This is my photograph of the Jamestown Church with its very Historic Tower.

The First and Second Churches--Captain John Smith reported that the first church services were held outdoors "under an awning (which was an old saile)" fastened to three or four trees. Shortly thereafter the settlers built the first church inside the fort. Smith said it was "a homely thing like a barn set on crachetts, covered with rafts, sedge and earth." This church burned in January, 1608 and was replaced by a second church, similar to the first. Made of wood it needed constant repair. Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married in the second church.

The Third Church--In 1617-1619 when Samuel Argall was Governor, he had the inhabitants of Jamestown build a new church "50 foot long and twenty foot broad." It was a wooden church built on a foundation of cobblestones one foot wide capped by a wall one brick thick. You can see these foundations under the glass on the floor of the present building. The First Assembly was held in the third church.

The Fourth Church With The Tower--In January 1639, Governor John Harvey reported that he, the Council, the ablest planters and some sea captains "had contributed to the building of a brick church" at Jamestown. This church was slightly larger than the third church and was built around it. It was still unfinished in November 1647, when efforts were made to complete it. After it was finished the church tower was added. The tower is the only seventeenth-century building still standing at Jamestown. It is one of the oldest English-built structures in the United States. The tower is slightly over 18 feet square and the walls are three feet thick at the base. Originally the tower was about 46 feet high (ten feet higher than the ruins) and was crowned with a wooden roof and belfry. It had two upper floors as you can see from the large beam notches on the inside. Six small openings at the top permitted light to enter and the sound of the bell or bells to carry across the river and town.