Finding the Famous White House
The photograph that changed everything.
I cannot think of a better subject to begin the documentation of our travels than the following. Thanks to Lewis Peyton Little and the Photographic Technology of the 1930’s we have this photo of the old white house that James Ireland describes in his autobiography (The Life of Reverend James Ireland). This old, grainy, and blurry photo captivated my attention for nearly a decade since I first stumbled upon it in the pages of a book called Imprisoned preachers and religious liberty in Virginia. In short (and I do mean short), it was the only building that was still standing where the Old Baptist Preacher James Ireland had preached over 230 years ago. It was here that an entire Mennonite congregation was converted and reconstituted under the preaching of those Old Virginia Baptists. A true working of God… This is what drew LP Little to search it out and photograph it for us.
In 2021 when my family and I decided to spend our Spring break restoring our Patriotism, which was desperately needed after the 2020 Clown Show, we ventured out to the land that our countrymen seemed to have forgotten, Old Virginia. Without a real plan in mind, I had Imprisoned preachers and religious liberty in Virginia book to guide us, and Guide us it did.
We went to several monuments and plaques and forgotten locations around Richmond area, opening this book and reading about these men that seemed to have faded from History. As our week-long adventure drew to a close, I chanced upon the very same page in the book that had guided us on this trip, I was gripped once again by the faded, grainy photograph taken by the WW1 Chaplain Lewis Peyton Little nearly a century ago…
It is hard to put into words, but at that moment it was like that photograph was calling out to us, saying the same thing that it had been saying for the past 10 years “Where is this white house, and is it still standing today?“. Thankfully, not only did the Author and Historian LP Little take a photo but he also had drawn out a map…
Imprisoned Preachers and Religious Liberty in Virginia:
Lewis Peyton Little drew out this Map in his book. The map was drawn out in hopes that it would be of some utility for others to find the house as he did.
It is difficult to discern exactly what is being depicted in this given drawing. However, what we can see is that the church was situated along the banks of the Shenandoah River, and was in Page County Virginia. With this in mind, we turned to the ever-reliable Google Earth and began overlaying it with the LP Little drawing, tracking the sinuous curves of the river in Page County. We found a match… This brought us to Luray, Virginia.
Our Hearts were in our throats at every bend in the road. Would we see the White House, or would we see a grassy field where the tabernacle of God’s people once stood? Would this bit of history be a tangible object that we could touch and feel with our own hands, or would it be one more lost Landmark in History, discarded like everything else that America had lost in the past year?
This was the entire reason we set out on this trip, to begin with. We wanted to restore within our hearts what had been trampled down in 2020. The God of our Fathers is still the God of this generation. The divine entity that our forefathers worshipped is still the same deity that governs our generation. If only we could locate and confirm the existence of the monument to our legacy, it would help us retain the sense of our ancestral heritage. This sense of connection may provide us with the necessary impetus to move forward, with the optimistic outlook that only God and His timeless History can offer.
We crossed the bridge spanning the Shenandoah… and there it stood… in all Its glory.
We found the White House.
As we approached the beautiful yet dilapidated building, the day had been rainy, and it seemed in the moment that our eyes locked onto the white house, the sun broke through the clouds. A tangible link to our past and a powerful source of inspiration for our future stood before us.
We realized that this journey had been about so much more than just finding a photograph. The building still stands, for how much longer I don’t truly know. Its once sturdy structure now stood weakened and fragile, its walls bending under the weight of time. In the face of this decay, there was something undeniably beautiful - a testament to the strength and resilience of our History.
We hold Religious Liberty dear today, but they may be lost to us tomorrow if we do not take action to preserve and fortify their foundations. The burden of this responsibility falls squarely on our shoulders - we must work tirelessly to ensure that our liberties endure, that they remain a beacon of hope for generations to come.
We knew that with the divine guidance of the God of our fathers, and the timeless wisdom of our shared History, we could overcome any obstacle and emerge victorious in the struggle to maintain our Religious Liberty.
The White House, more than an old building. A message of warning.
Let us not allow our freedoms to become mere illusions, fleeting shadows of a bygone era. Let us instead take up the mantle of responsibility and fight for the preservation of our liberties, for ourselves, and for those who will come after us.
This Print hangs in our home and in our church. It reminds our family daily that we are it. We are the ones whom coming generations will either thank or a curse. We will stand in the gap and preserve not only our nation’s Principles but its Godly Heritage.
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