Mt. Jackson "Colored" Church

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Sometime after the Civil War Mt. Jackson's African American population banded together to form a Methodist Church. During the period local churches were segregated by race and the town’s African Americans needed a church to meet their spiritual needs.

By 1870 this congregation had constructed a church building on Race Street. They performed baptisms in nearby Mill Creek and supported the local African American School (located on Orkney Drive).

Around 1885 the congregation seems to have relocated to a new site beside the African American School. However, in 1889 the church seems to have faced financial trouble and was involved in a chancery case over an unpaid mortgage. While it is uncertain how the case was resolved, the church remained open.

The name of this church seems to have evolved. In a 1930 Sanborn map, the church is identified as “Mt. Zion M.E. Church (Colored).” Later articles refer to it as Calvary Methodist Church.

After the Second World War the congregation dwindled as the African American population of Mt. Jackson declined. In 1965 the congregation made the decision to merge with Manor Memorial Methodist Church in New Market and to close their church after failed attempts to merge with the Mt. Jackson Methodist Church. The building would be demolished sometime in the 1970s or 1980s.