List of churches that are National Historic Landmarks in the United States
Encyclopedia
This is a very incomplete list of churches and other places of religious function that are U.S. National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) in the United States.
A significant proportion of the 2,430 National Historic Landmarks sites in the U.S. are churches.
(However, Mother Mosque of America
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an NRHP.)
The 9 upstate or on Long Island are:
11 in NYC are:
A significant proportion of the 2,430 National Historic Landmarks sites in the U.S. are churches.
NHLs that are A.M.E. or A.M.E. Zion churches
- Brown Chapel A.M.E. ChurchBrown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church is a church in Selma, Alabama, United States. This church was a starting point for the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and, as the meeting place and offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Selma Movement, played a major role in the events...
, Selma, Alabama - Thompson A.M.E. Zion Church in upstate New York
NHLs that are Baptist churches
- African Meeting HouseAfrican Meeting HouseThe African Meeting House, also known variously as First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church and the Belknap Street Church, was built in 1806 and is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. It is located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston,...
in Boston - Bethel Baptist Church (Birmingham, Alabama)Bethel Baptist Church (Birmingham, Alabama)Bethel Baptist Church in Collegeville, a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, served as headquarters from 1956 to 1961 for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights , which was led by Fred Shuttlesworth and active in the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement...
- Dexter Avenue Baptist ChurchDexter Avenue Baptist ChurchDexter Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. The church was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974. In 1978 the official name was changed to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who helped to organize the...
, Montgomery, Alabama - Mount Zion Baptist Church
- 16th Street Baptist Church16th Street Baptist ChurchSixteenth Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama which is frequented predominately by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights...
, Birmingham, Alabama - First Baptist Church (Columbia, South Carolina)First Baptist Church (Columbia, South Carolina)The First Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina is a Greek Revival building built in 1856. A convention met here on December 17, 1860 which voted unanimously for South Carolina to secede from the United States, leading to the American Civil War....
NHLs that were Congregational churches
- Harpswell MeetinghouseHarpswell MeetinghouseHarpswell Meetinghouse is a building started in 1757 for use as a Congregational church and as a town meeting hall.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.It is located on Maine 123 in Harpswell Center 9 miles south of Brunswick....
, in Maine - Rockingham Meeting HouseRockingham Meeting HouseThe Rockingham Meeting House, also known as Old North Meeting House and First Church in Rockingham, is a historic building in Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The Meeting House was built between 1787 and 1801 and was originally used for both Congregational church meetings as well as civic and...
, in Vermont (church ceased meeting in 1819)
NHLs that are Congregational Christian Churches that did not join the United Church of Christ
- Plymouth Church of the PilgrimsPlymouth Church of the PilgrimsPlymouth Church of the Pilgrims is a church in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It was a station of the Underground Railroad, and the pulpit of Henry Ward Beecher, its first pastor...
(did not join)
NHLs that are Episcopal churches
- Church of the NativityEpiscopal Church of the Nativity (Huntsville, Alabama)Episcopal Church of the Nativity is a church in Huntsville, Alabama. It was built in the Gothic Revival style in 1859. It is noted as one of the most pristine examples of Ecclesiological Gothic architecture in the South. It is also one of the least-altered structures by architect Frank Wills and...
, Huntsville, Alabama - St. Andrew's ChurchSt. Andrew's Episcopal Church (Prairieville, Alabama)St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, also known as St. Andrew's Church, in Prairieville, Alabama, is a small Carpenter Gothic style church built in 1853. The exterior of the church features wooden buttresses. It appears to have been built from a design in the book Rural Architecture by architect Richard...
, Prairieville, Alabama - St. Peter's Episcopal ChurchSt. Peter's Episcopal Church (Albany, New York)St. Peter's Episcopal Church, also known as St. Peter's Church, in Albany, New York, is a church built in 1859 that was designed by Richard Upjohn and his son Richard M. Upjohn. The architecture is French-style decorated Gothic....
, Albany, New York - St. Paul's CathedralSt. Paul's Cathedral (Buffalo)St. Paul's Cathedral is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York and a landmark of downtown Buffalo, New York. The church sits on an a triangular lot bounded by Church st., Pearl st., Erie st., and Main st.-History:Major structural events:...
, Buffalo, New York - Church of the AscensionChurch of the Ascension (New York)The Church of the Ascension is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of New York, located at 36-38 Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan New York City. From an austere beginning as a bastion of the evangelical movement it has become internationally known for...
, New York, New York - Grace ChurchGrace Church, New YorkGrace Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, located at 800 and 804 Broadway at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the north, with Grace Church School and the church houses – which are now used by the school – behind it at 86-98...
, New York, New York - St. Ann and the Holy Trinity ChurchSt. Ann and the Holy Trinity ChurchSt. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church is an historic Episcopal church located at the corner of Montague and Clinton streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The building was built as Church of the Holy Trinity, and opened in 1847. Following years of controversy, the...
