{"nrhp_refnum":"66000841","name":"Christ Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3 mi. S of Kilmarnock on VA 3","address_restricted":false,"city":"Irvington","county":"Lancaster County","state":"VA","lat":37.68062472850005,"lon":-76.42324121515934,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1961-05-30","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Christ Church is a colonial brick Episcopal church near Irvington in Lancaster County, Virginia, built at the expense of Robert \"King\" Carter between about 1723 and 1735 on a cruciform plan.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the outstanding examples of Georgian design and craftsmanship in the United States. It is the most intact of Virginia's colonial churches and the only one to keep its original high-back box pews. Its history also shows the close tie between the established Church of England and Virginia's planter aristocracy.","narrative":"Christ Church, near Irvington in Lancaster County, Virginia, is a brick colonial church built on a cruciform plan. Robert \"King\" Carter, the wealthy son of John Carter, paid for it so that the parish would keep worshipping at the old church site, where John Carter had built an earlier church traditionally dated 1669. Bricks were being made in 1723, the building was probably usable by 1728, and it was likely finished in 1735. The exterior has tall arched windows, rubbed and molded brick doorways with Portland stone trim, and walnut doors. Inside are high-back box pews, a south transept gallery, a cantilevered pulpit with a sounding board, a reredos with the ten commandments, and a marble font that is English. The building has never been altered, though it has been repaired. Its significance rests on its architectural quality, its exceptional preservation among Virginia's colonial churches, and its link to the Carter family and the established church.","period_of_significance":"1723-1735","architect_builder":"Various, see Description; built at the expense of Robert \"King\" Carter","architectural_style":"Georgian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition good and in use as an active church (1961 survey form); preservation work has been carried out by the Foundation for Historic Christ Church since 1960.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.480815-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/6790/41679065/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/66000841_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000841/1eaad88a9f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000841/1eaad88a9f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"This file comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). These are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports. When reusing please credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, VA,52-KILM.V,1-15 This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information.","credit_html":"This file comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). These are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports. When reusing please credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, VA,52-KILM.V,1-15 This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_church_lancaster_front.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679065","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_(Lancaster_County,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5108750"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/lancaster-county/christ-church-66000841/"}