{"nrhp_refnum":"82000990","name":"Old Santa Rosa Catholic Church and Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambria","county":"San Luis Obispo County","state":"CA","lat":35.56605909500007,"lon":-121.08094422299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-10-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small wooden one-room Catholic country church and its adjoining cemetery on a hilltop overlooking the old village of Cambria, San Luis Obispo County, California. The church was built in 1870-71.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was the first church built in Cambria and is one of the oldest surviving structures in the town and county. It is an excellent, remarkably unaltered example of simple Classically-inspired rural California church architecture. With its cemetery, it reflects the social and religious attitudes of its period.","narrative":"Old Santa Rosa Catholic Church and its cemetery sit on a hilltop above the old village of Cambria, California, reached by a narrow road climbing from Main Street. The church is a small, symmetrical, rectangular wooden building of pine with three-clapboard siding, a gabled roof, and a round-arched entrance holding two paneled doors beneath a fanlight. Construction began in the winter of 1870-71, after Bishop Amat paid for a parcel of land from Jeffrey Phelan and a local lumber mill was equipped to turn out the distinctive siding. The nomination describes it as the first church in Cambria and one of the oldest surviving structures in the town and county. It is notably unaltered and shows how Classical building traditions were carried to California's frontier communities. The building is now deteriorated, with boarded windows and nailed doors, and a local committee plans its restoration for community use.","period_of_significance":"1870-71","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Simple Classically-inspired rural church architecture","criteria":[],"status_note":"In a state of disrepair from neglect and vandalism: windows broken and boarded, doors nailed shut, furnishings removed. A restoration committee plans to restore it as \"Old Santa Rosa Chapel\" for community use.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.012505-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82000990.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000990/bf9f66742e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000990/bf9f66742e-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Mx. Granger","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Santa_Rosa_Cemetery_3.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mx. Granger</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Santa_Rosa_Cemetery_3.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861471","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Santa_Rosa_Catholic_Church_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7084900"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-luis-obispo-county/old-santa-rosa-catholic-church-and-cemetery-82000990/"}