Rock Springs Baptist Church
Peach Bottom, Lancaster County, PA
Built in 1808
Above: Walls of schist and serpentine fieldstone. Roof of Peach Bottom slate.
Above: Historic photo of Rock Springs Baptist Church. Image source LancasterHistory
Built of local fieldstone:
Peters Creek schist, serpentine stone, and Peach Bottom slate:
Above: Local fieldstone: Peters Creek schist, serpentine stone, Peach Bottom slate.
The Church on a Geologic Map:
Above: Geologic Map of Pennsylvania, by Berg, Edmonds, Geyer, etc., 1980. (Icon added)
Signed “IK” by a stone maon:
Above: Signed by a stone mason: “IK”.
Above: 1927 drawing by F. M. Taylor.
Description in Our Present Past (1985)
By the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County:
“Rock Springs Baptist Church, Route 22 [Peach Bottom, PA]; west side, south of Route 172, 1808, one story, three bay stone meetinghouse; paneled central gable end entry with four-light transom [current door is a replacement]; central chimney; keystoned stone lintels; 1808 datestone; modified in 1840; may be one of the oldest Baptist meetings in the county.” Our Present Past, page 184, Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County.
Newspaper Article:
”Earnest farmers hauled stones from their fields
to build this haven of their hopes.”
Text above: “It is not hard to imagine the little group of earnest farmers hauling into the haven of their hopes, the stones from their own fields, or the care with which they put the mosaic of its walls together.” 1927 Lancaster Intelligencer
The church roof is Peach Bottom slate. A few tombstones in the churchyard are also of Peach Bottom slate. They are inscribed for Edward Wicks (1798 - 1840) and Martha Wicks ( ? - 1825). Edward Wicks was an English immigrant who had been a member of the Church of England.