{"nrhp_refnum":"72000942","name":"First Presbyterian Church and Churchyard","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"New St. between Middle and Hancock Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New Bern","county":"Craven County","state":"NC","lat":35.109900527000036,"lon":-77.04008419799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-02-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large frame Presbyterian church with an adjoining 1856 lecture room building and an iron-fenced churchyard, on New Street between Middle and Hancock streets in New Bern, North Carolina. The church was begun in 1819 and finished by late 1821.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is nearly unique in North Carolina, resembling a New England church and green more than a typical local building. It is the work, and probably the design, of the builder Uriah Sandy, one of many skilled craftsmen in early nineteenth-century New Bern. It also served the Union forces and then as a hospital during the Civil War, and it anchors a group of architecturally important churches.","narrative":"Set on a landscaped block of New Street in New Bern, this Presbyterian church is a large rectangular frame building with a tetrastyle Ionic portico and a four-stage tower topped by an arcaded octagonal belfry. The cornerstone was laid in June 1819 and the church was dedicated in January 1822, after construction supervised by the carpenter Uriah Sandy, who probably designed it as well. Its form recalls New England meeting houses more than other North Carolina churches. Inside, twin spiral stairs, side galleries and a barrel-vaulted ceiling survive. During the Civil War, Union forces used the church for worship and later as a hospital. A Victorian remodelling of 1866 was largely reversed in a careful 1930s restoration of the pulpit and pew layout. An 1856 lecture building and a cast-iron fence from 1903 complete the churchyard, which forms an important open space and part of a notable group of nearby churches.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Uriah Sandy, contractor (probably also designer); 1930s interior restoration by Daniel D. Merrill of Merrill, Humbel, and Taylor, New York","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in excellent condition, occupied and in religious use; the interior was restored in 1936 and the building is described as altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.427916-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/52/7197/47719752/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/72000942.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000942/5dd6e3d206-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000942/5dd6e3d206-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tradewinds","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Presbyterian_Church-New_Bern.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Tradewinds</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:First_Presbyterian_Church-New_Bern.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719752","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Presbyterian_Church_and_Churchyard","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5453667"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/craven-county/first-presbyterian-church-and-churchyard-72000942/"}