{"nrhp_refnum":"11000026","name":"Diamond Hill Baptist Church","other_names":["Vhdr Id 118-0060-0057"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1415 Grace St","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lynchburg","county":"Lynchburg","state":"VA","lat":37.40947880500005,"lon":-79.14334823999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-02-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Late Gothic Revival brick church at 1415 Grace Street in Lynchburg, Virginia, begun in 1886 for an African American Baptist congregation, with a 1903 remodeling, a 1951 parsonage and a 1993 addition.","why_significant":"The church was the city's second oldest African American church and a center of civil rights activity from 1958 to 1963 under Rev. Virgil Wood. It hosted mass meetings, voter registration drives and planning for school integration and lunch counter desegregation. It also reflects the growth of Black churches after the end of slavery.","narrative":"Diamond Hill Baptist Church is a red brick Gothic Revival building on Grace Street in Lynchburg, begun in 1886 by an African American congregation. Mason Lewis Bolling did the brickwork. Features include pointed arch stained glass windows, limestone-capped buttresses, a slate jerkinhead roof, a three-story tower and a sanctuary with a wraparound balcony. The original design allowed the building to be sold as a theater if the congregation could not pay for it. The interior was remodeled in 1903, a parsonage was built in 1951, and a matching addition followed in 1993. The congregation, founded in 1872, is the city's second oldest Black church. It became a center of civil rights activity between 1958 and 1963 under Rev. Virgil Wood, who founded the Lynchburg Improvement Association. Mass meetings, voter drives, and planning for school integration and lunch counter desegregation took place here. The church is still used for worship.","period_of_significance":"1958-1963","architect_builder":"Lewis Bolling, mason","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Late Gothic Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still used for religious purposes; the church and an adjacent parsonage remain in use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.608289-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/17/6818/41681817/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/11000026.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000026/9a49735678-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000026/9a49735678-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diamond_Hill_Baptist_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diamond_Hill_Baptist_Church.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"83003290","name":"Diamond Hill Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/diamond-hill-historic-district-boundary-increase-83003290/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681817","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Hill_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16829601"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/lynchburg/diamond-hill-baptist-church-11000026/"}