Laurel Grove Baptist Church Cemetery

In the 1880's, African-American families in the Franconia community "began meeting for open-air worship services near a grove of laurel," according to information from the church. The cemetery sits behind the church in a grove of oaks. The church caught on fire in December 2004 and was completely destroyed. There is a fundraising campaign underway to try to rebuild the historic church.


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Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

Buried at Laurel Grove Baptist Church is Private Edward or Edmond Harris (an African American soldier). Private Harris was born around 1831, lived at Aldie, Virginia at the beginning of the Civil War and was serving with the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in 1862. Private Harris died May 14, 1917. His name is listed at the bottom of a stone with two other people.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

LAUREL GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH CEMETERY
6834 Beulah Street (Route 613)
South Alexandria, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

Laurel Grove Baptist Church is located at 6834 Beulah Street (Route 613) in the Franconia area. The small white church is located just to the southwest and across Beulah Street from Calvary Road Baptist Church at the intersection of Beulah with Walker Lane.

In the 1880s, African-American families in the Franconia community “began meeting for open-air worship services near a grove of laurel,” according to information from the church. At that time, the nearest church was nearly ten miles away in the City of Alexandria and the “families found it more convenient and congenial to meet near the laurel in Franconia.”

William and Georgianna Jasper deeded a half-acre of land to the congregation on 10 May 1884, with Thornton Gray, Middleton Braxton, and George Carroll as trustees. Along with William Jasper, these men formed the first Board of Trustees and John H. Jasper served as the first treasurer of the church. The church handbook notes that the congregation is fortunate to have descendants of the founders as current members. Nearby Walker Lane was named for Jasper family descendants.

The cemetery sits behind the church in a grove of oaks. This site, which was surveyed in 1973, 1989, 1997 and 1998, is clean and well maintained. The survey begins in the southeast corner of the cemetery and proceeds row by row through the small cemetery.

No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books