{"nrhp_refnum":"84001992","name":"Beck's Reformed Church Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"SR 2250","address_restricted":false,"city":"Silver Hill","county":"Davidson County","state":"NC","lat":35.75818921000007,"lon":-80.22547950799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 2.5-acre church cemetery east of SR 2250 near Silver Hill, southeast of Lexington in Davidson County, North Carolina. It holds about 500 gravestones and belongs to Beck's Reformed Church, which was founded in 1787.","why_significant":"The cemetery has the largest number of early, traditional German gravestones of any cemetery in Davidson County. Its decorative soapstone markers with folk symbols of resurrection and eternity are described as the height of folk art among the area's Anglo-German farmers. The collection shows the range of the local German design idiom.","narrative":"Beck's Reformed Church Cemetery is a large burial ground of about 500 gravestones southeast of Lexington, in Davidson County, North Carolina. It belongs to a congregation founded in 1787 as a union Lutheran and Reformed church on land given by Dr. John Billings, L. Smith and others. The Reformed congregation built a frame church north of the cemetery in 1878, and the present brick church was dedicated in 1951. About 75 of the stones are of local manufacture, the earliest dated 1771. The cemetery holds more Early Phase gravestones than any other in the county, many with splayed sides and monogrammed or dated semicircular tops in the German tradition. Most are small, simple markers probably carved by family members. Others are decorative soapstone stones with folk symbols of resurrection and eternity, and a few are attributed to known stonecutters. Together they show the range of local German gravestone design and the folk art of the area's Anglo-German farming community.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 and 1900- boxes checked, with 1700-1799 art also marked; specific dates given as \"various\"","architect_builder":"Stonecutters unknown; a few stones are attributed to James Cavany of York Co., S.C., John Rickard, and the Master of the Upper and Lower Case","architectural_style":"Folk gravestone art in the traditional German design idiom (Early Phase, Pierced Tradition, Swisegood School)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Marked occupied and in deteriorated condition on the form; still an active church cemetery, with the present brick Reformed church dedicated in 1951.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.117706-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/49/7176/47717649/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/84001992.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001992/000bf8316d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001992/000bf8316d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Bobbywomble","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graveyard_View_with_Beck_Church_in_Background.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bobbywomble</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:Graveyard_View_with_Beck_Church_in_Background.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717649","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beck%27s_Reformed_Church_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4878583"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/davidson-county/becks-reformed-church-cemetery-84001992/"}