{"nrhp_refnum":"75002028","name":"Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SE of Rapidan on VA 615","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rapidan","county":"Orange County","state":"VA","lat":38.308264165000026,"lon":-78.06261684599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-08-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame Carpenter's Gothic church on a high hill southeast of Rapidan, Orange County, Virginia, built in 1874 and loosely based on designs by J. B. Danforth of Richmond.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the finest specimen of Carpenter's Gothic church architecture in Virginia and an unusually late example of the style. It is named for the blind Presbyterian preacher James Waddel (1739-1805), a noted orator and teacher. Its hilltop site makes it a prominent feature of the Orange County landscape.","narrative":"Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church sits atop a high hill near Rapidan, in Orange County, Virginia, with views toward the Blue Ridge foothills. Built in 1874, it is a frame church covered in board-and-batten siding, with wooden buttresses topped by pinnacles, castellated eaves, and an entrance tower holding a rose window and belfry. The design loosely follows drawings by J. B. Danforth, a Union Theological Seminary faculty member in Richmond, though the builders simplified his exterior details. The plain interior has iron columns, applied lancet tracery, and original pews. The church was named for James Waddel, a blind Presbyterian preacher born in Ireland in 1739, praised for his oratory and remembered as teacher of Meriwether Lewis and James Barbour. His tomb stands behind the church. It is considered Virginia's finest Carpenter's Gothic church, a late survivor of the frame Gothic tradition. A 1958 Sunday School addition matches the original.","period_of_significance":"1874","architect_builder":"J. B. Danforth (designer), of Richmond","architectural_style":"Carpenter's Gothic (Gothic Revival)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, little altered, on its original site, and in religious use; a Sunday School room was added at the rear in 1958.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.570093-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/82/6823/41682382/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/75002028.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002028/18aca45a2e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002028/18aca45a2e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Idawriter","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waddell_Memorial_Presbyterian_Church_in_Rapidan,_Virginia.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Idawriter</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:Waddell_Memorial_Presbyterian_Church_in_Rapidan,_Virginia.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682382","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddell_Memorial_Presbyterian_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713482"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/orange-county/waddell-memorial-presbyterian-church-75002028/"}