Capon Chapel

Capon Chapel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
North and west sides of Capon Chapel viewed from the northwest lawn
Capon Chapel Show map of Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia Capon Chapel Show map of West Virginia Capon Chapel Show map of the United States
Location	Christian Church Road (West Virginia Secondary Route 13) Capon Bridge, West Virginia, United States
Coordinates	39°16′12″N 78°26′39″W / 39.27000°N 78.44417°W / 39.27000; -78.44417
Area	0.96 acres (0.39 ha)
Built	c. 1852
Architectural style	Front gable
NRHP reference No.	12001048[1]
Designated	December 12, 2012[1]

Capon Chapel ( /ˈkeɪpən/ KAY-pən), also historically known as Capon Baptist Chapel and Capon Chapel Church, is a mid-19th century United Methodist church located near to the town of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, in the United States. Capon Chapel is one of the oldest existing log churches in Hampshire County, along with Mount Bethel Church and Old Pine Church.

A Baptist congregation was gathering at the site of the present-day church by at least 1756. Primitive Baptist minister John Monroe (1750–1824) is credited for establishing a place of worship at this site; he is interred in the church's cemetery. The land on which Capon Chapel was built originally belonged to William C. Nixon (1789–1869), a member of the Virginia House of Delegates; later, it was transferred to the Pugh family. The first documented mention of a church at the Capon Chapel site was in March 1852, when Joseph Pugh allocated the land to three trustees for the construction of a church and cemetery.

During the early years of Capon Chapel, no Protestant denomination was the exclusive owner or occupant, and the church was probably utilized as a "union church" for worship by any Christian denomination. Capon Chapel was used as a place of worship by Baptists until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the 1890s, Capon Chapel was added as a place of worship on the Capon Bridge Methodist circuit of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church. As of 2017, Capon Chapel remains a Methodist church, now a part of the United Methodist Church, holding Methodist services four Sundays per month at 1pm. Open table communion is held on the first Sunday of each month. Capon Chapel also maintains a daily devotion hotline.

Capon Chapel's cemetery is surrounded by a wrought iron fence made by Stewart Iron Works, and contains the remains of John Monroe, William C. Nixon, West Virginia House of Delegates member Captain David Pugh (1806–1899), American Civil War veterans from the Union and the Confederacy, and free and enslaved African Americans. Capon Chapel, along with its cemetery, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 2012, in recognition of its representation of the rural religious architecture of the Potomac Highlands region, and for its service as an important rural church in Hampshire County.