{"nrhp_refnum":"70000498","name":"Universalist Church Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Montgomery Rd. from 9433 N to Remington Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Montgomery","county":"Hamilton County","state":"OH","lat":39.228137729000025,"lon":-84.35413268799994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-12-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small historic district on Montgomery Road in Montgomery, Hamilton County, Ohio, made up of four early 19th-century buildings: an 1837 Universalist church, a brick residence, the Old Manse and the Pioneer Building.","why_significant":"The buildings are described as the only tangible remains of the early 19th-century village of Montgomery. The Universalist Church is believed to be the first building of its denomination erected in Ohio. The group is valued for its Federal and Classic Revival architecture and as a contrast to surrounding modern commercial development.","narrative":"Four early buildings along Montgomery Road in Montgomery, Ohio, form a small historic district that preserves the look of the village's earliest decades. The centerpiece is the Universalist Church of 1837, a brick Classic Revival building with rounded brick columns, an octagonal wooden cupola and original box pews. It was built by James Jones from brick fired on site, on a lot donated by John and Elizabeth Vail, and is believed to be the first Universalist church in Ohio. Nearby are a Federal-style brick residence from the 1820s, the 1827 Old Manse, once a Presbyterian parsonage, and the Pioneer Building, home to community leader Abraham Slaughter and later the village physician. Together they were described as the only surviving evidence of the early village and a contrast to modern commercial development around them. The Old Manse was demolished in 1971, after the district was listed in 1970.","period_of_significance":"1820-1837","architect_builder":"James Jones (builder of the Universalist Church)","architectural_style":"Classic Revival (church); Federal (residences)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition rated fair and altered. The church was in poor condition, unused and privately owned, with private repair efforts under way. The Old Manse was unoccupied and threatened with demolition; later correspondence records its demolition in August 1971.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.839516-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/70000498.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000498/58e974ab80-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000498/58e974ab80-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ed! (Photography)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universalist_Church_Historic_District_Montgomery_OH_USA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Ed! (Photography)</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:Universalist_Church_Historic_District_Montgomery_OH_USA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989147","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalist_Church_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7894179"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/hamilton-county/universalist-church-historic-district-70000498/"}