With the crumbling brick church, barbed wire fence, fog rolling in -- it's a great photo!

Some of my ancestors came to Jamestown in 1635. They must have worshiped in this church.

I understand why the fences are around this important historical site. Yet I find the image of a church in a fence like this to be odd and provocative. I am thinking of assembling a series of photographs of churches literally or at least visually constrained, fenced in, or enclosed by their environments. It's a very poignant image, at least to me.

A beautiful photograph, too, with the church, fences, and trees leading us off into the mist of the James River. Very expressive.

The original Jamestown Fort would be in this picture, too except of course that they didn't know where it had been at the time. However, between the pier in the background and the church lies the site of the first permanent English Colony in the new world, home to John Smith, John Rolfe, Lord De La Ware, Rebecca Rolfe (nee Pocahontas), etc. In this spot (actually, in the spot that the shed stands, exactly), the first meeting of the House of Burgesses occurred, the first democratic government in the new world, and the foundation and ancestor of our own government. Predates those upstarts at Plymouth Rock the Northerners go on about by 15 years.

Quite an important feat for such a little building.

My ancestors were Jamestown founders. I imagine some of them worshiped here. I wonder if it is still there. Anyone know? (apparently it is, according to Google)

Anyone know what the signs say. I can't read any of them. (thanks!)

"This 1639 church tower was one of the few remnants of the Jamestown Settlement visible in the 1890s, when the picture was taken"

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_jamestwn_1.html

Interesting that it was owned by the APVA back then; they still own the property today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifein2x3/2284101333/in/set-721576016956372...

That's what the site looked like in 2008; the church is center of the frame. It's since been reconstructed around what remained of the tower.

The first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly met in response to orders from the Virginia Company "to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia" which would provide "just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting."

This tower dates to the 17th century and still stands today (some of it anyway). Here's a link (read under "The Fourth Church"):
http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=386