The vestry of Fredericksville Parish commissioned a church for this site in 1745. First known as Middle Church, the wood-frame building was later called Walker's Church. Thomas Jefferson attended the nearby classical school of the Rev. James Maury, who was rector here and is buried in the churchyard. Jefferson served on the parish vestry from 1767 to 1770. Parishioner Judith Page Walker Rives enlisted William Strickland, one of the nation's foremost architects, to design a replacement for the old frame church. The Gothic Revival sanctuary, consecrated by Bishop William Meade as Grace Church in 1855, is Strickland's only known work in Virginia.