Editing Stephens City, Virginia (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Newtown Commons.JPG|thumb|View of Newtown Commons, located along Main Street (US 11) in Stephens City]]

===Parks and recreation===
Town residents have access to two parks within town limits: Newtown Commons and Bel Air Street Park. Newtown Commons, sometimes called Newtown Park, is located along Main Street, and the other is on Bel Air Street.<ref name="ParksRec">{{cite web |url=http://www.stephenscity.vi.virginia.gov/faq.shtml |title=Frequently Asked Questions |access-date=May 21, 2012 |publisher=Town of Stephens City |archive-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419010516/http://stephenscity.vi.virginia.gov/faq.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> At Newtown Commons, residents can hold outdoor events such as picnics, fundraisers or small concerts. The Bel Air Street Park is a playground for children with standard swingsets and other activities.<ref name="ParksRec"/>

Just outside Stephens City is Sherando Park. The park houses several trails, ponds, a pool, sports fields and more.<ref name="SherandoPark">{{cite web |url=http://www.fcva.us/departments/o-z/parks-recreation/parks/sherando-park |title=Parks and Recreation – Sherando Park |access-date=May 21, 2012 |publisher=County of Frederick, Virginia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211184443/http://www.fcva.us/departments/o-z/parks-recreation/parks/sherando-park |archive-date=December 11, 2013}}</ref> Sherando Park is also home of the Virginia Tech Memorial Garden, planted in memory of the [[Virginia Tech shooting]], which took place approximately {{cvt|175|mi|km}} from the park. It has "a winding sidewalk shaped in the college's trademark 'VT'" and "a flagpole surrounded by 32 [[Hokie Stone]]s", one for each of the 32 victims of the shooting.<ref name="VTMemPark">{{cite web |url=http://www.shenandoahhokies.com/we-remember.html |title=We Remember - Shenandoah Chapter Virginia Tech Alumni Association |access-date=December 16, 2017 |publisher=Shenandoah Chapter Virginia Tech Alumni Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222051111/http://www.shenandoahhokies.com/we-remember.html |archive-date=December 22, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="VTMemPark2">{{cite web |url=http://www.vtvfamilyfoundation.org/about-us/tributes/general-tributes/ |title=General Tributes - VTV Family Outreach Foundation |access-date=February 18, 2016 |publisher=VTV Family Outreach Foundation |archive-date=May 4, 2016 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20160504212750/http://www.vtvfamilyfoundation.org/about-us/tributes/general-tributes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Memorial Garden was dedicated and opened on April 16, 2009, the second anniversary of the shooting.<ref name="VTMemPark"/> The park was built by the Shenandoah Chapter of Virginia Tech Alumni Association, which is based in nearby [[Winchester, Virginia]].<ref name="VTMemPark2"/>

The [[Family Drive-In Theatre]], a two-screen [[drive-in theater]], is located near the town, on [[U.S. Route 11 in Virginia|U.S. Route 11]] just south of Stephens City.<ref name="SCDriveIn1">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/in-western-virginia-the-drive-in-movie-theater-lives-on/2011/06/24/AGqwVntH_story.html |title=In western Virginia, the drive-in movie theater lives on. |date=July 1, 2011 |access-date=March 27, 2016 |last=Carney |first=Dan |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-date=May 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510024321/http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/in-western-virginia-the-drive-in-movie-theater-lives-on/2011/06/24/AGqwVntH_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="SCDriveIn2">{{cite web |url=http://www.thefamilydriveintheatre.com/ |title=Family Drive-In Theatre |access-date=July 20, 2013 |publisher=Colonial Entertainment Group, LLC |archive-date=May 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100503155812/http://www.thefamilydriveintheatre.com/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> It is one of ten drive-ins in the state of Virginia.<ref name="DriveInVA">{{cite web |url=http://wtop.com/fraley-on-film/2012/08/stephens-city-proves-drive-ins-are-not-expendable/ |title=Stephens City proves drive-ins are not 'expendable' |date=August 24, 2012 |access-date=August 26, 2012 |last=Fraley |first=Jason |publisher=[[WTOP-FM|WTOP Radio]] |archive-date=June 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605203446/http://wtop.com/fraley-on-film/2012/08/stephens-city-proves-drive-ins-are-not-expendable/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The theatre converted to all-digital in 2013.<ref name="Conversion">{{cite news |newspaper=[[Winchester Star|The Winchester Star]] |location=[[Winchester, Virginia]] |publisher=Byrd Newspapers |url=http://www.winchesterstar.com/article/at_family_drive_in_show_goes_on_and_on_and_on |title=At Family Drive-In, show goes on, and on, and on |date=September 3, 2013 |access-date=November 9, 2014 |last=Bradshaw |first=Vic |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141108041654/http://www.winchesterstar.com/article/at_family_drive_in_show_goes_on_and_on_and_on |archive-date=November 8, 2014}}</ref>

