{"nrhp_refnum":"05000352","name":"Bear Grass Primitive Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NW side NC 1001, 0.1 mi. N of jct with NC 1106","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bear Grass","county":"Martin County","state":"NC","lat":35.767652690000034,"lon":-77.12802722699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-04-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A front-gable, two-bay frame Primitive Baptist church in the Bear Grass community of Martin County, North Carolina, on State Road 1006. The building as it stands dates from 1877, when the congregation enlarged the meeting house.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a plain, intact example of the traditional front-gable frame meeting house used by Primitive Baptists in North Carolina. Its structure and interior have changed little since the 1930s, which it regards as unusual among comparable buildings. The congregation's history, including its separate entrances and seating for men and women, is presented as tied to the building's form.","narrative":"Bear Grass Primitive Baptist Church is a front-gable, two-bay frame building on State Road 1006 in the Bear Grass community of Martin County, North Carolina. The present form dates from 1877, when the congregation enlarged the meeting house, and the building has kept its wood weatherboard walls, cypress-shingled roof beneath later metal sheathing, and twelve-over-twelve sash windows. Its interior has an unpainted tongue-and-groove pine ceiling, slat-back pews, and a line of eight chamfered posts that once divided the room. The congregation formed in 1828 as a satellite of the Skewarkey Baptist Meeting. Its members held Particular Baptist doctrine and later became known as Primitive Baptists. The church is regarded as a plain, intact example of the traditional Primitive Baptist meeting house, and it has remained in religious use. Its separate entrances for men and women were kept until about 1950.","period_of_significance":"1877","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Front-gable frame meeting house","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Congregation has dwindled to five members and the church remains in religious use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.814956-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/85/7211/47721185/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/05000352.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721185","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Grass_Primitive_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4876439"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/martin-county/bear-grass-primitive-baptist-church-05000352/"}