{"nrhp_refnum":"02001659","name":"Wadsworth Congregational Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1301 Rock Creek Dairy Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Whitsett","county":"Guilford County","state":"NC","lat":36.047042504000046,"lon":-79.59764671899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-12-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-room Gothic Revival frame church with a bell tower on a cleared lot near Whitsett in rural Guilford County, North Carolina, built about 1885 by its congregation, with the architect or builder unknown.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a significant example of a rural African American church in Guilford County, more ornate than most of its contemporaries, with pointed-arch windows, a belfry and a finished cornice. It ties the congregation's founding to Reverend William Madison Lindsay, a formerly enslaved pastor who established a church and school with northern support. The building is presented as architecturally representative and rare in its window design.","narrative":"Set on a cleared lot of about two and a half acres near Whitsett, this one-room Gothic Revival frame church was built around 1885 to replace an earlier log structure. It has white weatherboard walls, a front-gabled roof, a vestibule supporting a bell tower with a pyramidal roof, and four tall pointed-arch windows on the façade. The congregation was founded in 1870 by Reverend William Madison Lindsay, who was born into slavery in 1833, escaped, and later studied at Oberlin College. A bell from England, dedicated to the church in 1886, was a gift from a northern benefactor. The church also hosted a school for local children, and the nomination regards it as an unusually detailed example of rural African American church architecture in the county. The building was moved in the 1970s, and its original foundation of stone was replaced with concrete block.","period_of_significance":"C. 1885","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Gothic; Gothic Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Moved approximately 100 to 200 feet to the northeast in the 1970s, with a new foundation and a non-contributing church building erected on its former site in 1977; the tin roof was replaced in 1994 and the bell temporarily removed for repairs.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.487123-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/76/7205/47720576/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/02001659.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720576","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadsworth_Congregational_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7959338"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/guilford-county/wadsworth-congregational-church-02001659/"}