Rehoboth Church

Rehoboth Church is a historic log cabin-style Methodist church in the countryside of Monroe County, West Virginia, United States, 2 miles (3¼ km) east of the town of Union. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, it is renowned for being the oldest existing church building in West Virginia.Early historyNewly-arrived pioneers organized a Methodist church in the vicinity of Union in late 1784. Working together, they built the church in 1785 on the land of Edward Keenan, who had been a leading part of the construction effort. Keenan donated the land both for the church and for its graveyard.The building was dedicated in 1786 by Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in the United States. After its construction, the church was a center of Methodism: Asbury returned at least three times in the next ten years to lead Annual Conferences at the church.ArchitectureRehoboth Church is a vernacular structure, designed using the log framing construction techniques utilized by early settlers in the western reaches of the Virginia Colony. The interior of the church is dominated by the raised pulpit, fashioned from planed timber which allows maximum visibility to both the nave and the galleries. Three sides of the church are lined with galleries which offer additional seating (used as a slave gallery during the antebellum period). A steep fixed ladder in the southwest corner of the nave provides access to the galleries, which are supported by two massive log pillars and small braces set in the side and rear walls of the church. The logs are shaped to a diamond at their ends. Aside from the pulpit, the only furnishings in the church are the pews, crudely constructed from half-sawn logs, and wooden lamp stands. The altar from the church, believed to have been used by Bishop Asbury, is preserved as well.