History and Status of Grace Church
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Grace Methodist Episcopal Church is a small, unassuming stone structure located in the historic Quaker Village of Lincoln.
Built in 1885 by Quakers and "freeman" – former slaves –the church was first conceived in the “Lincoln School B" (now a private home) where African Americans were educated in what was possibly the first public school for Negroes in Virginia.
The church congregation organized in 1872 under the leadership of Reverend Henry Carroll and met in the schoolhouse for the next 12 years. Then, starting in 1884, Quakers and Freemen built the existing church near the school, using native fieldstone and a bell forged at the old Purcellville Foundry. The building was dedicated on July 30, 1885, under the pastorate of Reverend John Bean, a circuit rider, whose churches
included those in Middleburg, Leesburg, Lincoln and others.
Services were held on the second and fourth Sundays, and the basement was used as a vocational school where Quakers taught sewing, cooking, shoe repair and other skills to the black community.
After most of the African American population shifted away from Lincoln, the old church was abandoned in 1950. The structure was in severe decay and the cultural roots of our county were slipping away.
In 2002, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation, along with the nine trustees of the Grace Annex in Purcellville, united in an ambitious undertaking: to rescue and restore the abandoned building and tell its story with a living history museum like none other in our area. With this goal in mind, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation found itself swept up in a project we call "Saving Grace": Today, the structure and roof have been stabilized, and work is underway to rebuild the beautiful old building from the ground up.
The Saving Grace Project, in a nutshell, strives to restore the church building into the "Grace Multicultural Center", and incorporate a living Black History museum on the premises with artifacts garnered from an ongoing archaeological dig. The building will be open to the public and available to the community for cultural
events. It will also be incorporated into the elementary school curriculum as part of a larger local living history program.
Built in 1885 by Quakers and "freeman" – former slaves –the church was first conceived in the “Lincoln School B" (now a private home) where African Americans were educated in what was possibly the first public school for Negroes in Virginia.
The church congregation organized in 1872 under the leadership of Reverend Henry Carroll and met in the schoolhouse for the next 12 years. Then, starting in 1884, Quakers and Freemen built the existing church near the school, using native fieldstone and a bell forged at the old Purcellville Foundry. The building was dedicated on July 30, 1885, under the pastorate of Reverend John Bean, a circuit rider, whose churches
included those in Middleburg, Leesburg, Lincoln and others.
Services were held on the second and fourth Sundays, and the basement was used as a vocational school where Quakers taught sewing, cooking, shoe repair and other skills to the black community.
After most of the African American population shifted away from Lincoln, the old church was abandoned in 1950. The structure was in severe decay and the cultural roots of our county were slipping away.
In 2002, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation, along with the nine trustees of the Grace Annex in Purcellville, united in an ambitious undertaking: to rescue and restore the abandoned building and tell its story with a living history museum like none other in our area. With this goal in mind, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation found itself swept up in a project we call "Saving Grace": Today, the structure and roof have been stabilized, and work is underway to rebuild the beautiful old building from the ground up.
The Saving Grace Project, in a nutshell, strives to restore the church building into the "Grace Multicultural Center", and incorporate a living Black History museum on the premises with artifacts garnered from an ongoing archaeological dig. The building will be open to the public and available to the community for cultural
events. It will also be incorporated into the elementary school curriculum as part of a larger local living history program.
