TROUGH HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
​

Trough Hill Baptist Church is slowly sinking into the ground. The members who remain are proud of their “beacon” in the surrounding community of Crest Hill near Hume, Virginia. For 137 years the stucco encased church stood its ground on a hill facing Crest Hill Road through blizzards, high winds, endless rain, pure faith, wars, illness, the great depression, and farm losses. Now we are praying for a miracle.

​

It began when several members noticed one edge of the floor had pulled away from the wall after a Christmas Concert in December 2019. A local flooring specialist was called in to investigate on 11 March 2020. Without a crawl space over the sanctuary, he cut a 4 x 4-foot section of flooring away to reveal rotting and deteriorating untreated timber logs that sat directly upon the ground.  Long ago signs of termite infestation were evident. A nearby tree stump full of holes the size of fists was left trimmed below floor level when the church was built in 1883. Though no termites were found after years of treatment, the wood continued to rot with the effects of moisture, fungus, and mold that now slowly dissolved the old hand hewed logs cut by its builder Charles (Buggy) Anderson of Crest Hill.

​

Our prayers began.  

​

Violet Anderson Reed, a former member, once described the view to local Fauquier Times Writer Bill Rodenburg back in 2005 as the church with a view, and indeed what a view! It stands facing the Blue Ridge Mountains across from the large expanse of Crest Hill Farm, formerly part of the Marshall Syndicate whose ancestor John was the Fourth Chief Justice under President John Adams.

​

Many of the church’s original founders came off such large farms after emancipation to start their own churches. Some of the folks who still attend are sixth generation descendants of Easter Adelaide Nelson, who many say, helped ensure land carved from the lot her home stood on could be used to start a church. The Rev. Dr. Lindsay O. Green, who was a great-grandson of Easter, pastored this church for 35 years before stepping down to focus on our sister church, Mt. Morris in nearby Hume. After an eleven-month search, Rev. Percy Studvent and wife Patricia of Woodford, VA accepted the call to pastor. Tears of joy flowed at his ordination on June 23, 2019. Surely God’s blessing was upon us. 

    

Violet Anderson Reed is gone now. She passed away in 2009. When Rev Green passed on March 12, it appeared he might take this church with him. He leaves behind to mourn a small family of believers who still believe we need the Trough Hill Baptist Church to continue to stand as a beacon in the “village with a view”.