[3] The forerunner to the Falls Church appears to have been founded by landowner William Gunnell, who had moved from Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1729.

Known as "William Gunnell's Church", the new wooden structure was designed and built by Colonel Richard Blackburn, who was directed to construct a weatherboarded building forty feet by twenty-two feet, with a 13:12 pitch roof, and with interior work modeled on that of Pohick Church; the cost was 33,500 pounds of tobacco.

John Trammell later bought the land and, in 1746, sold the two acre lot, including the church, the churchyard, and a spring, to the vestry of Truro Parish.

In 1789, The Falls Church was abandoned[4] and remained unoccupied for almost 50 years; in 1836, it was reoccupied by an Episcopal congregation.

[7] Francis Scott Key was a lay reader of this congregation, as was Henry Fairfax, who used his own funds to restore the building during 1838 and 1839.

The interior was repaired after the war, with the Federal government paying for damage caused by Union forces.

Some of these repairs can be discerned in brickwork below the windows and in the lower part of the brick doorway at the west end of the church.

Several episodes contributed to the widening split, including the consecration of Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man, as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Following a lengthy court dispute around the property, ended in 2012, a minority faction that voted to remain part of the Episcopal Church was awarded ownership of the church property, and the Anglican congregation parish of 3000 people had to move to nearby rented locations.