, New York, New York - St. George's Episcopal ChurchSt. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)St. George's Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 209 East 16th Street at Rutherford Place, on Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan, New York City. Called "one of the first and most significant examples of Early Romanesque Revival church architecture in America", the church exterior was...
, New York, New York - Trinity ChurchTrinity Church, New YorkTrinity Church at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
, New York, New York - St. Mark's ChurchSt. Mark's Episcopal Church, PhiladelphiaSt Mark's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, at 1625 Locust St, Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an Episcopal church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It is part of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.-History:...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Church of the Holy CrossChurch of the Holy Cross (Stateburg, South Carolina)Church of the Holy Cross, also known as the Holy Cross Episcopal Church, is an historic church in Stateburg, in the High Hills of Santee near Sumter, South Carolina. It is located on land donated earlier by General Thomas Sumter, a resident of Stateburg, and its walls were constructed of rammed...
, Stateburg, South Carolina
NHLs that are French Protestant Reformed (Huguenot) churches
- Huguenot ChurchHuguenot ChurchThe Huguenot Church, built in 1844 in Charleston, South Carolina, was the first Gothic Revival church in South Carolina and was designed by architect Edward Brickell White...
in South Carolina
NHLs that are Greek Orthodox churches
- Church of St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Church of St. George (Des Moines, Iowa)The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Des Moines, Iowa is a parish of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America located in the Drake Neighborhood near Drake University....
, Des Moines, Iowa
NHLs that are Jewish synagogues
- Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue, in South Carolina
- Central SynagogueCentral SynagogueThe Central Synagogue is located at 652 Lexington Avenue on the corner of 55th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Built in 1872 in the Moorish Revival style as a copy of Budapest's Dohány Street Synagogue, it pays homage to the Jewish existence in Moorish Spain...
, in NYC - Eldridge Street SynagogueEldridge Street SynagogueThe Eldridge Street Synagogue, built in 1887, is National Historic Landmark synagogue on Manhattan's Lower East Side.-History:The Eldridge Street Synagogue is the first synagogue erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews. One of the founders was Rabbi Eliahu the Blessed , formerly the...
, in NYC - Plum Street TempleIsaac M. Wise TempleThe Isaac M. Wise Temple is the historic synagogue erected for Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Rabbi Wise was the founder of American Reform Judaism. The temple building was designed by prominent Cincinnati architect James Keys Wilson.The temple is located at 720 Plum Street in Cincinnati, Ohio and was...
, Ohio
NHLs that are Muslim mosques
There appear to be none.(However, Mother Mosque of America
Mother Mosque of America
The Mother Mosque of America, once known as The Rose of Fraternity Lodge and also known as Moslem Temple, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, is the longest standing mosque in North America...
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an NRHP.)
NHLs that are Presbyterian churches
- First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor, New York),
- Willard Memorial Chapel-Welch Memorial HallWillard Memorial Chapel-Welch Memorial HallThe Willard Memorial Chapel and the adjoining Welch Memorial Hall are a National Historic Landmark designed by Andrew Jackson Warner of Rochester, New York, which feature the stained-glass windows and interior decoration of Louis Comfort Tiffany...
- Government Street Presbyterian ChurchGovernment Street Presbyterian ChurchGovernment Street Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest and least-altered Greek Revival church buildings in the United States. The architectural design is by James Gallier, James Dakin, and Charles Dakin. The trio also designed Barton Academy, four blocks down Government Street to the west...
, Mobile, AlabamaMobile, AlabamaMobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
NHLs that were shared by various Protestant churches
- Round Church (Richmond, Vermont), in Richmond, Vermont
NHLs that are Quaker meetinghouses
- Old Quaker Meeting House (Flushing, Queens), in NYC
- Race Street Friends MeetinghouseRace Street Friends MeetinghouseThe Race Street Friends Meetinghouse is a historic and still active Quaker meetinghouse located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The meetinghouse, at 1515 Cherry Street, served as the site of the Yearly Meeting of the Hicksite sect of the Religious Society of Friends from 1857 to 1955...
, in Philadelphia - Buckingham Friends Meeting HouseBuckingham Friends Meeting HouseBuckingham Friends Meeting House, in Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania, built in 1768, is nationally significant as a model for other Friends Meeting Houses.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003....
, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania - Merion Friends Meeting HouseMerion Friends Meeting HouseMerion Friends Meeting House in Merion Station, Pennsylvania is the second oldest Friends meeting house in the United states and remains the place of worship of the of The Religious Society of Friends . The meeting was founded by the first known group of Welsh settlers in the Americas...
, in Pennsylvania
NHLs that are Roman Catholic churches
- Mission San Xavier del BacMission San Xavier del BacMission San Xavier del Bac is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation...
, Arizona - Mission San Luis Rey de FranciaMission San Luis Rey de FranciaMission San Luis Rey de Francia, also known as Mission San Luis Rey or San Luis Rey Mission Church, was founded on June 13, 1798 in coastal Las Californias, in the present day U.S. city of Oceanside in California. The local Quechnajuichom Native American tribe became known as the Luiseño 'Mission...
