Church History
The church bears the name of Berry Hill taken from the Berry Hill Plantation. There had been a church on the site of the Berry Hill Plantation for at least 150 years prior to the building of the church that we worship in today. In 1814the owners of the Berry Hill estate built the first church as a place of worship for their slaves. Rev. Stephen Taylor was the first minister to preach there in around the year 1814. In 1814 James Coles Bruce purchased Berry Hill Plantation and continued to have a minister preach to his slaves in that church. After the Civil War, however, the African Americanpeople remaining on the plantation did not attend the church regularly because there were other black churches being established for them in this area. Therefore, the building fell into disrepair. Sometime in the late 1800s, it was torn down by Alexander Bruce (then the owner of the plantation).
About 1900, Bruce’s wife (Mary Evelyn Anderson Bruce) had a new church built, the building that we worship in
today. Members of the Bruce family gave a marble plaque in her memory and as a testimony of her life; that plaque is on the back wall of the sanctuary.
Berry Hill Church, also called Bruce’s Chapel, remained the property of the Bruce family until March 17, 1949,
when the title was transferred to the Trustees of First Presbyterian Church of South Boston, VA, by Walter Coles Bruce and other members of the family.
On December 4, 1949, members of the Berry Hill community petitioned Roanoke Presbytery to organize a church at Berry Hill as soon as the way was clear. According to Presbytery minutes, a commission was set up to install Reverend John S. Brown as Pastor of the newly organized Berry Hill Church. The installation date was March 12, 1950.
On September 1, 1950, First Presbyterian Church gave the church to the Trustees of the newly organized Berry
Hill Presbyterian Church. During Rev. John Brown’s pastorate, Sunday School rooms were added to the back of the church (in the early 1950s). Fellowship Hall was added in 1976. History provided by Lynwood Ladd and Faye Tuck (with updates added).
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Berry Hill became a member of the New River Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church on May 3, 2025.