Lot's of people have asked us the history of St. Andrews. To make sure I have the dates right, I picked this up at the Church yesterday.

We are not members of this church. But we have fallen in love with the place and the people. We do as much as we can to help them out. Why? Because they are trying to do sooooo much for this mt community.

The history of this place is amazing. The following is copied from the St. Andrew's Welcoming Brochure. Please take time to read it. Together, with St. Andrew's, we can help make our community a great place with lots of activities for the kids.

These people are amazing!!

In 1886 a group of young men from Zion Church in Charles Town, built a raft and crossed the Shenandoah River, climbed the Blue Ridge Mountain, and started a Sunday School for the folks "shut off from the rest of the state".

In the early days, the Rev. Dallas Tucker ferried the Shenandoah by raft and horseback to conduct these services.

Through their efforts a chapel was built in 1889, which took the name of St. Andrew's On-the-Mount.

In 1903 a worker's residence was built, now known as the Mountain Community Center {MCC}, and the original stone parish house was built in 1904.

The MCC has been used as a mission day school, public school, community center that served as a clearing house for jobs, clothing and simple medical aid, a teaching and training center, and orphanage.

By 1952 the influence of the mission declined and the mission was closed in 1957.

It was reopened in 1961 through diligent efforts of Retired Admiral George Cooper who had built his retirement home along the banks of the Shenandoah River.

From 1961 until 1970 when central heat was installed, St. Andrew's held services only during the summer months.

In 1970 the Diocesan Convention restored St. Andrew's On-the-Mount to an organized mission.

Since then they have held services year round and cotinue to bring the full Gospel message to the people of this area and encourage social service work through the use of the Mountain Community Center.

St. Andrew's is a Church with a vision. Though small in numbers, they are determined to rise to meet the spiritual needs of our community. To that end they are

*Re-introducing the Mountain Community Center as a place for ALL members of our community to meet, learn and socialize.

*Forming a Teen Club for the youth so they can gather, listen to music, dance, play games and socialize in a safe and protected environment with supervision.

* Actively searching for resources so the Community Center can be used as a place to teach classes, share interests, for clubs to meet, and for community service organizations to hold their events and meetings , as well as private parties and family gatherings.

*Creating a lending library for our community.