Church historians contend that the congregation of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Albemarle County was founded in 1879 by individuals who were formerly enslaved at nearby plantations of the Brown family, the namesake of the county’s rural Brown’s Cove region. The current church, built in 1908 and expanded in the latter half of the 20th century to include a chancel and fellowship hall, is locally distinguished for its historic role as a cultural and social center for a rural African American community in Brown’s Cove starting in the early 1900s. The Mount Carmel Baptist Church and Cemetery is listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register under the African American Churches in Virginia Multiple Property Document.