{"nrhp_refnum":"95000516","name":"St. Paul's Union Church and Cemetery","other_names":["Old White Church and Cemetery"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of T-798 and PA 4037, SW corner, about 1 mi. E of Ringtown, Union Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ringtown","county":"Schuylkill County","state":"PA","lat":40.85914510200007,"lon":-76.21033572599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-04-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame meeting house church with an adjoining Pennsylvania German cemetery, located about one mile east of Ringtown in Union Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The church was built in 1842 and is commonly called the Old White Church.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a rare surviving example of the meeting house form in Schuylkill County and a late, intact example of the Federal style. It is described as the oldest and only pre-1860 religious building north of the Broad Mountain. The cemetery is nominated for its association with the church and its early burials.","narrative":"Built in 1842 near Ringtown in Union Township, Schuylkill County, the Old White Church is a two-story frame meeting house with a vernacular Federal-style exterior and a painted pulpit and interior that remain largely original. The community raised it with a fieldstone foundation and locally felled timber, and no individual builder is credited. It replaced an earlier log church built around 1810 and served as a union church for Lutheran and Reformed congregations until 1885, after which the Reformed congregation continued to worship there until 1891. It is regarded as the oldest pre-1860 religious building north of the Broad Mountain. The adjoining Union Cemetery holds stone and red shale markers, many in German, and graves dating from the early nineteenth century. The church is significant for its architecture, as an intact example of a regional meeting house, and the cemetery is included for its ties to the church. Annual Ascension Day services continue to draw residents of the valley.","period_of_significance":"1842","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Early 19th-Century Federal","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The church was largely vacant and deteriorating until a restoration committee began work in 1989, and it is now used for services, weddings and community events.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.157176-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/95000516.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000516/14e891faf6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000516/14e891faf6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ, M.D.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ST._PAUL%27S_UNION_CHURCH_AND_CEMETERY,_SCHUYLKILL_COUNTY,_PA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ, M.D.</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ST._PAUL%27S_UNION_CHURCH_AND_CEMETERY,_SCHUYLKILL_COUNTY,_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998002","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_Union_Church_and_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7591201"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/schuylkill-county/st-pauls-union-church-and-cemetery-95000516/"}