virginiacities

Today's #VirginiaCities feature: Blandford Church in Petersburg, VA by @embetts3_photo

📍 Blandford Church & Cemetery, Petersburg, VA

History, artistry and centuries of stories on Petersburg’s highest hill 🍂

✨ Did you know?

👉 Blandford Church was built in the 1730s and is Petersburg’s oldest building.

👉 After a new church opened downtown in the early 1800s, Blandford was abandoned and became an ivy-covered ruin for decades.

👉 Today it’s famous for its Tiffany stained-glass windows, made by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio and installed between 1904 and 1912.

👉 The cemetery’s oldest marked grave dates all the way back to 1702.

👉 British Major General William Phillips died in Petersburg during the Revolutionary War in 1781. Benedict Arnold had him buried secretly at night in the churchyard, and his grave was never marked.

👉 Petersburg is one of several places that claim a role in the origins of Memorial Day. In 1868, Mary Logan, the wife of a Union general, saw graves here decorated with flowers and flags, and she shared the idea with her husband.

🕯️ A beautiful and atmospheric spot to visit this fall 🎃

#BlandfordChurch #BlandfordCemetery #PetersburgVA #HistoricPetersburg #TiffanyGlass #StainedGlass #VirginiaHistory #HauntedVirginia #VirginiaIsForLovers