Hungar’s Church, Shorter’s Chapel A.M.E. Church, and Bridgetown Elementary School

About

The Hungars Cure Parish is made up of two Episcopal churches on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Christ Church is in Eastville and Hungars Church is in Bridgetown. "Cure" is an old English term. Basically, it defines a church partnership in which a rector serves two or more churches.

Prior to the Revolution the interior of Hungars church was very handsomely furnished. Many of the furnishings were gifts from Queen Anne and everything was brought over from England. They were of the highest quality. Only fragments remained; in the antagonism to everything English after the Revolution it was pillaged.

Bridgetown Elementary School, now Shorter’s Chapel

Shorter’s Chapel A.M.E. Church was built on the foundation of Bridgetown Elementary School, one of the first African American schools established by the Freedman’s Bureau after the Civil War in 1867. The school gifted the building and land to Shorter’s Chapel in 1896.

Shorter’s Chapel was organized in 1870 by Reverend John H. Offer, the first Black Methodist minister on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It was named for the African Methodist Episcopal Bishop James A. Shorter.

Information from the Revolutionary Shore Driving Tour