{"nrhp_refnum":"82003640","name":"Emanuel Lutheran Church of Montra","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Montra Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Montra","county":"Shelby County","state":"OH","lat":40.43191291800008,"lon":-84.09287191999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-05-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame hamlet church built in 1873 on Montra Road at the northeast edge of the village of Montra, Shelby County, Ohio, beside a cemetery and overlooking farmland. The builder is unknown.","why_significant":"The church is presented as historically significant as an early house of worship for German Lutheran emigrants who settled the area. It is architecturally significant as one of the finest frame rural churches remaining from the 1870s in Shelby County. A 1980 survey found it the most significant building left in Montra and the only one eligible for listing.","narrative":"Emanuel Lutheran Church is a frame country church on Montra Road at the northeast edge of the small village of Montra in Shelby County, Ohio. It sits beside a cemetery and overlooks farmland. The present building dates to 1873 and replaced the congregation's first church, which burned during a funeral in 1871. Its most notable feature is a three-level central bell tower, with a louvered belfry, an eight-sided louvered drum and a shingled spire added in 1899. In 1923 the church was moved down the hill to its present site, set on a new coursed rock-faced foundation over a newly dug basement, and semicircular stained glass windows were installed. The congregation formed in 1860 with sixteen families of German and Alsace-Lorraine origin who first worshipped in a store room. A 1980 survey found it the most significant surviving building in Montra and described it as one of the finest frame rural churches from the 1870s in the county.","period_of_significance":"1873","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Marked as occupied, in religious use, and unaltered; the form notes the church was moved and given a new foundation in 1923.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.346272-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/82003640.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003640/5dce204764-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003640/5dce204764-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emanuel_Lutheran_Church_of_Montra,_blue_sky.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emanuel_Lutheran_Church_of_Montra,_blue_sky.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991329","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lutheran_Church_of_Montra","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5369099"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/shelby-county/emanuel-lutheran-church-of-montra-82003640/"}