{"nrhp_refnum":"90002003","name":"Piedmont Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District","other_names":["DHR file # 60-500"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of VA 637 and VA 602","address_restricted":false,"city":"Piedmont","county":"Montgomery County","state":"VA","lat":37.10393062600005,"lon":-80.21720178490992,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-01-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly five-acre seasonal religious campground in a hemlock grove on Bottom Creek in Piedmont, Montgomery County, Virginia, with a tabernacle, cottages, a dining hall and two churches, dating from about 1873 to 1940.","why_significant":"The nomination argues significance under Criterion C as an important group of structures showing the form of a seasonal religious campground tied to the early nineteenth-century camp meeting tradition. The small cottages relate to regional double-cell dwellings, and the 1939 tabernacle is described as unique within the county. The grounds also give context for rural cultural life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.","narrative":"Piedmont Camp Meeting Grounds is a five-acre religious campground set in a hemlock grove beside Bottom Creek in Montgomery County, Virginia. It includes a large rustic tabernacle built in 1939, about two dozen small frame cottages from around 1940, a dining hall that began as a church, a concrete block Pentecostal Holiness church rebuilt in 1936, and the ca. 1873 Piedmont Methodist Church, the oldest building. The camp began after a 1910 tent revival at the Methodist church led a group to leave and receive donated land across the road for a tabernacle. Meetings have been held there every year since. The cottages, many board-and-batten with front porches, echo regional double-cell houses but are smaller. The district was recognized for architecture because its buildings and layout preserve the form of a seasonal campground and link to the camp meeting tradition of the early nineteenth century. The tabernacle is unique within the county.","period_of_significance":"ca.1873-1940","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Nave-plan church; double-cell plan (vernacular camp meeting buildings)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Buildings are described as in good repair and largely unaltered; the camp meeting is held annually and the grounds remain in religious and camp use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.588498-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/6787/41678786/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/90002003.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90002003/8eea92ca94-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90002003/8eea92ca94-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piedmont_Pentecostal_Holiness_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piedmont_Pentecostal_Holiness_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678786","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_Camp_Meeting_Grounds_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713063"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/montgomery-county/piedmont-camp-meeting-grounds-historic-district-90002003/"}