===Annual events===
Stephens City plays host to the annual "Newtown Heritage Festival" held each [[Memorial Day]] weekend. The three-day event features many crafts, carnival-style food, a tractor wagon ride through town, local music at Newtown Commons, a parade on Saturday and fireworks.<ref name="Festival">{{cite web |url=http://www.stephenscity.vi.virginia.gov/NHF/index.shtml |title=Newtown Heritage Festival |access-date=May 20, 2012 |publisher=Town of Stephens City |archive-date=May 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509092501/http://www.stephenscity.vi.virginia.gov/NHF/index.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> Stephens City is one of the towns along the [[Garage sale#Route 11 Yard Crawl|Route 11 Yard Crawl]]. A yearly event held during the second Saturday in August, the Yard Crawl is an almost {{convert|50|mi|km|adj=mid|-long|abbr=off|sp=us}} [[garage sale|yard sale]] that stretches from Stephens City's Newtown Commons south along U.S. Route 11 to [[New Market, Virginia]].<ref name="YardCrawl">{{cite news |url=http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2012/08/shenandoah-county-yard-crawl-next-weekend/ |title=Shenandoah County Yard Crawl next weekend |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=August 10, 2012 |last=Voth |first=Sally |publisher=Northern Virginia Daily |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220113038/http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2012/08/shenandoah-county-yard-crawl-next-weekend/ |archive-date=December 20, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="YardCrawl2">{{cite news |url=http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2013/07/bargain-hunters-gear-up-for-yard-crawl/ |title=Bargain hunters gear up for Route 11 Yard Crawl |date=July 23, 2013 |access-date=December 5, 2013 |last=Cornell |first=Ryan |publisher=Northern Virginia Daily |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220113042/http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2013/07/bargain-hunters-gear-up-for-yard-crawl/ |archive-date=December 20, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The event is sponsored by the [[Shenandoah County, Virginia|Shenandoah County]] Chamber Advisory Group, five chambers of commerce, and the town of Stephens City.<ref name="YardCrawl"/><ref name="YardCrawl2"/>

===Religion===
[[File:Stephens City United Methodist Church.JPG|thumb|left|Stephens City United Methodist Church]]
The earliest organized religious congregation in Stephens City was a [[Reformed Church in America|Reformed]] church that met in a log cabin.<ref name="Inez"/>{{rp|13}} [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] began worshipping together in the town in 1770. The two congregations shared use of the log cabin beginning in 1786. Services were conducted in German until the 1820s, reflecting the heritage of the town's early founders. The log cabin was replaced in 1812 with a brick building, which was later expanded in 1851. The current Trinity Lutheran Church was built in 1906 and incorporates some of the material from the previous structure.<ref name="vaNRHPnom"/>

[[Methodism]] arrived in Stephens City in 1775 and the first Methodist society west of the Blue Ridge Mountains was established.<ref name="vaNRHPnom"/> Some of the earliest members of the Methodist congregation were members of the Stephens and Hite families.<ref name="Inez"/>{{rp|20–21}} During the congregation's early years, members would often meet in homes.<ref name="vaNRHPnom"/> Lewis Stephens donated land for a permanent meeting place, and in 1790, a log cabin that [[Francis Asbury]] described as a "spacious chapel" was built.<ref name="Inez"/>{{rp|22}} In 1827, the congregation replaced the log cabin with a brick building that was used until 1882. The current Stephens City United Methodist Church was built in 1913.<ref name="vaNRHPnom"/>

The oldest surviving church building in the town is Orrick Chapel, built between 1866 and 1869 as the home of an [[African Methodist Episcopal Church|African Methodist Episcopal]] congregation. Missionaries from this first independent black denomination came South after the war to aid freedmen and plant new congregations; they attracted hundreds of thousands of new members. This church replaced an earlier Methodist chapel constructed in the late 1850s; it was razed by Union troops during the winter months of 1864–1865 near the end of the Civil War.<ref name=Orrick>{{cite book |url=http://newtownhistorycenter.org/publications/history-of-orrick-chapel-methodist-church/ |format=PDF |title=History of Orrick Chapel Methodist Church in Stephens City, Virginia |access-date=August 27, 2010 |publisher=Newtown History Center of The Stone House Foundation |pages=3–5 |archive-date=October 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016135050/http://newtownhistorycenter.org/publications/history-of-orrick-chapel-methodist-church/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Two other [[black church]]es in Stephens City are a nondenominational congregation which meets in a former [[Baptists|Baptist]] church built in 1891, and a [[Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship|Full Gospel]] congregation which meets in a former [[Free Will Baptist]] church, also built in 1891.<ref name="vaNRHPnom"/><ref name="Churches">{{cite web |url=https://www.stephenscity.org/churches |title=Churches |access-date=June 6, 2023 |publisher=Town of Stephens City |archive-date=March 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321191309/https://www.stephenscity.org/churches |url-status=live }}</ref>

Just south of the town limits is a [[Mennonite]] church.<ref name="Churches"/> Further south is a [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalist]] church.<ref name="UUCSV">{{cite web |url=http://uushenandoah.org/ |title=UUCSV |access-date=May 21, 2012 |publisher=Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley |archive-date=December 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111229210815/http://www.uushenandoah.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] parish affiliated with the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington|Diocese of Arlington]] and a [[Judaism|Jewish]] synagogue, which each function as centers for their respective members in the entire Shenandoah Valley, are located approximately {{cvt|5|mi|km}} north in Winchester.<ref name=Catholic>{{cite web |url=http://sacredheartwinchester.org/ |title=Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church |access-date=May 21, 2012 |publisher=Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church |archive-date=May 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509062835/http://www.sacredheartwinchester.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Judaism>{{cite web |url=http://bethelcongregation.org/ |title=Beth El Congregation |access-date=May 21, 2012 |publisher=Beth El Congregation |archive-date=June 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601053333/http://bethelcongregation.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>