{"nrhp_refnum":"84001917","name":"First Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"400 S. Broad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burlington","county":"Alamance County","state":"NC","lat":36.09027634800003,"lon":-79.43427465899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-05-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Neoclassical Revival church building at 400 South Broad Street, Burlington, North Carolina, at the southeast edge of the Central Business District. Designed by Herbert Hunter of High Point and begun in 1921, it opened in 1924 and has later additions.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of Burlington's two outstanding Neoclassical Revival churches, with a restrained Ionic hexastyle temple front. It was built by one of the city's leading congregations, whose growth paralleled the community's prosperity in the early twentieth century. It is also tied to the Union Church, the community's earliest place of worship and education.","narrative":"First Baptist Church occupies about half a block at Broad and East Davis streets, on the southeast edge of Burlington's business district. The original sanctuary, designed by High Point architect Herbert Hunter and begun in 1921, is faced in buff brick with stone ornament and fronted by a monumental Ionic hexastyle portico. Inside, curved side walls give the two-story sanctuary the feel of a circular auditorium, with a baptismal pool framed by an arch and a Tiffany-style stained glass landscape. Later wings follow the original design: an educational building by R. R. Markley of Durham, a 1953 chapel and Sunday School wing, and a four-story classroom wing designed by Burlington architect Vernon Lewis in 1968. The Baptist congregation formed in 1887 after meeting at the Union Church, and grew with the city's early twentieth-century prosperity. The new church opened in 1924 at a cost of $102,000. It is recognized for its congregation's role in the community and as one of Burlington's best institutional examples of Neoclassical Revival design.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Herbert Hunter; additions by R. R. Markley (1940), 1953, and Vernon L. Lewis (1968)","architectural_style":"Neoclassical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a religious property; condition listed as excellent and altered by later additions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:48.978164-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/50/7172/47717250/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/84001917.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001917/7e773f6c38-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001917/7e773f6c38-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Byrd.caswell","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church-27215.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Byrd.caswell</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:First_Baptist_Church-27215.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717250","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Baptist_Church_(Burlington,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452363"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/alamance-county/first-baptist-church-84001917/"}