{"nrhp_refnum":"85001450","name":"Ebenezer Methodist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SR 1008","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bells","county":"Chatham County","state":"NC","lat":35.727223329000026,"lon":-79.00614867499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-07-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-story rural Gothic Revival frame chapel with a cemetery, on the west side of SR 1008 near Bells, Chatham County, North Carolina. The present building dates from about 1890 and was moved in the late 1970s.","why_significant":"The church is one of the oldest Methodist congregations in the New Hope Creek area, founded in 1827, and the building is a well-preserved example of Gothic Revival motifs on a simple frame chapel. It is unusual in Chatham County, where most rural chapels do not reach this level of Gothic Revival expression. It is listed under Criterion A for Methodism's development and Criterion C for vernacular Gothic Revival architecture.","narrative":"Ebenezer Methodist Church is a one-story weatherboard chapel on SR 1008 near Bells, in Chatham County. Its congregation dates to 1827, making it one of the oldest Methodist groups in the New Hope Creek area. Services began in a log chapel, and later buildings followed, including one built in 1867 that tradition says was incorporated into the present structure around 1890. The chapel has a steep tin gable roof, lancet windows, and a projecting entrance tower with a Gothic arch, quatrefoil design, and bellcast pyramid roof. Inside, original doors, wainscoting, grooved wall paneling, and heavy wooden pews survive. Additions were made in 1914 and 1948. Construction of the B. Everett Jordan Dam in the late 1970s led to the church and its cemetery being moved two miles north. It was listed for its link to Methodism in late nineteenth-century North Carolina and as an unusually well-expressed rural Gothic Revival chapel.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1890","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival (vernacular rural chapel)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition rated excellent; the church was moved about two miles north of its original site in the late 1970s because of the B. Everett Jordan Dam, and the cemetery was relocated too.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:51.358851-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/7175/47717515/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/85001450.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001450/ade67f982e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001450/ade67f982e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"sw23","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebenezer_Methodist_Church_2013-09-21_18-03-40.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">sw23</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:Ebenezer_Methodist_Church_2013-09-21_18-03-40.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717515","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Methodist_Church_(Bells,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5331710"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/chatham-county/ebenezer-methodist-church-85001450/"}