{"nrhp_refnum":"85002376","name":"St. Milachi Church","other_names":["Site #46-1"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"St. Milachi Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Londonderry Twp.","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.89683169600005,"lon":-75.84887927399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"St. Malachi Church is a one-story stuccoed stone Catholic mission church with a cemetery on about two acres of rural land in Londonderry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, above Doe Run. The present church dates from 1838, with substantial improvements in 1865 and 1937.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is the oldest Catholic mission church still in use in southeastern Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia, and that its 18th-century establishment in a remote area indicates early Irish Catholic settlement, which was rare in Penn's original counties. Its cemetery holds a 1771 tombstone, and the church has remained a mission in continuous service despite periods of only quarterly or monthly services.","narrative":"Stuccoed stone Catholic mission church on about two acres in Londonderry Township, Chester County, above the Doe Run valley. Work on the first church began in 1800 and was completed in 1838, with the carpenter John Ferron and stonework by the Maguires and Henry Ferron. The plain one-story building has a gable roof, nine-over-nine windows, and a simple wooden cross on the gable peak. Its interior keeps plain plaster walls, wooden pews with entrance doors, and interior wooden shutters. The adjoining cemetery contains marble tombstones, the earliest dated 1771, with Irish surnames such as Maguire, Dougherty, and Ferron. The church is regarded as the oldest Catholic mission church still in use in southeastern Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia. It never closed during its history, and it reflects early Irish Catholic settlement in an area where Catholics faced hostility under the colonial government.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"John Ferron (carpenter); Maguires and Henry Ferron (stonework)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Church in use; services held weekly","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.619034-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85002376.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002376/9738f4df85-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002376/9738f4df85-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Malachi.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Malachi.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992734","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Malachi_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7589844"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/st-milachi-church-85002376/"}