{"nrhp_refnum":"78000969","name":"Nicholsonville Baptist Church","other_names":["Nicholsonburro Baptist Church","Nicholsonboro Baptist Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"White Bluff Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Nicholsonville","county":"Chatham County","state":"GA","lat":31.95847225500006,"lon":-81.13803327599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-05-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-acre site on White Bluff Road in Nicholsonville, Chatham County, Georgia, holding two small frame Baptist churches: an older one from the 1870s or 1883 and a newer one built in 1890. A small concrete block educational building also stands on the property.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that both churches are important examples of rural Black church construction in South Georgia in the late nineteenth century, a type that has mostly been torn down and replaced. Having two such churches on one site lets architectural historians compare them. They also embody the early history of a freedmen's community settled by people formerly enslaved on St. Catherines Island.","narrative":"Two small frame churches stand side by side on one acre along White Bluff Road in Nicholsonville, Chatham County, Georgia. The older, a plain 20-by-30-foot building with a tin gabled roof and small wooden steeple, probably dates from the late 1870s or 1883 and is now unused and deteriorated. Roughly 70 feet south stands the 1890 church, still used by the congregation. It has a basilican plan with nave, aisles, a small gallery on hand-carved chamfered posts, and a porch under a gable carried by four square piers. The congregation descends from people once enslaved on Jacob Waldburg's plantation on St. Catherines Island, who moved to the White Bluff area after the Civil War and bought land in 1877. The settlement was described in 1886 as perhaps the thriftiest Black community in the state. Few rural churches of this period survive in South Georgia, and having two on one site allows direct comparison of their construction.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Basilican plan (1890 church); simple frame construction with no ornamentation (older church)","criteria":[],"status_note":"The older church is unused and deteriorated; the 1890 church is in good condition and used by the congregation.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.932347-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/78000969.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000969/de09b8b007-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000969/de09b8b007-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ebyabe","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GA_Nicholsonville_Bapt01.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ebyabe</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:GA_Nicholsonville_Bapt01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207335","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130603418"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/chatham-county/nicholsonville-baptist-church-78000969/"}