build separate churches. Piedmont Parish raised $1,000; John Thomas Smith and his wife Margaret Lewis Marshall of Ashley gave land Mrs. Smith had inherited from her father, Thomas Marshall, son of John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.
Ground was broken in September, 1858, and Emmanuel Church consecrated on July 23, 1859, by William Meade, Bishop of Virginia.
During the Civil War both Confederate and Union troops used Emmanuel as a shelter and a hospital. The names of some of General McClellan’s federal soldiers were inscribed on the walls of the wood room along with other names and the notation “9th Ill. Cavalry.”
At the end of the war the Rev. William F.Gardner wrote, “Piedmont Parish has been without a minister for a long time. Since 1862, divine service was not held more than two or three times, until I took charge of these Churches, informally, on the 17th day of April, 1865, it being Easter Monday.”
Since that day Emmanuel has continued in faithful service.
Marker can be reached from Maidstone Road (Virginia Route 713) near Winchester Road (U.S. 17).
Courtesy hmdb.org
