{"nrhp_refnum":"86000391","name":"Wentworth Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery","other_names":["Wentworth United Methodist Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NC 65 W of SR 2124","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wentworth","county":"Rockingham County","state":"NC","lat":36.40096680100004,"lon":-79.77754563399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-03-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural Methodist Episcopal church with an attached cemetery on the western edge of Wentworth, the county seat of Rockingham County, North Carolina. The meeting-house form frame church was built ca. 1859 on a fieldstone foundation.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a handsome and largely intact example of an antebellum meeting-house church in rural North Carolina, and the oldest Methodist church building in Rockingham County. It is also associated with Rev. Numa Reid and his sons Frank L. and James W. Reid. The cemetery is said to hold a fine collection of mid-19th to early 20th century tombstones and to reflect social divisions through its separate white and black sections.","narrative":"Set in partly wooded ground just west of Wentworth, the frame church was built about 1859 on a fieldstone foundation with a weatherboard exterior, a pedimented gable front of standing seam metal, and a small open belfry. Its simple meeting-house form, with symmetrical facade, six-over-six windows and an original slave gallery, is described as a handsome and largely intact example of rural antebellum church design in North Carolina. The congregation traces its Methodist presence in the town to 1833 and the present building to an 1836 organization. Rev. Numa Reid, a prominent 19th century Methodist minister and superintendent of the Greensboro district, is buried in the churchyard, and his sons Frank L. Reid and James W. Reid, a U.S. Congressman, are linked to the church. The cemetery holds late 19th and early 20th century markers, including obelisks for three sons of state senator George D. Boyd who died in the Civil War. Its separate section for black members, marked mostly by fieldstones, is considered a source for understanding social stratification of the period.","period_of_significance":"Ca. 1859","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Antebellum meeting-house form","criteria":["B","C","D"],"status_note":"Sanctuary remodeled in 1953 with a two-story annex added; the nomination describes the building as a functioning congregation's church.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.013658-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/13/7220/47722013/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/86000391.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000391/a98c3b9c2f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000391/a98c3b9c2f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wentworth_Methodist_Episcopal_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wentworth_Methodist_Episcopal_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722013","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wentworth_Methodist_Episcopal_Church_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7983027"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rockingham-county/wentworth-methodist-episcopal-church-and-cemetery-86000391/"}