{"nrhp_refnum":"75001176","name":"Sand Beach Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S of Auburn on NY 38","address_restricted":false,"city":"Auburn","county":"Cayuga County","state":"NY","lat":42.90279398600006,"lon":-76.54743640199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick Dutch Reformed church with an adjoining early cemetery, built in 1854-5 on West Lake Road at Owasco Outlet, Town of Fleming, near Auburn, overlooking the northern end of Owasco Lake.","why_significant":"The nomination cites the church's architectural distinction in its rural Finger Lakes setting. It was built during the pastorate of Samuel Robbins Brown, one of the foremost 19th century American missionaries to the Orient, and so preserves a link to his work in China and Japan.","narrative":"Sand Beach Church is a brick Dutch Reformed church built in 1854-5 on a hillside above the northern end of Owasco Lake, within a mile of Auburn. It replaced an 1807 frame church on the same site, and a small pioneer cemetery lies to its south and west. The Romanesque Revival building has round-arched windows and doors, a wooden corbeled cornice, a gable roof and a three-tiered square bell tower. A fire in 1935 destroyed the interior and altered the tower roof; the interior was rebuilt along simpler lines, and a Sunday school wing was added in 1953. The church was built under Samuel Robbins Brown, a veteran missionary to China who became pastor in 1851 and revived a declining congregation. He later served in Japan, where he worked on translating the Bible into Japanese, and he kept a close attachment to the church until his death in 1880. The building is valued for its design and for this connection.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1854-5)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"In use as a church; the interior was rebuilt after a 1935 fire and a Sunday school wing was added in 1953. Condition is marked good and the property is occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.22396-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/75001176.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001176/51a96a3579-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001176/51a96a3579-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Doncram","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sand_Beach_Church_22_01_13_574000.jpeg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doncram</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sand_Beach_Church_22_01_13_574000.jpeg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316727","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Beach_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7415762"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/cayuga-county/sand-beach-church-75001176/"}