{"nrhp_refnum":"95001329","name":"Mt. Tabor Church Building, Cemetery and Hitching Lot","other_names":["The Century Old Meetinghouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"OH 245, 300 meters S of jct. with Mt. Tabor Rd., Salem Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Liberty","county":"Champaign County","state":"OH","lat":40.22900544500004,"lon":-83.69393784099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural Methodist Episcopal church, cemetery and hitching lot on State Route 245 in Salem Township, Champaign County, Ohio, near West Liberty. The brick Gothic Revival church was built in 1881 and is also known as The Century Old Meetinghouse.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a very well-preserved and the most elaborate Gothic Revival rural church in Champaign County, retaining much original fabric. The cemetery shows over 175 years of funerary art, and the hitching lot reflects local camp meetings during the early nineteenth-century religious revival.","narrative":"Set on a knoll above the Mingo Creek and Mad River valleys, this rural Ohio property combines an 1881 brick church, a cemetery and a grassy hitching lot across State Route 245. The congregation began in the early 1800s, and a log meetinghouse was built in 1816. Large camp meetings later moved to the hitching lot, drawing worshippers from up to a hundred miles away. The present church is a gable-front Gothic Revival building with a patterned slate roof, lancet windows with stained glass, and scroll-sawn brackets and trefoil cutwork on the facade. Inside, it keeps its original mahogany pulpit, pine pews with bull's-eye ornament, and light fixtures, along with pews from the 1830 church. The cemetery holds markers dating from 1813, some by local stone sculptor Harley Woodard. Membership declined after 1881, and the church was sold to the township in 1939. It is now used for historical programs.","period_of_significance":"1881-1939","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian Gothic (Gothic Revival with minor Italianate features)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Owned by Salem Township and used to present historical programs for education and entertainment; attempts to revive it as a chapel were short-lived.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.452842-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/95001329.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001329/cf1f6f9026-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001329/cf1f6f9026-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mt._Tabor_Church_Building_and_Cemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mt._Tabor_Church_Building_and_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987022","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tabor_Methodist_Episcopal_Church_(West_Liberty,_Ohio)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14716737"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/champaign-county/mt-tabor-church-building-cemetery-and-hitching-lot-95001329/"}