{"nrhp_refnum":"84000077","name":"Gaston Chapel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"100 Bouchelle St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Morganton","county":"Burke County","state":"NC","lat":35.74753007900006,"lon":-81.68696852599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-10-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick African Methodist Episcopal church at 100 Bouchelle Street on the northeast side of Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina, built between 1900 and 1911 largely by its own congregation.","why_significant":"It is the oldest surviving and first substantial Black church building in Burke County. Its design, a simplified ecclesiastical Gothic with Romanesque influences, follows that of white churches built in Morganton in the 1890s. It is tied to the organization of Black congregations after the Civil War and has long been a religious and social center for the Black community.","narrative":"Gaston Chapel is a brick church on Bouchelle Street in Morganton, built between 1900 and 1911 for an African Methodist Episcopal congregation. It is the oldest surviving Black church building in Burke County and the first substantial one. Members of the congregation, many of them skilled carpenters and bricklayers, supplied much of the labor, and the bricks were apparently made on the site. Construction was slow because of financial troubles, including the failure of a local bank. The design is a restrained version of Gothic church architecture with Romanesque touches, shown in its crenellated towers of unequal height, pointed-arch stained-glass windows and brick buttresses. It follows the pattern of white churches built in Morganton during the 1890s. The congregation grew out of Black Methodist groups formed after the Civil War, when Black worshipers left or were pushed out of established white churches. The chapel has remained a center of worship, education and social clubs, and it has the largest A.M.E. membership in the county.","period_of_significance":"1900-11","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Ecclesiastical Gothic with Romanesque references","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in generally good condition, retaining most of its original exterior and interior fabric; still used by an active congregation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.03288-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/7193/47719315/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/84000077.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000077/356f89823c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000077/356f89823c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Warren LeMay","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaston_Chapel_AME_Church,_Morganton,_NC.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Warren LeMay</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaston_Chapel_AME_Church,_Morganton,_NC.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"87001930","name":"Morganton Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/morganton-downtown-historic-district-87001930/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719315","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Chapel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5526716"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/burke-county/gaston-chapel-84000077/"}