{"nrhp_refnum":"92001388","name":"Mount Zion Baptist Church","other_names":["VDHR File No. 104-181"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"105 Ridge St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charlottesville (Independent City)","county":"Charlottesville","state":"VA","lat":38.03013137700003,"lon":-78.48590832599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-10-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick, gable-fronted church with a projecting front tower at 105 Ridge Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, built in 1883-1884 by a Black Baptist congregation organized in 1867. The builder of the brickwork was George A. Sinclair.","why_significant":"The church is significant for its link to Charlottesville's newly freed African Americans and their effort to build a community after emancipation. It served as a house of worship, social center, theater, and meeting place for the Black community. It is also one of very few structures left from the Vinegar Hill area, which urban renewal destroyed in the 1960s.","narrative":"Mount Zion Baptist Church is a one-story brick church on Ridge Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, raised in 1883-1884 on a high English basement. It has a square front tower topped by an octagonal drum and spire, and its brickwork includes pilasters, dentilled corbeling, and round-arched stained glass windows that blend Italianate and Classical Revival features. The congregation formed in 1867 after Black Baptists left the segregated galleries of the white Baptist church. Members first met in homes, then built a frame church, which was torn down in 1883 to make way for the brick building. George A. Sinclair was the brickwork builder. The church served as a place of worship, a social center, a theater, and a meeting house for Charlottesville's Black residents at a time when most other organizations were controlled by white society. Later changes included a steeple, an organ, additions, and roof reinforcement. It remains in use as a church.","period_of_significance":"1883-1941","architect_builder":"Sinclair, George A.","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Italianate; Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Classical Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still used as a church; several renovations and two small side additions have been made since 1884, but the building is described as essentially a late-nineteenth-century structure.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.76541-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/6800/41680077/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/92001388.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001388/6df6dd118d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001388/6df6dd118d-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Zion_Baptist_Church,_Charlottesville.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Zion_Baptist_Church,_Charlottesville.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100001641","name":"West Main Street Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/west-main-street-historic-district-100001641/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680077","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Zion_Baptist_Church_(Charlottesville,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6924756"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/charlottesville/mount-zion-baptist-church-92001388/"}