Buffalo Presbyterian Church is a historic

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in Pamplin, Prince Edward County, Virginia. Built about 1804, it is a simple frame weather-boarded structure with a gable roof covered with standing seam metal. Early in the 20th century the front of the church was reoriented to the east and, in 1931, an addition was made, consisting of an entrance vestibule flanked on either side by a small classroom. Also on the property is the contributing church

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, with a number of stone markers, the earliest of which is dated 1832. The congregation of Buffalo was formed in 1739 and is the earliest extant Presbyterian congregation in Southside Virginia. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> According to "Pioneer Presbeteryian Congregations", as of 1989, a pulpit space was later added to the back of the building and two rooms were built on the front. The building which once had a gallery for African-Americans is still heated by old wood stoves. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1995. Rev. Richard Sankey began here in 1759, becoming the first installed minister, and building their first log meeting house about one-half mile from the present site. It burned in the 1780s. In 1775, his congregation, at his behest, helped to raise funds in order to create Hampden-Sydney college in 1775. He was honored as the preacher at the opening of the Synod of Virginia in 1788.

References

Presbyterian churches in Virginia Churches completed in 1804 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Federal architecture in Virginia Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Churches in Prince Edward County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Prince Edward County, Virginia {{Virginia-church-stub