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Mount Vernon
Unitarian Church |
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Mount Vernon
Unitarian Church |
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In December of 1954, a decision was made to establish a Unitarian church to serve the Hollin Hills-Tauxemont area of Fairfax County. Under the auspices of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., a congregation began to form in the spring of 1955. The first worship service was held on the last Sunday in September of 1955 in Friendly House off Fort Hunt Road. The chapel, located on a wooded tract overlooking the Potomac River, was owned by the Girls' Friendly Society, a subsidiary of the Episcopal Church. Eighty-five adults and 110 children came to this Mount Vernon Center of All Souls Church, as it was called. Sermons by the Reverend A. Powell Davies of the sponsoring All Souls Church were piped in over the telephone and played through a loudspeaker to the congregation. The church grew rapidly that first year and soon Friendly House, with its seating capacity of only 110, became too small. Even some of the community madrigal choir which performed at services became enthralled with Dr. Davies' sermons and became church members!
The church moved into larger quarters the second year, a temporary home in the Hollin Hills Elementary School. In a cafeteria decorated with screens made by church member John Kofler and with sermons still piped in from Dr. Davies at All Souls, the congregation continued to grow. By October of 1957 the church, which adopted the name the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, was ready to hire its first minister. The congregation called the Reverend Ernest Sommerfield formerly of the Church of the Unity in Springfield, Massachusetts. In preparation for his anticipated November arrival, MVUC purchased its first piece of property, a house on Popkins Lane in the Hollin Hills subdivision for use as a parsonage.
Reverend Sommerfield served MVUC for almost five years, until he resigned in 1963. John Wells, a former teacher, lawyer, and Air Force officer from Atlanta, who had been a student minister at MVUC for several months before his ordination in the spring of 1964, was called to be the second minister. Reverend Wells resigned in 1968 to become minister of the Reston, Virginia Unitarian Church. After several months of lay-led services, Mount Vernon called its third minister, Reverend David Bumbaugh, in July of 1969. Reverend Bumbaugh, ordained in 1964, came to MVUC from the Park Forest, Illinois Unitarian Church. In 1977, David Bumbaugh’s wife, Beverly, became the co-minister of MVUC; she was ordained by the church in 1978. The Bumbaughs continued their joint ministry to Mount Vernon until mid-1984 when they left for the Syracuse, New York Universalist Church. Following their departure, the Reverend Judith Walker-Riggs served as Interim Minister for eighteen months. It was during this time that the new church building was built; Reverend Walker-Riggs presided over the dedication ceremonies. The congregation called the Reverend Betty Jo Middleton serve as its first Minister of Religious Education, May 1984 to June 1990.
On January 1, 1986 the Reverend Kenneth Hurto, minister of the Des Moines, Iowa Unitarian Church, was called as minister of MVUC.. Reverend Linda Olson Peebles, long-time Director of Religious Education at MVUC, joined him as Minister of Religious Education in 1997. Reverend Peebles moved on to the Unitarian Church of Arlington Virginia in the summer of 2001. Reverend Hurto joined the staff of the UUA in Boston in September, 2001, and now serves the UU congregation in Ft. Myers, Florida.
While we searched for a new minister, we were fortunate to be served by an outstanding interim minister, the Reverend Walter Braman, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Reverend Louis V. Schwebius was called by MVUC in the spring of 2003, and joined us in September, 2003. Rev. Schwebius resigned on February 1, 2007.
Always evolving, we revise our bylaws as needed.
As the church continued to grow during its first three years, church leaders planned a move to a more permanent home. In December of 1958, the decision was made to purchase property for a church. Board members Joseph Remington and Mike Niccols looked for land along the Potomac River that would be suitable for building, but found nothing in the price range the church could afford. The suggestion was made to go to the top of the hill to see Mrs. Merle Thorpe of Hollin Hall. Mrs. Thorpe welcomed the two church members into the breakfast room, where she served them afternoon tea and showed, with obvious pride and pleasure, the long vista over the countryside. A gracious, charming, and dignified lady in fragile health, she had reluctantly agreed to her sons’ wishes that she sell the property and move to Washington. The unusual move of purchasing a piece of property with five buildings already in place was approved by the congregation, and the central ten acres of the Hollin Hall estate were purchased for $150,000.
With a first mortgage held by Merle Thorpe Jr. and a second mortgage held by All Souls Unitarian Church and Community Unitarian Church in New York City, church members also loaned $25,000 to the coffers to meet the price. In addition, the parsonage was sold, and those funds were put into the purchase fund. The ten acres included the Hollin Hall Mansion, the guest house, the equipment garage, the car garage, and the swimming pool, the greenhouse and well house and formal gardens.
With five buildings to work with, allocation of space for church and community activities required careful planning. The main room of the guest house became the Chapel used for Sunday services and various group activities. Measuring 30 feet by 50 feet with heavy beams across the ceiling, the Chapel overlooked an expanse of Fairfax County. The kitchen was used by all ages. Pre-school church classes were held on the bottom level of the guest house, and churchgoers could often hear the happy sounds of the children playing below. The second floor held a sometimes-occupied apartment in the early years of the church’s stewardship. The swimming pool, once a spot of beauty on the Hollin Hill estate, was too expensive for the church to maintain, so it was eventually filled in. Before that was done, however, all kinds of unwanted and unusable equipment, including an old piano from the guest house, were thrown into the hole to fill some of the space. The area was planted with grass and used as an amphitheater; a concrete stage was erected in 1974.
