Covering approximately 11,500 acres of countryside in central Clarke County, the Chapel Rural Historic District contains well-preserved residences and affiliated buildings such as smokehouses, springhouses, garages, sheds, and summer kitchens, alongside commercial and institutional ones. This varied collection of buildings date from the mid-18th-century to the mid-20th-century and demonstrate a variety of uses and styles—from plantation houses to modest vernacular dwellings—over a period of more than 200 years. The Chapel Rural Historic District, representative of one of the richest farming regions in Virginia, features the Old Chapel—likely the oldest Episcopal church west of the Blue Ridge—and other Episcopal churches, as well as an early-19th-century Baptist church, several late-19th-century African-American churches, and a rare surviving slave chapel. The district also has at least five small historic African American communities—the hamlets of Browntown, Pigeon Hill, Pyletown, Claytonville, and a part of Millwood.