{"nrhp_refnum":"79001709","name":"St. Joseph's Catholic Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Off NC 273","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mountain Island","county":"Gaston County","state":"NC","lat":35.33679934500006,"lon":-81.00004710400043,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small vernacular temple-form frame Catholic church with a stone-walled churchyard, located near Mountain Island in Gaston County, North Carolina. It was dedicated in 1844 and sits on a plot donated by William Lonergan.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is one of the two oldest surviving Catholic churches in North Carolina and is the sponsoring organization of Belmont Abbey and Belmont Abbey College, which were founded through the efforts of Father J. J. O'Connell. It is also presented as a notable and little-altered example of a modest vernacular temple-form building.","narrative":"Near Mountain Island in Gaston County, St. Joseph's Catholic Church is a small white frame building in the temple form, dedicated in 1844 by Bishop I. A. Reynolds on land given by William Lonergan. Its churchyard, enclosed by a stone wall, holds gravestones from the 1825 to the present day. The church grew out of a community of Irish Catholic miners who worked gold mines on the Catawba River. Father J. J. O'Connell served the church for six years before moving to the monastery he helped establish, which became Belmont Abbey and Belmont Abbey College. The building's interior keeps its center-aisle plan, a balcony, and a priest's room. After decades of neglect, volunteers and fundraising restored it in the 1970s, and it was rededicated in November 1975 with about 250 attending. It is regarded as an important landmark in the development of Catholicism in western North Carolina.","period_of_significance":"1844-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular temple form with transitional Federal-Greek Revival woodwork","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Altered and maintained; restored in the mid-1970s after a period of neglect, with a rededication in 1975","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.75423-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/7204/47720401/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001709.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001709/fabc490437-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001709/fabc490437-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Joseph%27s_Catholic_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</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:St._Joseph%27s_Catholic_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720401","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph%27s_Catholic_Church_(Mountain_Island,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18705853"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/gaston-county/st-josephs-catholic-church-79001709/"}