{"nrhp_refnum":"01001570","name":"Cedar Hill Church and Cemeteries","other_names":["81-5166"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Cedar Hill Church Rd. and Kygers Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lexington","county":"Rockbridge County","state":"VA","lat":37.742443725000044,"lon":-79.53463302399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-02-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small 1874 log church with weatherboard siding, plus two separate cemeteries, on a hillside above Buffalo Creek near Murat in southwest Rockbridge County, Virginia, near Lexington.","why_significant":"The church and cemeteries are significant for their association with the history of Rockbridge County's African American community. The church served as a place of worship and a schoolhouse and was described as the center of the Black community in the Buffalo District. The cemeteries record the congregation's growing prosperity in the early twentieth century.","narrative":"Cedar Hill Church is a one-story log building from 1874, covered in weatherboards and painted white with green trim, standing on a rocky hillside above Buffalo Creek in southwest Rockbridge County. Two small cemeteries belong to the property: an old burial ground behind the church, marked by fieldstones and grave depressions, and a newer one about half a mile away, begun around 1890 and still used. The congregation formed after the Civil War among African American farm families and received its lot by deed in 1874. The building also served as a schoolhouse from the late 1880s through 1905. Its interior keeps beaded matchboard walls and pews made in the mid-1910s. Services dwindled in the 1920s and ended in the late 1930s, but former members maintain the church and gather there each August. The property was listed for its place in the history of the county's Black community, with a period of significance from about 1874 to 1951.","period_of_significance":"Ca. 1874-1951","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The church is lovingly maintained by former members and descendants and opened each August for a homecoming; the new cemetery remains in use. The church is not electrified or plumbed.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.126757-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/6834/41683442/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/01001570.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001570/f91e0e65e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001570/f91e0e65e2-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cedar_Hill_Baptist_Church,_former.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cedar_Hill_Baptist_Church,_former.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683442","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Hill_Church_and_Cemeteries","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15208214"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/rockbridge-county/cedar-hill-church-and-cemeteries-01001570/"}