Shiloh Baptist Church, Gunston Road, Lorton VA

Posted by Mairi and David on

Shiloh Baptist Church
10704 Gunston Road, Lorton VA 22079

The original place of worship for the congregation of Shiloh Baptist Church was a log church across the road in the area of the cemetery. In 1900 the congregation purchased the white building pictured above. Previous to the Church purchasing this building it was Gunston White School as noted in the historical marker below. Gunston White School was open to Mason Neck white students from the late 1870s to the late 1890s.

According to tradition, African Americans from the Mason Neck area and others who had recently moved to Virginia from Maryland formed a religious congregation in 1869. They built a log church on the north side of Gunston Road in 1878 where their cemetery remains. In 1900 the congregation purchased the “Gunston White School,” built about 1883, located on the south side of Gunston Road. That building has been incorporated into an expanded church structure. The church continues to be a center of community life on Mason Neck.

The road sign seemed to give enough information to at least start researching the background of this Church. Little did I know that there would be needed a deep dive to to get a fuller picture. This early history brings to our attention two schools which remind us of a time when segregation was the law . One, as mentioned on the sign, was the Gunston White Church. The other was the Gunston Colored School. The original log Church, built in 1878, the Church graveyard, and the Gunston Colored School were across Gunston Road from where the Church stands now. The Gunston White School is the building that currently adjoins the current brick place of worship for Shiloh. This Church founded by freed slaves and the Gunston Colored School seemed to be very much cornerstones of this African American community in the Mason Neck area. Our research turned up a Senate Joint Resolution Commending Gladys Cook Bushrod dated January 15, 2009. In the resolution she is commended as “oldest known alumna of what was known as the Gunston Colored School, which was established in 1882.” The resolution continued that she was “a longtime deaconess at Mason Neck’s historic Shiloh Baptist Church, which was established in 1878 on land purchased by two trustees, who were freed African-American slaves; and WHEREAS, Gladys Bushrod also served as secretary of Shiloh Baptist Church for 40 years and as superintendent of the church’s Sunday School for 45 years.”

“Here, far from the present path of those who slowly trudge to the summons of
the tolling bell, lost to view in dense and growing trees, the schoolhouse stands, short steps
beyond, yet many, many years in time…” So wrote James O’Neill, Jr. in 1947 after snapping
this photo of the derelict Gunston Colored School building. (Photo and quote from O’Neill
1947: 44.)

As we continued to dig we found some interesting history in the Archaeology Annual Report 2009 – Gunston Hall written by David B. Shonyo and published by the GUNSTON HALL PLANTATION, Archaeology Department, Mason Neck, Virginia on March 2010.

The derelict Gunston Colored School building, 4, is visible in this 1937 aerial view
of the 2009 study area. Other features are: 1, the property line which separated Gunston Hall
Plantation, below the line, from Springfield Plantation; 2, the sunken trace of the original
Gunston Hall entrance road; 3, the presumed location of the Gunston Hall entrance gate; 5,
the Gunston White School (Shiloh Baptist Church, at the time of the photo); 6, Shiloh
Cemetery and original location of the log Shiloh Baptist Church building; 7, modern Gunston
Hall entrance road; 8, Gunston Road. (Base photo is a detail from a U.S. Soil Conservation
Service photograph).

From the Archaeology Annual Report: “During the 2009 field season, attention was focused almost exclusively on an area located about one half mile north west of the land front face of the mansion. This area contains a number of features of historic and archaeological interest, including: the property line between Gunston Hall Plantation and the neighboring Springfield Plantation, along which George Mason raised a fence “of uncommon height” (Dunn 2004:77); the sunken trace of the original entrance road to Gunston Hall; the site of the original Plantation entrance gate; the site of the Gunston Colored School building; the Gunston White School building (now part of Shiloh Baptist Church); the site of the 19th Century log structure which served as the first Shiloh Church building; and the still-active Shiloh Cemetery which dates to the same period as the log church. Excavations were conducted for the purpose of locating remains of the Mason-era boundary fence and its associated gate, and of exposing a portion of the foundation of the Gunston Colored School building.”

This is a detail from the 1878 deed which conveyed what is now the Shiloh Cemetery lot to the Shiloh Baptist Church (Point A). The “Church Lot” is now the cemetery lot and the “School House Lot” is the present Shiloh Baptist Church property.

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