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A church built by descendants of freed slaves and Native Americans is approaching its 130th anniversary in McLean, even as preservationists work to restore the sanctuary and expand its role as a center for local Black and Native American history.
Led by Samuel Sharper, free people of color completed Pleasant Grove Church on Lewinsville Road in 1896. The congregation included people with connections to the Pamunkey, Wampanoag of Nantucket and Tauxenent communities, according to Michelle Arcari Rose, board president of The Friends of Historic Pleasant Grove.
The Carpenter Gothic building, distinguished by proportioned gables and stained-glass windows, closed in 1968. Development threatened it with demolition by 1983, when the nonprofit Friends organization stepped in to preserve the former church, its grounds and its history.
Rose described Pleasant Grove’s history as one of survival. Today, the organization maintains the site and interprets the experiences of the families who worshiped there.
A museum beneath the sanctuary
The church’s lower level has been transformed into the Frances K. Moore Memorial Museum. Rose believes it may be Fairfax County’s largest museum space focused on African American and Native American history.
New lighting, interpretive displays and signs now accompany photographs of parishioners and local families. Exhibits trace the church’s history, the community that built it and the effort that prevented its destruction.
Rose called the preservation effort “a kind of happy story.”
Bernard Boston’s remarkable legacy
A featured exhibition highlights Bernard Boston, an African-Native American photojournalist who belonged to the congregation and became the first African-Native American White House press photographer.
Boston photographed every president from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton. His best-known image, the 1967 photograph “Flower Power,” shows a Vietnam War protester placing a daisy into the rifle of a military policeman.
The retrospective, presented in partnership with the McLean Community Center and McLean Project for the Arts, includes personal photographs of Boston with presidents as well as examples of his professional work. The exhibition runs through Feb. 24.
Boston’s connection to Pleasant Grove extended well beyond Sunday services. He photographed families and babies in the congregation, helped save the building when it faced destruction in the 1980s and was buried in the church cemetery.
A costly restoration lies ahead
With the 130th anniversary of Pleasant Grove’s first service arriving in July 2026, the Friends are turning their attention toward restoring the sanctuary to its original 1896 appearance.
The organization is raising money for a new roof and replacement stained-glass windows. Each window is expected to cost about $9,000.
Only two original windows remain—one over the door and another in the rear gable. The others were auctioned decades ago. Although their current locations remain uncertain, surviving photographs could guide the creation of accurate reproductions.
“We’d love to bring the windows back, and if we can’t get them back, recreate them and replace them,” Rose said.
The nonprofit hopes grants and corporate sponsorships will help finance the work. It also wants Pleasant Grove to become a regular destination for Virginia school groups, with programs connecting the site’s history to the state’s social studies curriculum.
The anniversary comes a century after Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in February 1926. That observance later developed into Black History Month, the annual celebration of African American life, culture and history.