Hollin Hall became the home for the minister and the site of many religious education activities. The church offices were also located there for almost ten years, and rooms were made available at a low rental cost to neighborhood groups who needed meeting space. The Women’s Group has used mansion space for many years for their fundraising activities and supplies. Church records are stored in one of the many basement-level storage rooms.
The equipment or utility garage, known today as the Carriage House, was remodeled in 1967 to help meet the needs of the expanding church school, which at that time numbered 358 children. In 1969, the Fort Hunt Cooperative Preschool moved into the Carriage House, where it continues to meet to this day. The loft of the building was the site, from 1969 to 1974, of the Children’s Theater. Taught as a Sunday school class, the theater presented original productions several times a year on a stage at one end of the long room.
The car garage, called Junior House, accommodated classes for the older children on Sundays and for some of the Ft. Hunt Cooperative Preschool children during the week. For several years, until 1975, the second floor was home to the Garret Gallery, a group of local artists. In September of that year, the second floor was converted into an apartment for student ministers.
By 1984, membership at the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church had grown to nearly 400 and it had become clear that the church had outgrown its facilities. The difficult decision was made to build a new meeting house containing a multipurpose chapel which would hold the congregation, office facilities for the minister, religious education director and clerical staff and a large kitchen. Two lots and the old guest house/chapel had to be sold in order to finance the construction. Later, lots along the front of the church property bordering on the meadow were also sold to help pay for the building, reducing the size of the church property to a little over seven acres. To make room for the parking lot for the new meeting house, the old car garage called Junior House was razed and the courtyard and the children’s playground paved over. Designed by the architectural firm of LeMay Associates of Reston, Virginia, the new building was completed in 1985 and is now home to a growing congregation. The large meeting room was named the Remington Chapel in honor of one of the founders of the church. The beautiful stained glass window was designed and made by Jane Kofler, a member of MVUC.
In the early years following the major purchase of the Thorpe estate, creative ways to raise the money necessary to sustain a growing and active church had to be found. In the summer of 1959, the church inaugurated the Boxwood Concerts. The first concerts were held in front of the guest house in a natural bowl-shaped area with a seating capacity of 2000. The audience sat on blankets on the gently sloping lawn, and the guest artists performed on a stage below. Musicians of great renown played for these Boxwood Concerts—Teddy Wilson, a pianist with the Benny Goodman orchestra; Charlie Byrd, a jazz guitarist; the Don Cossacks, a group of Russian singers; the Buffalo Bills; jazz pianist George Shearing and his quintet; the folk singing Limeliters; Bud and Travis, folk singers and guitarists. Rain insurance was taken out to guarantee that the performers would be paid even if they could not perform, and this wreaked havoc with the proceeds. After three seasons, the Boxwood Concerts were dropped, but the idea of outdoor performance stayed alive in the construction of Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia.
The Boxwood Theater Company was another venture sponsored by the church. Begun in 1965, it was headed by five Bennington College students and alumni. With support from local actors and actresses as well as church members, the group offered a series of outdoor performances in the circular garden in front of the mansion. In 1974, an oval concrete stage was set up over the filled-in swimming pool, so that the theater performances could then be held on solid ground. Plans for a roof to be built over the platform were never implemented.
Civil rights for all people were a major focus for the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church from the beginning. In August of 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality needed a place to train people for freedom rides and sit-ins. Despite threats of legal action by Fairfax County, the church opened its facilities to the three-week long CORE Northern Virginia Non-Violent Action Institute. Also in the early 1960s the Religious Education Committee, in an effort to help the local black community in its quest for desegregation, instituted "Exchange Parties". These were held alternately in the Chapel of MVUC and the segregated Drew Smith School in Gum Springs. White and black young people met at these "Exchange Parties" hoping to make integration a reality. In a further effort to make integration work, young adults in the church sponsored the Cotillion, a dance held in the chapel and open to all in the neighborhood regardless of race.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, important issues such as the Vietnam War and the drug culture resulted in some difficult times for the church. Already alienated from the surrounding neighborhood because of its support of the CORE Workshop, MVUC members further strained relations with the community by opposing the Vietnam War.
Mount Vernon Unitarian Church is a proud member of the Mount Vernon community. Building on the example set by our founding members, MVUC members work for social justice today in a variety of church-sponsored action groups, in national and local civic organizations, and individually.
Our beautiful site provides many opportunities for connection to the community. In May 1994, the Campagna Center transformed Hollin Hall into a Decorators' Showhouse, with proceeds going to support programs for women and children in need. Every November, the Holiday Shop opens its doors to the public for a day of shopping for crafts, eating delicious food, and taking a chance on the Women's Group quilt displayed in the Chapel. Twice annual Used Book Sales are well known among collectors, dealers, and bargain hunters throughout Northern Virginia. Our varied music programs--choral, classical, jazz, folk, country, and pop--attract music lovers of all ages. The boxwood garden is a favorite site for weddings and special events in fine weather, and Hollin Hall and the Chapel can be used any time of year.
We are your friends and neighbors. We hope that you will want to get to know us as a caring community, and to join us in encouraging all souls to grow in harmony.
Last Updated
02/01/2007 05:25
