Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

There are no restrictions on the files.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The records at the Falls Church History Room were donated by Melvin Steadman. The two scrapbooks of (Merton) Elbridge Church were donated by Henry Douglas.

M. E. Church's records were donated to the University of Virginia Library in 1988 by Beverley T. Steadman. This is the link to the guide to the papers at UVA: https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu02223.xml

Biographical Note

Merton Elbridge Church (M.E. Church) trained as a pharmacist and ran a drugstore in Falls Church for 12 years. He helped start the first telephone company in the area which was later absorbed by the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company. He also organized the Arlington and Fairfax Railway Company. He entered the real estate and insurance business and helped develop the Sherwood Subdivision. These are just a few of the many accomplishments and community services he was involved in throughout his life.

Merton Elbridge Church was born in Derby Line, Vermont, on February 14, 1858. He moved to Virginia in 1879 and settled in Falls Church in 1886. He married Carrie Bell Northrup in 1884, and they had two children, Guy Northrup Church and Maybelle Amelia Church. M.E. Church died on September 16, 1931 in Falls Church; Carrie Church died on May 31, 1935.

Guy N. Church, Sr., was born July 26, 1889 and died April 7, 1964. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He married Mary Emilie Torryson on September 28, 1909. They had two children: Merton Elbridge Church (known as Elbridge and Guy Northrup Church, Jr. (went by Northrup).

Maybelle Amelia Church, born on January 26, 1900, married Kenneth Norman Mills in 1923. There are no files for her, but she is mentioned in correspondence with both her father and brother.

[Merton] Elbridge Church II was born January 5, 1912 in Falls Church, and died August 26, 1992. He is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He served in the Army for twenty years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Guy Northrup Church, Jr., was born April 3, 1914 in Falls Church. He was married to Mary Ann Redington on March 29, 1939. Guy died on December 30, 1995, in Evans, Georgia; Mary Ann died on March 26, 2004.

Scope and Content

Most of the records involve the real estate business of Merton Elbridge (M.E.) Church, the bulk of which include copies of deeds in which M.E. Church was the trustee, buyer and/or seller. There are also files on his interests in local railways and the Falls Church Telephone and Telegraph Company. Also includes files for son and grandsons.

Most of the records involve the real estate business of M.E. Church, the bulk of which include copies of deeds in which M.E. Church was the trustee, buyer and/or seller. There are also files on his interests in local railways and the Falls Church Telephone and Telegraph Company.

Of special interest are the abstracts of title in the deed series, especially File 10 in Series 2 which shows the disposition of the property that became the Sherwood subdivision. There are also some copies of deeds concerning the Sherwood Subdivision in File 6-6-1-27.

Arrangement

The files were divided into five series, two for Merton Elbridge Church, one for his son (Guy Northrup Church, Sr.) and two for his grandsons. Series one is organized alphabetically. The deeds in M.E. Church's files were placed in a separate series (Series 2) and organized by date. Many of them involve the Sherwood Subdivision of houses in Falls Church. This new arrangement was thought to be more useful to the researcher.

The files on Guy Church, Sr., are arranged alphabetically. Pages from a scrapbook make up the bulk of the Merton Elbridge Church (grandson) files; there is only one file for Guy Church, Jr.