{"nrhp_refnum":"97000250","name":"Church of the Most Holy Trinity","other_names":["St. Patrick's Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"720 Telfair St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Augusta","county":"Richmond County","state":"GA","lat":33.47177210800004,"lon":-81.96691171599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-03-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Art","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stuccoed-brick Roman Catholic church at 720 Telfair Street in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, begun in 1857 and consecrated in 1863, designed in the Round-Arch (Romanesque Revival) style by architect John Rudolph Niernsee.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is among the first Round-Arch style buildings in Georgia and one of the two oldest Catholic church buildings in the state. It also holds important painting, marble altars and stained glass, and it served the community through epidemics and the Civil War.","narrative":"Begun in 1857 and consecrated in 1863, this stuccoed-brick Catholic church at 720 Telfair Street in Augusta is a basilica-plan building in the Round-Arch style, also called Romanesque Revival. Baltimore architect John Rudolph Niernsee designed it. The five-part north facade has two corner towers and a central entrance tower, and the interior has vaulted aisles, gilt cast-iron columns, painted decoration, marble altars made in Baltimore, and stained glass. A 29-rank Jardine organ, delivered in 1868, is described as the largest surviving 19th-century organ in the South. The church was listed for its architecture, its art, its religious standing as one of Georgia's two oldest Catholic church buildings, and its social role. Its priests used church property as a hospital and orphanage during yellow fever epidemics, and the earlier church building served as a hospital ward during the Civil War. The period of significance runs from 1857 to 1919, when the side-aisle stained glass was installed.","period_of_significance":"1857-1919","architect_builder":"Niernsee, John Rudolph (architect)","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival (Round-Arch style)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a religious facility; the form lists both historic and current function as religion.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.144574-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/97000250.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000250/f98d6a6f64-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000250/f98d6a6f64-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Gwringle","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_the_Most_Holy_Trinity,_Telfair_St.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Gwringle</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:Church_of_the_Most_Holy_Trinity,_Telfair_St.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"04000515","name":"Augusta Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/georgia/augusta-downtown-historic-district-04000515/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209355","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134456402"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/richmond-county/church-of-the-most-holy-trinity-97000250/"}