Little Fork Church Notes From History – November 9, 2023
Notes from History No. 12, Where is Oak Shade
Today when asked where Oak Shade is one might think of the little Methodist Church at the corner of Monumental Mills Road and Rixeyville Road. The building was consecrated on August 23rd 1896 as St. Mark’s Chapel by Episcopal Bishop John B. Newton and built for the congregation of Little Fork because the large brick church was too hard to heat during the winter months. See Church Timeline 1895-97. The Chapel was sold to the Methodist in February of 1957.
Oak Shade road currently begins from Rixeyville road just south of Sheads Mountain road and continues South to Little Fork Church where the Hamlet of Oakshade was then heads East to what is named Ryland Chapel road but was Green’s Mill road in the 1700’s. A topographic map of the Warrenton area published in 1927 for the highway department showing the proposed route of the new county byway 229 showing how Oak Shade became a back road instead of a main thoroughfare.
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By the records found online Oak Shade Post Office existed from 1837 thru 1906 but probably existed before that. In 1837 the Post Office Department had no official map maker so they reached out to each office with a questionnaire to prepare maps for official use. The October 8th 1868 questionnaire completed by J Jeffries for Oak Shade refers to * Its local name as “Brick Church” In the footnote *If the town, village, or site of the Post Office, be known locally by another name than that of the Post Office, state that other name here, that it may be identified on any published map of the State (or Territory), if any appearing thereon. Population supplied was listed as 200 households.
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