{"nrhp_refnum":"79000703","name":"Stone Church","other_names":["Old Stone Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Ringgold off U.S. 76","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ringgold","county":"Catoosa County","state":"GA","lat":34.90644395400005,"lon":-85.07686320599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-11-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small rectangular sandstone Presbyterian church with an adjoining cemetery, located east of Ringgold in Catoosa County, Georgia. Construction began in 1850 and finished in 1852.","why_significant":"It is locally important as one of the first church bodies organized in the area after the 1830s opening of the territory, as the oldest church structure still in use in the county, and as a site of Civil War activity. Its sandstone construction is rare among Georgia churches. It is also one of the few antebellum Presbyterian churches in a state that was ninety percent Baptist and Methodist in 1850.","narrative":"Built of native sandstone between 1850 and 1852, Stone Church is a small rectangular rural church east of Ringgold, Georgia, with a sheet-metal roof and a cemetery on a grassy knoll behind it. Stone was hauled from a quarry at White Oak Mountain by a charter member and his two brothers, and the building cost $1,600. The congregation was organized as a Presbyterian church in 1837, among the first in the territory opened after the Cherokee removal. Sandstone was rare for Georgia churches, and few Presbyterian churches existed in the state before the Civil War. During the war the area lay between opposing armies, and tradition holds that the building served as a hospital for both sides. Services stopped for about eighteen months. Presbyterians left the building in 1921, Methodists used it afterward, and it has been held by its current trustees since 1937. Original pews and altar survive inside, and the cemetery holds burials dating from the 1840s.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered; the form says it is the oldest church structure still in use in the county and is leased to a Baptist congregation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:41.412635-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/79000703.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000703/84a7e37a69-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000703/84a7e37a69-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"KudzuVine","credit_html":"KudzuVine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Stone_Church,_Ringgold_(Catoosa_County,_Georgia).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207259","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134139297"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/catoosa-county/stone-church-79000703/"}