By Yasu Shinozaki
The neighborhood of Preston Heights is deeply linked to the legacy of one man: Charles Hunter Brown. Brown was one of the first Black contractors in the Charlottesville area and built many of the houses in the neighborhood located between Preston and Grady avenues. He also built Holy Temple Church of God, located on the corner of 12th Street and Rosser Avenue, where he served as pastor for decades.
The church has been an important fixture in the Preston Heights community since it opened its doors in 1947, providing a place of worship to countless parishioners, a community to Black UVA students, and meals to neighborhood families.
But in recent years, a lack of maintenance has caused parts of the building to fall into disrepair. Leaks have created substantial water damage in the basement and attic. The building needs a new roof and water remediation.
Brown’s daughter, Angie Jefferson, is administrator of the church, and she’s started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the renovations, with a goal of $75,000.
To Jefferson, the preservation of the church is linked to the survival of the Preston Heights neighborhood amidst threats of gentrification and redevelopment.
She describes Preston Heights as the “last true African American neighborhood in Charlottesville,” saying it is one of the few places in town where many Black families have long ties, some going back three generations.
The neighborhood is still predominantly Black, but the majority of houses that were once owned by Black residents have been acquired by LLCs. Silk Purse Properties LLC owns every structure on one side of Rosser Avenue except for two houses and Holy Temple church, according to Charlottesville tax data.
C.H. Brown was born in 1907 in Proffit, Virginia. He was one of 13 children and received little formal education. He worked for a time in the kitchen of a downtown restaurant—but Brown wanted a different career, and started working in carpentry.
“We’re talking about a period when there wasn’t much in Charlottesville for Black men to do, except maybe sweep the floor or clean somebody’s house or something,” Jefferson says. “So for him to have those kinds of aspirations said a lot about who he was.”
C.H. Brown’s company built countless houses in Charlottesville, at least half a dozen churches in the surrounding counties, and numerous commercial buildings. Brown is credited with allowing many African Americans in Charlottesville to become homeowners.
Church Clerk Clinton Johnson says Holy Temple’s construction was remarkable for another reason: The ground beneath it is solid rock, and Brown had to use dynamite to excavate the foundation.
“I’ve heard that they didn’t believe that church would ever be built because Reverend Brown built that church on a boulder of some sort,” Johnson says. “So to me, it also had a Christian outlook that … on this rock he would build this church and the gates of hell would not prevail. So when other preachers and people were coming by and saying that there was no way he was going to bless that rock and build a church on it, he proved them wrong.”
C.H. Brown’s son, Ralph Brown, is the pastor at Holy Temple, and runs the C.H. Brown Christian Center, which is dedicated to continuing his father’s legacy through mission work and preservation. Ralph is also attempting to protect his dad’s work by law—in early 2021, he filed to make six houses built by his father and the Holy Temple church a historical preservation district. But he needs the consent of property owners, and the buildings keep changing hands.
Ralph Brown and Johnson stress the importance of C.H. Brown’s legacy as a pastor, as well as a contractor. Johnson says that when Brown was preaching, sometimes every parking spot would be taken on Rosser Avenue, as well as nearby sections of Grady and Preston.
The doors to the church were always left unlocked when her father was pastor there, Jefferson says. The building served as a place of solace for community members.
“Before my dad passed in 1996, he spent a lot of time in the church,” she says. “And so people knew they could always find him there. Women who had been abused, children who had run away from home, there were a myriad of situations where people came to the church.”
While its congregation has waned over the years, Holy Temple is still an important meeting place in the community. Ralph Brown serves free meals twice a month at the church.
But he is concerned that the purchase of nearby properties by outside firms makes the neighborhood vulnerable to redevelopment. He also fears lack of home ownership will lead to community members having less of a say in local politics.
“Unless you’re a property owner,” Ralph says, “you can’t move the needle a whole lot about what can and cannot be done.”