Chapel Springs: A History

THE CHURCHES AT OLD CHAPEL SPRING* The Anglican Dettingen Parish’s Broad Run Chapel occupied this site from 1745 to 1758 until a new church was built on Slaty Run at Old Church Road. Though abandoned, the “Old Chapel,” as it was identified, remained a landmark as the area’s road network developed.

John Wood’s 1820 map located a “White Chapel” at Brentsville Road and the present Nokesville Road, and A. P. Williams located the “Old Chapel Spring” on his 1824 map immediately adjacent to where Wood had placed the chapel.

An 1854 estate sale advertisement for this property in the Alexandria Gazette described the Chapel Spring as “a never-failing stream of excellent pure water.”

The historical and spiritual significance of the Chapel Spring inspired Manassas Assembly of God, having relocated here in 2000, to rename their church Chapel Springs Assembly of God in 2013.

Chapel Springs: A History Bristow, Virginia

* This text will be placed on a county historical marker near the site of the Spring.

One church.

Multiple locations. chapelsprings.org Central Office | 11500 New Life Way | Bristow, VA 20136 | 703-368-2895

www.chapelsprings.org

Serving Prince William County for Over 75 Years

C

hapel Springs Church was born in 1936 at the Dixie Theatre in Old Town Manassas during the Great Depression. The community of people who met there to worship and follow Jesus Christ called themselves Manassas Full Gospel Church.

Less than a year later, the congregation moved to the corner of Maple and Quarry streets in Manassas, where they continued to grow.

The name was changed to Manassas Assembly of God in the 1960s. A later move took the church to

Plantation Lane in Manassas in 1979, and then another move brought the church to its current 150acre home in Bristow in 2001.

In 2013 as the church began to open new branches in other communities, they once again changed their name, this time to Chapel Springs Assembly of God Church. A name replete with spiritual significance, Chapel Springs has deep roots in local history.

Photo, above: Manassas Full Gospel Church Pastor R. J. Hancock baptizing a family in Broad Run (right across the street from Chapel Springs Church) in April 1957.

History of Chapel Springs

H

istorical records document the existence of a freshwater spring and a colonial-era church on our Bristow campus property.

In the mid-1700s, this property was the site of the Anglican Broad Run Chapel.

An 1824 map of the area

by A. P. Williams provides early documentation of the freshwater spring. An 1820 map of Prince William County drawn by John Wood is one of the earliest known depictions of the church, by then known as the “White Chapel.”

The church and the spring together served as a local landmark as the area became developed, hence the name Chapel Springs Road for the small thoroughfare which borders the church property.

The December 4, 1854, edition of the Alexandria Gazette contains an advertisement for the sale of a parcel of land on which the Springs are situated.

The tract was described as “249 acres situated near Bristoe Station with a dwelling house, good soil, sufficient wood and water with the Chapel Spring supplying a never-failing stream of excellent pure water.”

Says Senior Pastor Scott Leib, “‘A never-failing stream of excellent pure water.’ What a perfect description for a freshwater spring, but also for a church. That advertisement perfectly captures our desire to provide people a never-failing source of life and hope through Jesus.”

Pastor Scott adds, “Throughout the Bible, springs are a powerful metaphor for new life. And new life is what we seek to bring to our community—by serving those in need, by creating space for close relationships in this hectic part of the world, and, most of all, by helping people come to know Jesus Christ.”

Pastor Scott Leib baptizing a congregant in March 2012 at Chapel Springs - Bristow.