Truckin' on the Western Branch

Grove Church From 1840 to 1866 the black members of Churchland Baptist, although still considered church members there, met in their own building on the corner of Churchland Boulevard and West Norfolk Road. Churchland Baptist built the black sanctuary on ground donated by church member, Elizabeth Wright. One white pastor served both churches because, Coleman said, when five or more slaves gathered, they were required by law to have one or more white persons present.

Rev. Melvin Marriner, the current pastor of Grove, has heard that the church was named Grove Baptist for a grove of trees around the original church.

“There are also a few graves on the property, including a slave grave of “Steven—slave to A. J. Wise,” Marriner said. “Although the Wise name is well known, Steven’s last name, if he had one, is lost forever and no one knows who he was.”

By 1866 attendance at Grove Baptist, no longer legally required, had dropped from 1,000 to 150. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the church launched a search for a black minister and found Rev. Thomas Warrington. They paid him $200 a year with an increase of $30 after a year.

Rev. Melvin O. Marriner. Image by Sheally

In 1889 Grove organized a mission church, First Baptist Church, in West Norfolk. Three years later they organized Little Grove Baptist in the Huntersville section of Suffolk because bears threatened parishioners as they walked the distance to services at Grove. In 1924 then-pastor B. B. Williams was stricken ill while performing a baptism service in the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River near the foot of the Churchland Bridge. He died three months later. His successor, Dr. D. B. Mdodona, an African native, was also principal of the black Churchland elementary school where his wife was teaching.

In March 1953 faulty electrical wiring caused a fire that destroyed Grove Baptist. Nancy Harwood Garrett, then a sophomore at Churchland High, remembered being in biology class.

“The classroom was on the front of the school, and we could see the fire from the window,” she said “ I believe it was Grove Baptist, and all the boys from the high school were turned loose to fight the fire.”

Carolyn Loney Taylor was in seventh grade at the black Churchland school and said, “We had no phones in the school, but neighbors came to tell us. We left school to walk up and watch the fire. It was a sad day for us. The church building had been used for everything, and the church encompassed all the neighborhoods.” The congregation held services in the Churchland Pentecostal Holiness Church while members and other community residents raised $89,000 to build a new church. Boy Scouts manned donation buckets in front of the church, and Churchland Baptist members signed pledges to support the new church that was completed in 1955. Today Grove serves 6,000 members, 5,100 of which are active according to Marriner.

Grove expanded its ministry into several buildings on West Norfolk Road and in 2004 acquired 33 acres of land at 4745 W. Norfolk Road and has launched plans for its development.

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