6XX W. Main

From the National Register nomination

One-story Gothic Revival front-gabled church located on the southeast corner of Main and Maple. Constructed of brick laid in three-course American bond (Flemish variant), with a gabled sanctuary four bays deep, shed-roofed side aisles, and two-story square tower located on the west elevation. Contrasting with the dark red brickwork is the pale Indiana limestone used to define door and window surrounds, a watertable course, and as coping on the buttresses and parapets of the building. The north-facing front elevation features Gothic elements such as the pointed-arch entry whose recessed double-leaf door has ornamental wrought iron hardware, and the pointed-arch stained- and leaded-glass window with stone tracery forming interlaced trefoils, quatrefoils, circles, and pointed arches. The south gable, visible from the rear of the property, incorporates three narrow pointed-arch windows. The original building also incorporated other one-story sections into the church complex, including several classrooms and offices situated at the rear of the building. Multi-pane double-hung and casement windows, stone sills and surrounds, and steep gabled roofs link them stylistically with the sanctuary. A one-story gabled brick educational wing was made to the east side of the complex in 1952 and expanded to the front in the 1990s. This most recent addition, linked into the sanctuary by a short hyphen, incorporates simplified Gothic and Tudor Revival elements into its design, which is compatible with the older building but also clearly a modern addition. The original building may be the work of Staunton architect William M. Collins, of the architectural firm T.J. Collins & Son. In 1923 the firm was commissioned to design a Church and Sunday School Building (denomination not named). By 1924 Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church was under construction, and it was completed in 1925. The church's architectural sophistication suggests the involvement of an experienced designer, probably Collins in this instance, who was working contemporaneously at nearby Fishburne Military Academy. Architect Eldon Wood of the Charlottesville architectural firm Wood, Sweet, & Swofford designed the modern addition to the fellowship hall building, which was built by contractor J.S. Mathers Inc. of Waynesboro (Wells and Dalton, Virginia Architects 96; Daily News Leader , June 17, 1990). N. WAYNE AVENUE