{"nrhp_refnum":"91001914","name":"St. Luke's Church and Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"303--321 N. Cedar St., 322 E. McBee St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lincolnton","county":"Lincoln County","state":"NC","lat":35.47430983700008,"lon":-81.25331808599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-01-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A church and cemetery complex at 303-321 North Cedar Street and 322 East McBee Street in Lincolnton, Lincoln County, North Carolina. It has a Gothic Revival Episcopal church, a parish hall, a rectory, a cemetery and a noncontributing house, with the church dating from 1885-1886 and a bell tower tracing to an 1843 building.","why_significant":"The 1885-1886 church retains what the form calls the most important Victorian church interior in Lincoln County, with carved woodwork and memorial furnishings designed largely by Silas McBee. The property also holds the original 1843 bell tower, a cemetery with gravestones from the 1850s onward, and the graves of Civil War dead including Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur. It reflects the long ministry of Rev. William R. Wetmore.","narrative":"Set in a residential neighborhood of Lincolnton, St. Luke's Church and Cemetery is an Episcopal complex that includes a Gothic Revival church, parish hall, rectory and burying ground. The church was built in 1885-1886 on an east-west axis, with design and much of the interior carving credited to Silas McBee. Its bell tower, now the south transept, is traditionally the entrance tower of the congregation's first church of 1842-1843, whose steeple was rebuilt in 1859. A pebble-dash coating added in 1917 failed, and brick veneer replaced it in 1922-1923. Inside, pine, oak and chestnut woodwork, stained glass, a carved rood screen, altar and reredos survive from the Victorian period. The cemetery holds about 300 gravestones, including the Guion obelisk and iron-fenced plots of Civil War dead such as Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur. The ministry of Rev. William R. Wetmore, which ended with his death in 1904, shaped the parish's history.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Silas McBee (design of the 1885-1886 church and much of the interior carving); Haywood W. Guion (reputed plan of the original 1842-1843 church)","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival; Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Church, church-related dwelling and cemetery are still in religious and funerary use; the exterior was covered in brick veneer in 1922-1923.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.838227-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/7210/47721094/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/91001914.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001914/c84ae01e1d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001914/c84ae01e1d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Lukes_Episcopal_Church,_Lincolnton,_NC.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</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:St._Lukes_Episcopal_Church,_Lincolnton,_NC.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721094","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Luke%27s_Church_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7589767"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/lincoln-county/st-lukes-church-and-cemetery-91001914/"}