{"nrhp_refnum":"02000077","name":"Whitesville Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Cemetery","other_names":["Whitesville United Methodist Church and Cemetery"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"4731 Pine Lake Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Whitesville","county":"Harris County","state":"GA","lat":32.819844000000046,"lon":-85.03508079599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-02-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Art","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A wood-frame Methodist church built in 1854 and its adjoining historic cemetery on Pine Lake Road in Whitesville, a rural unincorporated community in Harris County, Georgia. The church was remodeled around 1900 with Queen Anne and Neoclassical Revival details.","why_significant":"The church is argued to be the most important surviving landmark of the once-thriving town of Whitesville, representing its founding, growth and decline (Criterion A). It is also an intact example of a small rural church, updated around 1900 with Queen Anne and Neoclassical Revival elements (Criterion C). The cemetery is significant for its variety of burial marker types, from stacked-stone graves to mail-order metal markers.","narrative":"Whitesville Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a white-painted, wood-frame country church completed in 1854, with an adjoining cemetery on the north side of Pine Lake Road in rural Harris County, Georgia. Its heavy hand-hewn pine frame and open interior reflect vernacular church building of the 19th century. Around 1900, as the town's prosperity began to fade, the congregation added a bell tower, fishscale shingles, lancet vents and a simple cornice, giving the building Queen Anne and Neoclassical Revival touches. A basement fellowship hall and electric lighting followed in the 1930s, and a choir loft in the early 1950s. The church grew from circuit-riding preachers in the 1820s and 1830s and served a town once known for a stagecoach stop, a large hotel and academies. The cemetery holds graves from the 1840s onward, including stacked-stone graves, obelisks and mail-order metal markers. Together they are among the few remaining landmarks of Whitesville, and the church is still in use.","period_of_significance":"1854-1951","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Queen Anne (details)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The church remains in continuous use as an active, small Methodist congregation, and the church maintains the cemetery.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.562319-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/02000077.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000077/a87069b26c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000077/a87069b26c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rivers Langley; SaveRivers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitesville_Methodist_Episcopal_Church_South.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Rivers Langley; SaveRivers</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitesville_Methodist_Episcopal_Church_South.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208641","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q125416657"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/harris-county/whitesville-methodist-episcopal-church-south-and-cemetery-02000077/"}