I'm always on the lookout for local historical sites. While driving in western Fairfax County, I spotted one I had not visited previously, the Frying Pan Meeting House. The former Baptist church dates to 1791. People have asked me about the term "meeting house." In colonial Virginia, the Church of England was the established church. Only it could have "churches". Eventually, Dissenters, as they were known in those days, were permitted to hold worship services, but not in churches. So, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers met for their worship in "meeting houses." The term remained popular among many congregations after American Independence. Frying Pan Meeting House was built by a Baptist congregation between 1786 and 1791. Elder Richard Major organized a Baptist congregation at nearby Bull Run in 1775. They petitioned prominent Virginia landowner Robert Carter III,
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