Originally constructed ca. 1882, Bright Hope Baptist Church was established by a Reconstruction Era rural community of freedmen and -women in Louisa County that has survived into the present day. The original sanctuary features vernacular Gothic Revival elements ubiquitous among many of Virginia’s rural African American churches, including lancet-arched windows with wood tracery and a two-story, projecting entry tower with pyramidal-roofed steeple and belfry. The adjacent cemetery remains completely intact and displays a range of marker types from the late 19th to the early 21st century. Bright Hope Baptist Church has served as a community nexus, cultural touchstone, and social center throughout its history. The congregation’s first ordained pastor, Rev. Fountain M. Perkins, was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1869 and played an influential role in Louisa County’s late-19th-century social and political realms, including advocating for the education of Black youth. During the early-to-mid-20th century, the Prince Hall Masons, an African American fraternal organization and outgrowth of the Freemasons, met in the church prior to constructing their own meeting hall nearby. Bright Hope Baptist Church and Cemetery is nominated under the African American Churches in Virginia MPD.