{"nrhp_refnum":"84001979","name":"Harshaw Chapel and Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Church and Central Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Murphy","county":"Cherokee County","state":"NC","lat":35.085282059000065,"lon":-84.03346125799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-04-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small vernacular Greek Revival brick church, dedicated in 1869, and its surrounding Methodist cemetery on a knoll in Murphy, Cherokee County, North Carolina, near Church and Central Streets.","why_significant":"It is the oldest church building in Cherokee County and the oldest relatively intact structure in Murphy. It is also the county's only surviving mid-nineteenth century brick structure. The cemetery holds the graves of many prominent early citizens, the county's largest collection of early marked stones, and a collection of Victorian grave markers.","narrative":"Harshaw Chapel is a small brick church in Murphy, North Carolina, set on a shaded knoll within the Murphy Methodist Cemetery. Built of handmade brick in a simple temple form with a gable roof, it was given to the town's first Methodist congregation by early settler Joshua Harshaw and dedicated on May 1, 1869. Harshaw had donated the site and burial ground in 1844. The congregation moved to a larger church in the 1920s, and the chapel saw little use afterward. In 1965 it was deeded to a local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, which rehabilitated it, including a new cedar shake roof and a rebuilt belfry. It is the oldest church in Cherokee County and the county's only surviving mid-nineteenth century brick building. The cemetery holds graves of prominent early residents, including Murphy's first lawyer and first hotel founder, and the stone of Abram Enloe, tied to a folk tradition about Abraham Lincoln's parentage.","period_of_significance":"Ca. 1869","architect_builder":"James Warner Cooper (contractor)","architectural_style":"Vernacular Greek Revival","criteria":["A","B","C","D"],"status_note":"Rehabilitated after 1965 and now used occasionally for special services; condition listed as fair, with an altered belfry.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.275385-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7195/47719579/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/84001979.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001979/953bf36d6e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001979/953bf36d6e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harshaw_Cemetery_in_Murphy.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harshaw_Cemetery_in_Murphy.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719579","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harshaw_Chapel_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5673870"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/cherokee-county/harshaw-chapel-and-cemetery-84001979/"}