An early free Black settlement south of Aldie, remembered through its church on New Mountain Road.
History
Bowmantown is one of the Alliance’s vanished villages, and its Alliance page carries no text yet. Thomas Balch Library’s survey of Loudoun’s African American communities places it south of Aldie and counts it among the county’s oldest Black communities, settled in the early 1800s by free Black families, many of them Bowmans and Nappers.
Faith and schooling grew together here. Baptists raised a log church called Mt. Pleasant in 1875 on a site overlooking the Bull Run valley, then replaced it with a larger frame church in 1887 that still stands on New Mountain Road. The church doubled as the public school until a separate schoolhouse was built in 1891; after that building burned, a new one followed sometime between 1898 and 1909.
Many men worked on the big farms around Aldie and Middleburg, while women kept house, took day work and tended gardens whose harvest was shared among neighbors. Neal Corum ran the community store for 46 years beginning in 1931. Loudoun County still lists Bowmantown as a Rural Historic Village, grouped with nearby Stewartown in its Aldie Mountain planning area.
Rides through Bowmantown
- The plains loop to landmark school and beyondMar 31, 2012 · 48.3 mi
- Another mixed rough ride on Van BoogieMay 20, 2012 · 31.7 mi
- Around the mountain and over Bust Head gravel rideJun 5, 2023 · 30.6 mi
- Thumbs-up Thursday Lunch Ride on a Perfect Fall Weather DayOct 12, 2023 · 41.9 mi
- 2024 farewell ride… Sunny December ridingDec 30, 2024 · 24.9 mi
- Valhalla Farms loopAug 3, 2025 · 33.5 mi
From our rides near Bowmantown
Sources: Loudoun Historic Village Alliance – Bowmantown (page has no content) · Thomas Balch Library / loudounhistory.org – African American Communities · Loudoun County – Rural Historic Villages Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Ride counts from our own Strava and Ride with GPS logs, 2009–2026.
