{"nrhp_refnum":"08001289","name":"First Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"701 E. Washington Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"High Point","county":"Guilford County","state":"NC","lat":35.96344090300005,"lon":-79.99990511399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-01-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick church building at the northeast corner of East Washington Drive and Hobson Street in High Point, Guilford County, North Carolina, built in 1907 for an African American Baptist congregation. A two-story brick annex was added to the north side in 1916.","why_significant":"The nomination describes it as High Point's oldest African American church building and home to the city's oldest African American congregation of any denomination. It is presented as an example of transitional church architecture combining Romanesque Revival elements from 1907 with Gothic Revival work from the early 1950s. The church is also tied to community life in the neighborhood and to civil rights activity in the 1960s.","narrative":"Built in 1907 on the northeast corner of East Washington Drive and Hobson Street, First Baptist Church is a brick church in an African American neighborhood just northeast of High Point's downtown. The original building had a Romanesque Revival character, with a west tower, a rose window and crenellated roof lines. In the early 1950s the sanctuary was enlarged, the tower was removed, and a new façade with crenellated corner towers and a large Gothic-style window was built closer to the street. A two-story annex with Sunday school rooms and a basement fellowship hall was added to the north in 1916. The church is regarded as High Point's oldest African American church building and houses its oldest African American congregation. It is also significant for its role as a community center during segregation, and in the 1960s it hosted civil rights meetings, including a visit by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. The architectural significance rests on its mix of medieval revival styles, shown in its later additions as a local example of church design from the first half of the twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1907-early 1950s","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals - Late Gothic Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Active church; the document describes it as continuing to serve its congregation and the local community.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.799175-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/12/7205/47720512/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/08001289.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08001289/119e71a9ca-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08001289/119e71a9ca-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church_site_in_High_Point.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church_site_in_High_Point.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720512","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Baptist_Church_(High_Point,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452395"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/guilford-county/first-baptist-church-08001289/"}