Where is the Oldest Adventist Building Still in Use?

What is now known as the Ford Seventh-day Adventist Church is the oldest Adventist church building still in use and the second-oldest congregation in the Potomac Conference.

June 24, 2024 ∙ by vmbernard ∙ in Potomac Conference, This Month's Issue

Story by Shannon Kelly / Image by Richardo Castillo

Want to worship at the oldest Adventist church building still standing and in use?

In the mid-1800s, a man named Algeron Lewis (in some census records, spelled “Algernon”) and Mary Katherine Lewis fell in love while Algeron was working at Woodland Farm in Ford, Va. After moving away and converting to Adventism, the couple returned, and in 1895, organized a church there. The congregation met in tents for four years, until the church building, originally called Bethel, was constructed.

What is now known as the Ford Seventh-day Adventist Church is the oldest Adventist church building still in use and the second-oldest congregation in the Potomac Conference. According to the church’s website, the original pews, railings and a podium the congregation’s co-founder built are still used today.

The Columbia Union Conference—which covers the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States—is home to many locations where people of the Seventh-day Adventist faith made (and continue to make) history. But how did the greater Washington, D.C., area become a church hub in the first place? And where can one find impactful, lesser-known historic sites within the Columbia Union territory?

Take a road trip with historians Michael Campbell, North American Division director of Archives, Statistics, and Research, and Phillip Warfield, a Ph.D. candidate studying United States 20th Century History at Howard University (D.C.), as they introduce—or for some, reintroduce—several interesting and exciting Adventist spots you and your family can visit this summer. So, grab your hiking boots and sunscreen because we’re off!

Find more details and history in our online articles!

Ellen White Stayed Here in 1905 (Washington, D.C.)
George Washington Likely Stayed Here (Pine Forge, Pa.)
Where the Great Controversy Vision Took Place (Bowling Green, Ohio)
First Adventist Church in Washington, D.C.
What Was The People's Church? (Washington, D.C.)
Where Is the Oldest Adventist Building Still in Use? (Ford, Va.)
Where the Great Controversy Vision Took Place (Bowling Green, Ohio)
What Happened to Lucy Byard (And Why is it Important to Adventism?)
Which Adventists are Buried in Rock Creek Cemetery? (Washington, D.C.)
Why Did the General Conference Move to Takoma Park?

Where is the Oldest Adventist Building Still in Use?

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