{"nrhp_refnum":"90001291","name":"Salem Bear Creek Church, Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church","other_names":["Ellerton Lutheran and German Reformed Church District"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Union Rd., Dayton Germantown Pike, and Bear Creek","address_restricted":false,"city":"Germantown","county":"Montgomery County","state":"OH","lat":39.68012464800006,"lon":-84.30944682899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-09-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["European","Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small historic district in the village of Ellerton, Montgomery County, Ohio, made up of the 1886-1887 Gothic Revival Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, the neighboring 1860 Ellerton United Church of Christ (German Reformed), and a shared cemetery founded about 1815.","why_significant":"The two churches represent the early nineteenth-century settlement of southwest Montgomery County by Pennsylvania Germans, and together show the shift from simple gable-front churches to Gothic Revival ones. The Lutheran church is an excellent example of Gothic Revival design by a local contractor. The cemetery, said to be the oldest in Jefferson Township, may yield information about the settlers' origins.","narrative":"Ellerton's church district in southwest Montgomery County, Ohio, groups two side-by-side churches and an old cemetery tied to Pennsylvania German settlers. Lutheran and German Reformed congregations organized in 1815 and shared a brick church built in 1860, now occupied by the Ellerton Church of Christ. It was altered over time but keeps its simple gable-front form. In 1886-1887 the Lutherans built their own one-story, cruciform brick church in the Gothic Revival style. It has a square bell tower with a slate spire, pointed-arch stained glass windows and a cut stone foundation. Contractor C. D. Routzahn, a congregation member, built it and later crafted the chancel furniture. The cemetery dates to about 1815, with headstones from 1817 onward. The district was listed for its link to Pennsylvania German settlement, for the architecture of the Lutheran church, and for the cemetery's potential to reveal where settlers came from. Both churches and the cemetery remain in use.","period_of_significance":"1815-1900","architect_builder":"C. D. Routzahn, contractor (Salem Lutheran Church, 1886-1887)","architectural_style":"Mid-Nineteenth Century, Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Both churches and the cemetery are still in religious and funerary use; the 1860 church is still occupied by the Ellerton Church of Christ.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:15.217629-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/90001291.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001291/b1a86ea081-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001291/b1a86ea081-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Pjsham","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salem_Bear_Creek_Church_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pjsham</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:Salem_Bear_Creek_Church_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71985933","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Bear_Creek_Church,_Salem_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7404044"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/montgomery-county/salem-bear-creek-church-salem-evangelical-lutheran-church-90001291/"}