Little Fork Church
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Little Fork Church
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Little Fork Church: South-east View
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| Nearest city | Culpeper, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 38°35′59″N 77°57′18″W / 38.59972°N 77.95500°WCoordinates: 38°35′59″N 77°57′18″W / 38.59972°N 77.95500°W |
| Built | 1776 |
| Architect | John Ariss |
| Architectural style | Colonial |
| NRHP Reference # | 69000234 |
| VLR # | 023-0013 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 12, 1969 |
| Designated VLR | May 13, 1969 |
Little Fork Church stands on a low knoll to the east of State Route 229 nine miles north of Culpeper, Virginia in a small grove of trees that enhances its naturally pastoral setting. The name Little Fork is taken from the junction of the Hazel and Rappahannock Rivers relatively close to the edifice. It is a large room church being 83 ½ feet east-west and 33 ½ feet north-south. Unlike most rectangular churches in Virginia, the pulpit stands directly north of the southern entrance door that is placed in the middle of the southern wall rather than in the far southeast of the building. Thus it shows some of the architectural characteristics of middle colony meeting houses such as those in Delaware as well as the Virginia Vernacular Church and the deep church.
Following the British retreat from Virginia this colonial church was abandoned by the Anglicans. Located in the area known as the Village Of Oak Shade, it was used by Methodists and referred to as Oak Shade Church. Descendants still living in the Culpeper and Rappahannock area continue to refer to the church as the "Oak Shade Church". The Oak Shade Church had a cemetery where burials were performed in the early 1800's, that can no longer be located on church grounds. When the Methodist congregation offered to renovate the decaying building, ownership was then reclaimed by the Episcopalians. A full scale renovation took place in the 1970's, including relocation of the memorial to the local Little Fork Rangers cavalry unit, to the side yard of the church.
It was attached to St. Mark’s Parish that, like most early parishes in Virginia, changed its suzerainty and geographic range as counties became established by partitioning earlier counties due to population growth or shifts. Its creation and history are:
Little Fork was a chapel of ease for the parish, and thus was never the lower, or main, parish church. It is the only remaining colonial church in the county.
It is a church of late construction, begun in 1773 and completed in 1776, having characteristics of a rectangular church combined with the contemporary, two story churches of Northern Virginia that stretch in a geographic swath from Falls Church to St. Paul's, King George County. It retains elements such as orientation, south and west doorways, compass windows, and Flemish bond, yet includes elements such as a deep church configuration, a hipped roof, movement of southern door to the center of the southern wall, classical door pediments, and a pulpit on the northern wall opposite the southern doorway. It lacks elements of deep churches in Northern Virginia such as two tiered windows and cruciform structure. The general doorway plan and placement of the pulpit is remarkably similar to that of Lamb’s Creek Church, designed by the same architect, and resembles several extant middle colony meeting houses.
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