Ghost Church

Mechanicsville, Virginia

Built in 1748, Polegreen Church became the first non-Anglican church in Virginia. It was destroyed on June 1, 1864 when a Confederate artilleryman fired a shell into it to dislodge Union sharpshooters. The congregation couldn't afford to rebuilt the church, and its ruins eventually disappeared. A local women's group did erected a small monument on the site in 1929, but Polegreen Church was mostly forgotten.

Then in 2007 architect Carlton Abbott was hired to build a replica "Ghost Church" -- an open-air outline made with steel beams painted white -- on the original foundation, as a tribute to the vanished building. Confused passers-by sometimes think it's a church whose construction was never completed, while others enjoy posing for photos in its invisible doorway, or peering through its ghost windows.