{"nrhp_refnum":"86000364","name":"New Hope AME Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Alexander St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Guyton","county":"Effingham County","state":"GA","lat":32.34238779900005,"lon":-81.39154291399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-03-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rectangular, wood-framed church building on Alexander Street in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Guyton, Effingham County, Georgia, constructed in 1885 for an African Methodist Episcopal congregation.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a good example of a late 19th-century vernacular wood-framed church and one of the few relatively intact late 19th-century black churches in Effingham County. It is also one of the oldest A.M.E. churches in southeast Georgia and the oldest historic black church in Guyton. Its early ministers and members document the socio-economic make-up of a small-town black community.","narrative":"Built in 1885, New Hope AME Church is a rectangular wood-frame building on Alexander Street in Guyton, Georgia, in the older black neighborhood known as Sugar Hill. It has a gabled sheet-metal roof, brick and concrete piers, and a projecting entrance tower with a belfry and spire on the south facade. A choir room was added in the 1920s. Inside, hand-carved pine pews and tongue-and-groove wainscoting survive, though later changes included frosted windows around 1940 and plywood flooring and wood paneling in the 1960s. The congregation began in 1869, when black Methodists in Guyton organized as part of the Sixth Episcopal District of the Georgia A.M.E. Conference. Local farmers formed the core of the membership, and the church held worship, Sunday school and revivals. It is regarded as the oldest historic black church in Guyton and one of the few fairly intact late 19th-century black churches in Effingham County.","period_of_significance":"1885 - 1930","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th-century vernacular church","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use; altered with a 1920s choir room, replacement windows around 1940, and 1960s floor and altar changes.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.233679-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/86000364.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000364/81d58828b1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000364/81d58828b1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jud McCranie","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Hope_AME_Church,_Guyton,_GA,_US.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jud McCranie</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:New_Hope_AME_Church,_Guyton,_GA,_US.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207917","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134298612"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/effingham-county/new-hope-ame-church-86000364/"}