Frying Pan Meeting House

Frying Pan Meeting House. . , Frying Pan Springs Meeting House was erected c. 1791 on land granted by Robert “Counsellor” Carter to a group of “Old School” Baptists. In addition to local farmers the fundamentalist beliefs of its members also attracted free blacks and slaves to the congregation. From the beginning blacks were listed as members, baptized in the springs behind the meeting house and interred in the adjacent burial grounds., In the post-Revolutionary period, Baptists were among the first to establish themselves apart from the Episcopal Church which had dominated religious life in colonial Virginia. Even in its wood construction this meeting house represented a symbolic break from traditional brick Episcopal churches. The simple materials and plain style were in keeping with the conservative doctrine of the congregation. Largely unaltered, this structure provides one of the few remaining local examples of 18th century vernacular church architecture., The meeting house served as a landmark upon the rural landscape of western Fairfax County from the 1790s into the mid-20th century. The last surviving member of the declining congregation deeded the meeting house and its adjoining springs, baptismal pond, grounds and cemetery to the Fairfax County Park Authority in 1984.