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Old Pine Church (also historically known as Mill Church, Nicholas Church, and Pine Church) is a mid-19th century church near the unincorporated community of Purgitsville in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Old Pine Church is among the earliest extant log churches in Hampshire County, along with Capon Chapel and Mount Bethel Church. The church was constructed in 1838 to serve as a nondenominational "union church". As many of the Mill Creek valley's earliest settlers were of German descent, Old Pine Church may also have been built as a meeting place for Schwarzenau Brethren adherents, known as "Dunkers" or "Dunkards". The church is believed to have been utilized by German Methodist settlers. By 1870, Old Pine Church was primarily used exclusively by the Brethren denomination, and in 1878, the church's congregation split into White Pine Church of the Brethren and Old Pine Church congregations. Both congregations continued to use Old Pine Church until 1907. The church reportedly housed a school in the early 20th century while still serving as a center for worship. In 1968, residents of the Purgitsville community raised the necessary funds to conduct a restoration of Old Pine Church. The church and its adjoining cemetery were added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 2012, due to its "significant settlement-era rural religious architecture in the Potomac Highlands". Old Pine Church is a large, one-story, front gable log building sheathed in brown-painted wooden German siding. The original hewn log beams are visible beneath the church, with some bark remaining on the logs. The church's interior ceiling measures approximately in height and is clad in pressed metal panels. Several of its pews date from 1857. In the church's adjoining cemetery, the earliest extant gravestone dates from 1834, and several unmarked interment sites may exist from as early as 1759. According to architectural historian Sandra Scaffidi, "Old Pine Church and cemetery is an excellent example of one of the area's early rural church complexes." == Location == Old Pine Church and its cemetery are located along the steeply-sloped Old Pine Church Road (West Virginia Secondary Route 220/15), approximately south of the unincorporated community of Purgitsville. The church and cemetery are situated on atop a bluff to the west of U.S. Route 220, at an elevation of . The property is surrounded by old-growth forests. Old Pine Church is located in a rural area of southwestern Hampshire County within the Mill Creek valley.〔〔 Patterson Creek Mountain, a forested narrow anticlinal mountain ridge, rises to the west of Mill Creek valley, and the forested western rolling foothills of the anticlinal Mill Creek Mountain rise to the valley's east.〔 The Trough on the South Branch Potomac River is located across Mill Creek Mountain, approximately to the east of Old Pine Church.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Old Pine Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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