Three historic buildings at the grounds of Warren United Methodist Church formed the center of Martinsburg, a small rural African-American community that flourished after the Civil War. Martinsburg began before the war as a crossroads village with a store, post office, and blacksmith's shop, and after the war free blacks and former slaves bought land and developed a community of 30-40 homesteads. At its center stood three principal institutions: the Warren Methodist Episcopal Church, the one-room Martinsburg Negro School, and the Loving Charity Lodge Hall. The site was purchased on January 22, 1876, for $50. In 1903 the existing church was built at a cost of $150.00 and named for Isaac Warren, a member of the church's first board of trustees. The Martinsburg Negro School was built in 1886, serving grades 1-5 with 40-50 students attending classes, and the Loving Charity Lodge Hall was built in 1914. The Loving Charity Society was founded to provide sick and burial events for free blacks and former slaves who could not purchase this coverage from insurance companies, and the hall also served as a community center for plays, dances, lectures, and the society's organizational activities. Together these three buildings anchored the thriving Martinsburg community and served as the center of religious worship, educational development, and social interaction for local residents.
