Essex County plans to buy back its Colonial-era courthouse, now a church on a busy street corner, from its Baptist congregation. Worshippers will build a brand-new church.

By FRANK DELANO

Date published: 3/28/2005

Sometimes, the sirens stop the sermons in the old church on the busy corner in Tappahannock.

"They're ambulances from the Northern Neck on their way to the hospital here in town. I just wait until they're gone and continue preaching," said Robert C. McKinley, pastor of Beale Memorial Baptist Church.

The thick brick walls of the church were once those of a Colonial courthouse.

Just a few feet from McKinley's pulpit, three Baptist ministers were convicted in 1774 of preaching illegally.

But soon, the church will move away from its home for the past 127 years and Essex County will retake possession of its former courthouse built in 1728.

County and church officials say they hope to close the $775,000 deal in May. The church bought the old courthouse in 1878 for $750.

Essex County Administrator Gary Allen said the county has no definite plans for the building, which has grown over the years to 10,000 square feet, but its old sanctuary might become community performance space and its meeting rooms might become offices.

O. Bryan Taliaferro Jr., chairman of the church's Property Conversion Committee, said the sale will help the congregation of the traffic-bound church build a new facility on a 20-acre lot it owns a mile away on U.S. 17 north of town.

The safety of its members was a major reason the church voted two years ago to sell the church, Taliaferro said. The church's 57-car parking lot, which also will be sold to the county, is across U.S. 360 from the building; the church sits on the busy corner of U.S. 360 and U.S. 17.

According to VDOT traffic counts, 27,000 vehicles a day pass in front of the church. About half of them make the turn to or from the nearby Downing Bridge that crosses the Rappahannock River to the Northern Neck.

"Many of our members tell close-call stories about trying to cross that street," Taliaferro said. "It used to be a quiet little corner, but it is not going to be that ever again."

Taliaferro hopes the new church will help attract new members, especially young families. Its present membership of around 250 people has remained "stagnant" in recent years, he said.

Date published: 3/28/2005