Longs Chapel, also known as Old Athens Church and Athens Colored School, is a historic Church of the United Brethren in Christ church and cemetery located at Zenda near Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia. It was built about 1871, and is a small, one-story, frame structure with a standard gable-fronted nave form with weatherboard siding, metal roofing, stone foundation piers, a small belfry, and an apse added about 1900. It measures approximately 20 feet by 30 feet. The cemetery includes multiple grave depressions, fieldstone tombstones, and a number of professionally carved marble monuments. The church also housed a one-room school for African-American children where Harrisonburg educator Lucy F. Simms had her first teaching post in 1877.[3] The school at Zenda closed in 1925 and the last services at Longs Chapel were held in the late 1920s. The building was subsequently used as a hay barn. The last burial was in 1935.[4]
Longs Chapel | |
 Front and western side | |
   | |
| Location | 1334B Fridleys Gap Rd., near Harrisonburg, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°30′45″N 78°45′44″W / 38.51250°N 78.76222°W |
| Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
| Built | 1871 |
| Built by | Jacob Long, T.J. Orndorff |
| NRHP reference No. | 06001042[1] |
| VLR No. | 082-5264 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 15, 2006 |
| Designated VLR | September 6, 2006[2] |
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ^ MacAllister, Dale E. (2020). Lucy Frances Simms: From Slavery to Revered Public Service. Lot's Wife Publishing Company. p. 305. ISBN 9781934368497.
- ^ J. Daniel Pezzoni (May 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Longs Chapel" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying four photos