Location & History
20460 Gleedsville Road, Leesburg, VA 20175
Located three miles south of the Leesburg town limits and approximately one mile north of Oatlands Plantation, this historic building was constructed in the 1880’s. Gleedsville Road runs parallel to Route 15 and Evergreen Mills Road. The main chapel is accessible by ramp.
Dedicated in 1890, Mt. Olive Methodist Episcopal Church was built by freed people from nearby Oatlands Plantation. The building served as a religious facility, a meeting place for mutual aid societies, and the center of community life.
The area where the building now stands was known in the late 19th century as Gleedsville, named after Jack Gleed, one of the first of the freed to purchase land in the vicinity. In the 25 years between the end of the Civil War and the dedication of the church, a small group of newly freed African-Americans found work, legally married, voted, bought land, built homes, accumulated property, educated their children and established a town. But during the next twenty-five years, which brought the adoption of Jim Crow laws, Gleedsville fell on hard times. Finally many of the original families left the area searching for better opportunities. By the mid-20th century, Gleedsville disappeared as a town, leaving this structure as a symbol of the dreams and ambitions of people who had served in bondage at the nearby plantation.
In 1998 UUCL purchased the structure and adjacent lot. Another lot was acquired in 2004. Shortly thereafter, a UUCL member documented the building’s historical significance and nominated it for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, which it earned in 2005.
Since then UUCL has become a partner with Oatlands Plantation in the project “Reclaim Your History.” This is an ongoing effort to identify the descendants of the enslaved population on Oatlands and document family histories. We also support the Friends of the Balch Library Black History Committee and are a stop on their Semi-Annual Loudoun County Black History Tour.
In April 2015, Oatlands and UUCL each dedicated a marker on the Virginia Civil War Trail, both of which highlighted the contribution of the enslaved population. The marker at UUCL honors one of the founders of the Mt. Olive Methodist Episcopal Church, Martin VanBuren Buchanan, who left Oatlands to serve in the 2nd Regiment U.S. Colored Infantry in Washington, D.C. Many descendants attended and shared their story.
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March 31, 1991: our Congregational Covenant is signed.
“Love is the spirit of this church. The quest for truth is its sacrament. To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in freedom, and to help our neighbor: to these ends we covenant one with another to form the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun, this thirty-first day of March, 1991.”
October 1991: meet in the Loudoun Museum in Leesburg for approximately 2 years with 25 families.
1991 – 1998: move several times employing a student minister and then a part-time minister.
1998: purchase the Gleedsville road building and south parking lot from Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church of Leesburg.
2003: hire our first consulting religious educator
2004: purchase the north lot from Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church
2005-2006: complete the “Welcoming Congregation” process and vote
2009: hire our first administrator
2015: the congregation votes unanimously to approve the Covenant of Loving Relations
2016: receive a $20,000 grant from UUA Chalice Lighters to construct a second exit bringing the building capacity from 49 to 77.
2017: Rev. Alice King is hired as half-time minister
2018: the north parking lot is graded as a charitable donation from William A. Hazel, Inc.
2019: launch “Share the Plate” initiative; mortgage is paid off.
March 2020: services online due to COVID
May 2022: resume one worship service in-person and online