In the past year and a half, at least three different Charlottesville congregations have purchased former churches for a permanent place of worship. Now, there is another example.
In January, one non-denominational Christian group purchased a home and a large property on Dairy Road for its growing flock.
The Church in Charlottesville paid $990,000 for 1604 Dairy Rd., a 0.91-acre tract of land with a single-family house built in 1984. The home in the Barracks/Rugby neighborhood previously belonged to one of the church’s members and was sold at about 80 percent of the 2025 assessment.
Last May, the Point Church paid $1.3 million for the Mount Zion Baptist Church on Ridge Street. Renovations for a spring opening are ongoing and the church has hired a campus pastor and an outreach manager. On April 5, the congregation will hold a prayer walk to bless the future of its new Charlottesville campus. It also has places of worship in Waynesboro, Louisa County, and Pantops.
An Anglican congregation, the Church of the Good Shepherd, had been using the Ridge Street Church, but found a new home at 750 Hinton Ave. in December 2023. The group paid $1.5 million to the Methodist church that had been located there since the early 1900s. The previous church that owned the property had planned to build housing units at the location, but the proposal never materialized. The new congregation uses the address 500 Church St.
In September, another non-denominational group took over a church building at 808 Blenheim Ave. that was being marketed as a private home. The Shepherd’s House Worship Center paid $475,000 for a two-story structure that at one point had been the Southside Christian Church. The new church also has a location in Lynchburg.
There are still church services at the Woolen Mills Chapel on East Market Street, but the property itself has been owned since the spring of 2023 by the nonprofit Preservation Piedmont, which was gifted the site by a local foundation.
The official new home of The Church In Charlottesville on Dairy Road is zoned Residential-A but religious assembly is allowed at all of the city’s districts. The congregation has been holding Sunday and Tuesday services at the Dairy Road location.
“You should expect a warm welcome and to meet some joyful Christians,” reads a section of the group’s website. “We love to sing with our heart to the Lord and to speak to one another in psalms and hymns.”
Building rules are slightly different in Albemarle County, where a special use permit is needed if you want to build a church on land zoned residential. On March 19, supervisors approved a permit allowing Charlottesville Community Church to proceed with construction of a 500-seat place of worship on undeveloped land next to the Avinity Estates neighborhood, off of Route 20. That congregation currently gathers nearby at Mountain View Elementary School.
The Church in Charlottesville now owns this property on Dairy Road, where the congregation has already been meeting. Supplied photo.
