{"nrhp_refnum":"87001212","name":"Newtown Presbyterian Church","other_names":["Old Presbyterian Church of Newtown"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Sycamore St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newtown","county":"Bucks County","state":"PA","lat":40.23229973300005,"lon":-74.93848648799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-07-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Presbyterian church complex in Newtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, consisting of a stone church building begun in 1769 and remodeled in 1842, a c. 1800 sessions house, a graveyard and stone walls. The church lies on land rising above the west edge of Newtown.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is one of the best preserved examples of the remodeling of early non-Quaker Protestant churches in Bucks County, showing how such congregations expanded their first buildings between 1800 and the Civil War. Its surviving pre-Civil War sessions house is described as one of the few in the county. The graveyard contains graves of Revolutionary War soldiers, reflecting the congregation's role in the war.","narrative":"Stone Presbyterian church in Newtown, Bucks County, built in 1769 and remodeled in 1842, with a sessions house from about 1800 and a walled graveyard. The original building was a two-and-a-half-story stone structure by master mason Mathias Hutchinson, who used the floor plan he had earlier applied to the Buckingham Friends meeting house. The 1842 remodeling added a three-sided apse holding a new pulpit, Greek Revival pilasters and entablature, Doric-columned balconies and tall windows, and the building retains good integrity to that date. A Victorian porch and vestibules were added about 1880. The church is regarded as one of the best preserved examples of how Bucks County's earliest non-Quaker Protestant churches were enlarged during the first half of the nineteenth century. Its graveyard holds twenty-two graves of American Revolutionary War soldiers, and the sessions house is one of few pre-Civil War examples of its kind remaining in the county.","period_of_significance":"1769, 1842, 1880","architect_builder":"Mathias Hutchinson (builder of original building)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.216591-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/87001212.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001212/8468da7b00-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001212/8468da7b00-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shuvaev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newtown_Presbyterian_Church_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Shuvaev</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:Newtown_Presbyterian_Church_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996763","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown_Presbyterian_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7020746"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/bucks-county/newtown-presbyterian-church-87001212/"}