{"nrhp_refnum":"75001486","name":"St. Martin's Catholic Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW of Valley City on Station Rd. (CR 23)","address_restricted":false,"city":"Valley City","county":"Medina County","state":"OH","lat":41.22503523600005,"lon":-81.95491034999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-11-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large brick Catholic church in the Victorian Gothic style, located southwest of Valley City on Station Road and County Highway 112 in Liverpool Township, Medina County, Ohio. It was built in 1861-1862 and is the third church building of the St. Martin's congregation.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a relatively early example in northern Ohio of a large church built by a non-English immigrant community, here German farm families. It is an unusually expensive and imposing structure for a completely rural setting and an excellent example of Victorian Gothic style. The plan may have come from architect Patrick C. Keely, though this is conjecture without documentation.","narrative":"Rising from farmland southwest of Valley City, this brick church was built in 1861-1862 for St. Martin's parish, a congregation of German farm families from Alsace and Baden who had settled in Liverpool Township by the 1830s. It is the parish's third building, following a log chapel of 1842 and a brick church of 1849. Under Father John Van den Broek, the present church cost $30,000, far more than a typical rural church of its day. It has a square tower with a spire, buttressed side walls, a rear apse and vestry, and an interior of three aisles under pointed vaults, with mid-Victorian stained glass and a pipe organ installed in 1881. A tornado shifted the steeple in 1909, and the chancel was remodeled in 1961. The nomination values it as an early immigrant-built church in northern Ohio and a fine Victorian Gothic example. It suggests, without documentation, that Patrick C. Keely may have supplied the plan.","period_of_significance":"1861-1862","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Victorian Gothic (Gothic Revival)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in excellent condition, altered, on its original site, and in religious use as a church.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.704511-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/75001486.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990195","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Catholic_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7590008"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/medina-county/st-martins-catholic-church-75001486/"}