{"nrhp_refnum":"08000931","name":"St. Paul's German Presbyterian Church and Cemetery","other_names":["St. Paul's Presbyterian Church and Cemetery"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"525 Elmont Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Elmont","county":"Nassau County","state":"NY","lat":40.69798917900005,"lon":-73.71460768399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-09-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["European"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A late-Victorian Gothic church built in 1904 and an adjoining 1860s cemetery at 525 Elmont Road in Elmont, Nassau County, New York, founded by German immigrants.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church and cemetery together are a rare surviving link to the German immigrant community that thrived in Elmont (Foster's Meadow) for nearly a century (Criterion A). The church is also significant as an intact vernacular late-Victorian Gothic building, and the grid-planned cemetery for its age, design and funerary art (Criterion C).","narrative":"Set on Elmont Road in Nassau County, this property pairs a 1904 Gothic-style church with a cemetery laid out in the 1860s by German immigrants who had moved from Manhattan and Brooklyn to the Foster's Meadow area. The one-and-a-half-story church has a steeple tower, Gothic-arched stained-glass windows, a porte cochere, and an auditorium-style sanctuary with raked pews, a tin ceiling and a three-arch chancel. Aluminum siding now covers the original clapboard. The cemetery holds roughly 240 family plots, with obelisks, statuary, cast metal markers and granite plot fencing. Older inscriptions are in German and later ones in English, reflecting Rev. Augustus Espach's gradual shift of the congregation to English during his pastorate from 1903 to 1938. The designer of the church is unknown. The property was recognized as a rare remnant of the German community that flourished here for nearly a century, and as an intact example of turn-of-the-century church design and funerary art.","period_of_significance":"1864-1938","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian Gothic","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a church and cemetery; the church has aluminum siding over the original clapboard, and the congregation is investigating removing it. The cemetery is highly intact with very little vandalism.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.119872-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/08000931.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08000931/f68577444e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08000931/f68577444e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"jim.henderson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St-_Paul%27s_German_Presbyterian_Church_and_Cemetery_2012-09-27_jeh.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">jim.henderson</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:St-_Paul%27s_German_Presbyterian_Church_and_Cemetery_2012-09-27_jeh.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319213","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_German_Presbyterian_Church_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7591144"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/nassau-county/st-pauls-german-presbyterian-church-and-cemetery-08000931/"}