Petersburg's 1736 church-turned-Confederate memorial holds 30,000 soldiers and 15 Tiffany windows — and an October haunted tour program with a long local reputation.
111 Rochelle Lane, Petersburg, VA 23803
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
General daytime admission approximately $15 per adult; Halloween evening tour pricing varies by year
Access
Wheelchair OK
Cemetery grounds with paved paths; historic church interior accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1736 · Confederate Memorial Shrine — 15 Tiffany Windows · Civil War Field Hospital — Siege of Petersburg · 30,000 Confederate Soldiers Interred · Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864) · National Register of Historic Places
Old Blandford Church was constructed in 1736 to serve the Anglican congregation of the colonial-era town of Blandford, which was later incorporated into Petersburg. The building was used for worship until the parish dissolved around 1806, after which it stood vacant and gradually deteriorated.
The church's most consequential historical moment came during the Civil War. The Siege of Petersburg, which ran from June 9, 1864 to April 2, 1865, was one of the longest siege operations of the war. The Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864 — in which Union engineers detonated a massive mine beneath Confederate lines, killing approximately 278 Confederate soldiers in the explosion and the chaotic fighting that followed — created mass casualties that were treated in the immediate vicinity of the church. Blandford Church served as a Confederate field hospital during this period.
After the war, the Ladies Memorial Association of Petersburg undertook a systematic commemoration of the Confederate dead buried in the adjacent cemetery, which holds the graves of approximately 30,000 Confederate soldiers from across the South. Beginning in 1901, the association commissioned Tiffany Studios of New York to create memorial stained-glass windows — one from each of the 11 Confederate states, two from border states, and a general window — and installed them in the restored church. The result is the largest single collection of Tiffany Studios windows in one location in the world. The American Battlefield Trust has recognized Blandford Church as a significant heritage site connected to the Petersburg battlefield.
The church and cemetery are administered by the City of Petersburg and remain an active memorial destination. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Petersburg historic district.
Sources
Old Blandford Church and Cemetery's haunting reputation draws on several layers of history concentrated in a single site: a colonial church that stood vacant for six decades, a Civil War field hospital receiving casualties from some of the war's most intense fighting, and a cemetery holding the remains of 30,000 soldiers from across the Confederacy.
Petersburg Tourism has offered annual All Hallows Eve evening tours of the cemetery for years, organized specifically around the site's standing as one of Virginia's most-cited paranormal locations. The tours cover the history of the siege and the field hospital, and the battlefield's proximity to the cemetery — the Battle of the Crater took place less than a mile away — gives the site a particular weight that evening visitors describe as distinct from the daytime experience.
Visitor accounts in regional dark-tourism sources describe unexplained cold spots in the interior of the church, particularly near the Tiffany window installations, and atmospheric pressure changes noted by evening tour participants in the older Confederate sections of the cemetery. A recurring account describes the smell of gunpowder in the church interior — the kind of atmospheric detail that accumulates at sites where battlefield associations run deep — though no documented paranormal investigation with published findings has been conducted here.
The site's classification as one of Virginia's most-storied haunted locations is documented in the American Battlefield Trust's heritage site materials and in Virginia tourism reporting covering Petersburg-area dark tourism.
Guided tour of Old Blandford Church's 15 Tiffany stained-glass windows — the largest single collection in the world — each commissioned by a Confederate state as a memorial. Tour includes the cemetery grounds with 30,000 Confederate burials.
Annual October evening tour of the cemetery grounds, offered by Petersburg Tourism. The tour covers the site's Civil War history, field hospital use during the Siege of Petersburg, and the location's documented reputation as one of Virginia's most-visited paranormal destinations.
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