A Castlewood church has received grant funding to help preserve the building.
Bundy’s Chapel Church is one of eight projects to receive grant funding from the Department of Historic Resources and the Virginia Board of Historic Resources. The grant, worth $121,000, comes from the Virginia Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Historic Preservation Grant Program.
Bundy’s Chapel Church formed following the Civil War and served the local African-American community as a place of worship and as a school. It formally joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination in 1922.
The General Assembly established the BIPOC Historic Preservation Fund in April 2022 under Virginia Code Section 10.1-2202.5. The purpose of this legislation is to create a grant program to protect and support the Commonwealth’s historically underserved and underrepresented communities as well as the cultural and historical sites associated with them.
The fund will provide grants for the acquisition, protection, and rehabilitation of historic and archaeological sites of significance associated with Virginia’s Black and Indigenous communities and People of Color.
Following a multi-step review process, DHR recommended eight projects for a total of $2,052,650 to the VBHR for approval. This includes seven rehabilitation/stabilization projects and one archaeological data recovery project.
Other organizations receiving funding include the Menokin Foundation in Richmond County; St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of Norfolk; Chatham First in Pittsylvania County; OCR Community Empowerment Group in the City of Petersburg; Reimagining the Reclaimed Pine Grove School in Cumberland County; Restoring and Recovering Tribal Cultural Heritage on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County; and The Morgantown School Project in Fauquier County.
Over the next few months, DHR staff will be conducting initial site visits and meetings with grantees. Applicants who were not selected for funding are encouraged to reapply for the next round, which will open in February 2027.
