The Virginia Department of Historic Resources last week announced 16 historic sites have recently been added to the Virginia Landmarks Register, including Grace Episcopal Church property at 303 South Main Street, Kilmarnock.
The property features two buildings: a Gothic Revival chapel, which was the original Grace Church, built in 1852, and a larger Colonial Revival-style Grace Episcopal Church, designed by architect Milton Grigg and constructed in 1958 to serve a growing congregation, reported public information officer Randy Jones.
These two buildings illustrate a century of Episcopal church architecture in Virginia and reflect a burgeoning congregation as well as changes in architectural expression of this parish which has its roots in the Georgian Christ Church (1732-35), one of two original churches in colonial Virginia’s Anglican Christ Church parish.
The 19th-century chapel was moved on the property in 1958, and its preservation through relocation contributes to the significance of the church complex as a whole. The property also includes a graveyard dating to 1852 and a 1949 Grace House.
