Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church is a new church development of the Presbytery of the James in Virginia, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. The church was organized in August 2001 in Greene County as a way of reaching people with the Good News of Jesus Christ. The church is located on Spring Hill Road in Ruckersville, Virginia on 13 acres of land that was previously part of the Hollywood Farm, owned by the Gilbert Family. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 19, 2003 and construction of a church campus began. The large cast iron bell that once hung on the Gilbert's Hollywood Farm is now suspended in the church steeple.
The Steeple Bell
The church bell originally hung near the farmhouse of Henry Gilbert, on the property the church now occupies. The cast-iron bell was cast by the Baltimore Bell Works in the nineteenth century and was used to call farmhands to meals and to warn of emergencies. A gift to Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church from the former owner, Mrs. Mary Jean (Gilbert) Dickens, this bell now calls people to worship.