Mount Vernon Springs Historic District

Mount Vernon Springs is a rural village of farmhouses, a church, and academy buildings in the hills of western Chatham County, North Carolina. Its oldest building is the Female Dormitory of the Mount Vernon Springs Baptist Academy, built in 1855, a three-bay frame I-house with Greek Revival detailing. The Mount Vernon Springs Presbyterian Church, completed in 1885, has lancet windows with stained glass and a two-stage bell tower in the Gothic Revival style. Several houses from the late 1870s and 1880s, including the Kirkman and Johnson houses, show retarditaire Greek Revival details such as sidelights and corner pilasters. The village grew around a mineral spring that became a health resort after John M. Foust bought the springs and hotel around 1881. The district's buildings reflect the community's rise as a resort and farming village, which is the basis for its listing.