Lewis Chapel Schoolhouse (Site)

These coordinates mark the estimated site where the school building stood from ca. 1858-1876, but today no visible remains exist.


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Here follows an excerpt from "The Dixie Pig" blog written by Senator Scott Surovell in 2013:

Lewis Chapel, Lorton Valley. Four Mason Neck men—Joseph Wiley, Richard Trice, John Haislip, and John Reardon—sponsored a log school near the current intersection of Old Colchester Road and Hassett Street in the 1840s on old field land donated by the McIntosh family. It was probably the first schoolhouse in the Mount Vernon area.

A few years later, perhaps in the late 1850s, the community school relocated the school to the site of Lewis Chapel, a Methodist church built in 1857. Now called Cranford Church, it is located at the intersection of Old Colchester and Gunston Roads. That schoolhouse burned in 1876 and the community again opened another on land donated by John Plaskett. Called Lorton Valley, it was located at 9723 Gunston Cove Road. The school added a second room in 1881, with grades one-four studying the Three R’s in one room, and grades five-eight learning geography, history, hygiene, and reading in the other. In 1905, the school’s lead teacher, George A. Malcolm, who was also a Fairfax County deputy sheriff, was mortally wounded by a man who worked at the nearby Lorton railroad station. The assailant had been harassing girls at the school, and shot Malcolm when the deputy went to the station to arrest him. The county sold the building in 1926.

By 1933, the owner converted the school into a residence, with Percy Ruffner, a guard at the DC Reformatory, buying it in 1939 for $2,500. (Ruffner’s great uncle, William H. Ruffner was the first superintendent of public schools in Virginia.) Percy, his wife, and three children, one of whom is still a Mason Neck resident, Sally Spangler, lived in the old school until the 1980s. “One of the classrooms had been made into a living room and dining room, with the second classroom becoming three bedrooms,” Mrs. Spangler explained recently. “The ledges for the chalk were still there.” The building collapsed in the 1990s—“The termites got it,” said Mrs. Spangler—and the land is now owned by a developer.


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

SMALL SKIRMISH AT LEWIS CHAPEL.
On February 24, 1862, an unknown Confederate unit attacked Union pickets about a mile beyond Pohick Church, at Lewis Chapel. Although the Confederate force was not identified, the Southern drums were heard all along the Union picket line. There were two regiments, about 1,200 Union troops, on outpost duty. Two regiments from Brigadier General Isaac Richardson's brigade advanced to support the troops at Lewis Chapel and a battery of Union artillery was also sent from headquarters. Brigadier General Richardson personally went to Lewis Chapel to take command if necessary. The attack really didn't amount to much. The only damage reported was that all the telegraph lines around Lewis Chapel were down.


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Here follows an excerpt from the church's website:

Cranford United Methodist Church - History
Cranford Church traces its history back to the 18th century. The sacred and historic spot is the site of three churches and two school houses. The first Pohick Church was located here from 1730-1774, making it one of the earliest sites of a religious institution in Fairfax County. One of the oldest stones in the cemetery is that of Thompson Clarke, who died March 8, 1842, aged 51 years. The old Pohick Church is reported to have been located near this grave.

In 1765, the old Pohick Church, a frame building, began to show symptoms of decay and the question of rebuilding or removal came before the vestry. George Washington favored removal to a more central site. George Mason of Gunston Hall opposed removal, pleading that their ancestors had worshipped at the old church and many of them were buried in the adjoining cemetery. Washington prepared a map of the neighborhood that showed the houses of the members of the congregation. This map also provides evidence that the church was moved to what is now Pohick Episcopal Church on US Rt 1.

Methodism in this area started in 1830 in Bates' barn of the Lebanon farm; the services were conducted by traveling preachers. Some years later the Episcopalians organized a Sunday school in Pohick Church, having for its Superintendent that dear and lovable lady, Mrs. Ellen Mason of Gunston Hall. At that time there was no permanent rector at Pohick Church, so the students from the Theological Seminary near Alexandria, conducted the services one Sunday for the Episcopalians, while the Methodists held services the alternating Sunday. The following quotation is taken from Lossing's Mount Vernon, published in 1858:

"I visited Pohick church a few years ago, and found it falling rapidly into decay. The next day being the Sabbath and being informed that a Methodist meeting was to be held in the church, I repaired thither at the usual hour, and took a seat in Washington's pew near the pulpit. there I awaited the slow gathering of the little auditory. When all had assembled, men and women, and children, white and black, the whole congregation numbered only twenty-one persons."

After the Methodists had held services in Pohick Church for a number of years, a Methodist circuit rider by the name of Rev. John Lewis saw the needs of the striving Methodists. He began work with the aim of building a church. He first started with meetings held in an old log schoolhouse, near "Hard Bargain," on Colchester Road. In 1857, the first Methodist Church in this community was built. James and John Cranford did much of the work on the new church. The spot selected for it was the former location of the first Pohick Church. When the church was dedicated, it received the name of Lewis Chapel, in honor of the Rev. John Lewis, who inspired the movement.

LEWIS CHAPEL
The First Methodist Church stood on this site from 1858 - 1953

The Lewis Chapel attendance increased to such a point it became necessary to enlarge the building. This was done by adding ten feet to the rear end, and by taking out the gallery, which had been placed in the front of the church for use by the slaves. At the same time, a new roof was put on the old building, and it was newly plastered. The first "free" school in this neighborhood was located near Lewis Chapel. While Lewis Chapel was being enlarged and otherwise undergoing repairs, the schoolhouse was used for church services. As the church membership kept increasing and the old building became overcrowded, a new building was built nearby in 1900 on newly acquired land. The new church was named Cranford Memorial, and was dedicated June 9, 1901. Dr. Register, who was the Presiding Elder, preached the dedication sermon, using for his text the words found in Ephesians 2:2022:

"And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit."

In December of 1953, the Lewis Chapel building was moved about one block and joined to the Cranford Memorial Church. At this time, the original exterior clapboards on Lewis Chapel were reversed, inside to outside. This work was accomplished under the supervision of architect Hayward Davis of Lorton.

A walkway of oversized brick, possibly dating from the time of the first Pohick Church traverses part of the Churchyard, in which there is a cemetery. An engraved stone marks the site of the first Pohick Church, 1730-1774.