Historical highway markers

Windy Cove Presbyterian Church

Historical highway marker Q-13_1 · Bath County

Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, seeking freedom of worship and led by the Rev. Alexander Craighead, built a log meetinghouse a mile and a half down the Cowpasture River about 1749. Indians burned it during the French and Indian War. Moving to this site in the cove, named for a nearby limestone "blowing" cave, the congregation erected another log church in 1766. A third log structure, built about 1816, was replaced in 1838 when the prospering community of river planters and upland farmers built the present brick church and session house. A vestibule was added in 1948, and the rear addition in 1959. Windy Cove is the mother church for Presbyterians in Bath and Highland counties.

Department of Historic Resources, 1993