Church on the Main

The Powhatan Creek Trail in James City County links to a number of historic sites along its path including the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot Soldier of the American Revolution, the Church on the Main, and Mainland Farm. The path is accessible to walkers, joggers, and bikers.

Less than one mile to the east is the site of the Church on the Main, a brick Anglican church built by the 1750s to serve James City Parish as a replacement for the church on Jamestown Island, which had become difficult for communicants to reach. The Rev. James Madison (1749-1812) was its best-known rector, serving the church from about 1777 until it fell into disuse after the American Revolution and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church. Madison became president of the College of William and Mary (1777-1812) and Virginia's first Episcopal Bishop in 1790. By 1857 all aboveground traces of the church were gone.