{"nrhp_refnum":"79001653","name":"St. Athanasius Episcopal Church and Parish House and the Church of the Holy Comforter","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"300 E. Webb Ave. and 320 E. Davis St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burlington","county":"Alamance County","state":"NC","lat":36.09171546400006,"lon":-79.43402399199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of Episcopal church buildings on one block in downtown Burlington, North Carolina: the Carpenter Gothic St. Athanasius Church (1879-1880) and its 1887 parish house, plus the Neo-Gothic Revival Church of the Holy Comforter (1911) with its 1926 parish house and 1963 addition.","why_significant":"The complex is tied to the early social development of Company Shops, later Burlington, a major industrial center in the North Carolina Piedmont. St. Athanasius is presented as a primary example of Carpenter Gothic in the region, designed by clergyman-artist J. A. S. Oertel. Holy Comforter is a representative Neo-Gothic Revival church by New York architect Hobart Upjohn, grandson of Richard Upjohn, and together the buildings show the continuity of Gothic Revival style.","narrative":"On a wooded block in downtown Burlington, North Carolina, two Episcopal churches and their parish buildings record the growth of one congregation. St. Athanasius Church, a small board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic chapel, was built in 1879-1880 in the railroad repair town of Company Shops, renamed Burlington in 1887. It was designed by J. A. S. Oertel, a clergyman and artist, with Captain William H. Turrentine supervising construction. A small parish house followed in 1887, a gift of Lawrence S. Holt, and served as a school. As membership grew, the congregation built the Church of the Holy Comforter in 1909-1911, a cruciform granite Neo-Gothic Revival church designed by New York architect Hobart Upjohn. A granite parish house followed in 1926, and a brick addition and Great Hall in 1963. A cemetery lies between the two churches. The complex was listed for its link to the town's early social development and for its examples of Gothic Revival design.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, designer; Capt. William H. Turrentine, supervisor of construction; Hobart Upjohn, architect","architectural_style":"Carpenter Gothic (St. Athanasius and 1887 parish house); Neo-Gothic Revival (Church of the Holy Comforter and 1926 parish house)","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use. St. Athanasius is used only occasionally for special services and is maintained and kept in repair by the Church of the Holy Comforter. The 1887 parish house interior has been largely remodeled.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:55.78114-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/32/7188/47718832/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001653.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001653/f92da91721-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001653/f92da91721-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Byrd.caswell","credit_html":"Byrd.caswell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_the_Holy_Comforter-27215.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718832","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Athanasius_Episcopal_Church_and_Parish_House_and_the_Church_of_the_Holy_Comforter","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7587131"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/alamance-county/st-athanasius-episcopal-church-and-parish-house-and-the-church-of-the-holy-comfo-79001653/"}