page_title: Jamestown Church
section_title: Excavation and restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Jamestown Church / Excavation and restoration
caption_attribution_description: Jamestown Church, partially built in 1639 in Jamestown, Virginia, is one of the oldest surviving buildings built by Europeans in the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It is part of Jamestown National Historic Site, and is owned by the Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities). The first church on the site was constructed in 1617. It was in this church where the first Representative Legislative Assembly met, which convened there on July 30, 1619. Construction on the current church tower began in 1639 taking 4 years to complete. The rest of the original church was destroyed after abandonment in 1750 when a new church was built 3 miles away. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Church en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
context_page_description: Jamestown Church, constructed in brick from 1639 onward, in Jamestown in the Mid-Atlantic state of Virginia, is one of the oldest surviving building remnants built by Europeans in the original thirteen colonies and in the United States overall. It is now part of Historic Jamestowne, and is owned by Preservation Virginia. There have been several sites and stages in the church's history, and its later tower is now the last surviving above-ground structure from the days when Jamestown was the capital of Virginia. The current structure, active as part of the Anglican church, is still in use today. The ruins are currently being researched by members of the Jamestown Rediscovery project.
context_section_description: The area around the church has been gradually cleared of trees and other vegetation to enable archaeological access to the site. Further, a brick wall in front of the church, as well as iron gates, have been removed as well. In 2010, the combined remains of Churches 1 and 2 were discovered by Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists.
  A major rehabilitation project in 2013 and 2014 helped to preserve the tower by repairing, relaying, and occasionally replacing bricks. About 5,000 bricks made by craftsmen at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation were used. The replacement bricks were actually produced on-site using local materials and traditional methods. The project was part of the collaboration between Preservation Virginia and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for the operation of Historic Jamestowne.
  In the summer of 2016 Summer Field School project members helped out at the Jamestown Rediscovery Lab to uncover artifacts from around the site of the brick church. At the end of November 2016, archaeologists from Jamestown Rediscovery started excavations inside the church to prepare for the 400th anniversary of the first meeting of the General Assembly in July 2019.
caption: Sign at the church, 2014
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