, Oceanside, California - Santa Barbara Mission, Santa Barbara, California
- Church of the Holy FamilyChurch of the Holy Family (Cahokia)The Church of the Holy Family is a Roman Catholic church located in the St. Clair County, Illinois city of Cahokia. The Log Church, built in 1799 and replacing a similar church built in 1699, is the oldest church completely west of the Alleghany Mountains...
, Cahokia, Illinois - St. Patrick's CathedralSt. Patrick's Cathedral, New YorkThe Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
, New York, New York
NHLs that are Russian Orthodox churches
- Church of the Holy AscensionChurch of the Holy AscensionThe Church of the Holy Ascension was built in 1826 by the Russian American Fur Company. It played a significant role in evangelizing the indigenous people in then-Russian Alaska. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.It was restored in 1998...
, Alaska - Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary ChurchHoly Assumption of the Virgin Mary ChurchHoly Assumption Orthodox Church, also known as Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a Russian Orthodox church in Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USA...
, Alaska - St. Michael's Cathedral (Sitka, Alaska)St. Michael's Cathedral (Sitka, Alaska)St. Michael's Cathedral , also known as Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel , is a cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America Diocese of Alaska at Lincoln and Matsoutoff Streets in Sitka, Alaska...
NHLs that are Unitarian Universalist churches
- First Unitarian Society of Madison, in Wisconsin
- Unity TempleUnity TempleUnity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
, in Illinois - Old Ship ChurchOld Ship ChurchThe Old Ship Church was built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts in the United States. It is the oldest church in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States. It is the only remaining 17th century Puritan meetinghouse in America...
in Massachusetts
NHLs that are United Church of Christ (U.C.C.) churches
- Circular Congregational Church and Parish HouseCircular Congregational Church and Parish HouseCircular Congregational Church and Parish House is a church in Charleston, South Carolina that was built in Richardsonian Romanesque style circa 1892 , and its Greek revival-style parish house built in about 1806. The parish house was designed by Robert Mills, along with the original church on the...
, Charleston, South Carolina - Old South Church, Boston
- Old South Meeting HouseOld South Meeting HouseThe Old South Meeting House , in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.-Church :The church, with its 56 m ...
in Boston
NHLs that are United Methodist churches
- Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Tulsa, Oklahoma
NHL churches in New York State
There are twenty churches that are NHLs in New York State:The 9 upstate or on Long Island are:
- one of the three buildings in Cobblestone Historic DistrictCobblestone Historic DistrictThe Cobblestone Historic District is located along state highway NY 104 in Childs, New York, United States. It comprises three buildings that exemplify the cobblestone architecture developed to a high degree in the regions of upstate New York near Lake Ontario and exported to other areas with...
, - Dutch Reformed Church (Newburgh, New York)Dutch Reformed Church (Newburgh, New York)The Dutch Reformed Church is one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Newburgh, New York. It was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1835 in the Greek Revival style common in America in that time period. It is his only surviving church in that style and is considered to be his latest...
, - Dutch Reformed Church (Sleepy Hollow),
- First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor, New York),
- Harriet Tubman's Thompson AME Zion Church,
- the Indian Castle Church in Mohawk Upper Castle Historic DistrictMohawk Upper Castle Historic DistrictMohawk Upper Castle Historic District is a historic district in Herkimer County, New York that was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993...
, - St. Paul's Cathedral (Buffalo)St. Paul's Cathedral (Buffalo)St. Paul's Cathedral is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York and a landmark of downtown Buffalo, New York. The church sits on an a triangular lot bounded by Church st., Pearl st., Erie st., and Main st.-History:Major structural events:...
, - St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Albany, New York)St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Albany, New York)St. Peter's Episcopal Church, also known as St. Peter's Church, in Albany, New York, is a church built in 1859 that was designed by Richard Upjohn and his son Richard M. Upjohn. The architecture is French-style decorated Gothic....
, - Willard Memorial Chapel-Welch Memorial HallWillard Memorial Chapel-Welch Memorial HallThe Willard Memorial Chapel and the adjoining Welch Memorial Hall are a National Historic Landmark designed by Andrew Jackson Warner of Rochester, New York, which feature the stained-glass windows and interior decoration of Louis Comfort Tiffany...
and
11 in NYC are:
- Central SynagogueCentral SynagogueThe Central Synagogue is located at 652 Lexington Avenue on the corner of 55th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Built in 1872 in the Moorish Revival style as a copy of Budapest's Dohány Street Synagogue, it pays homage to the Jewish existence in Moorish Spain...
, - Church of the AscensionChurch of the Ascension (New York)The Church of the Ascension is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of New York, located at 36-38 Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan New York City. From an austere beginning as a bastion of the evangelical movement it has become internationally known for...
, - Eldridge Street SynagogueEldridge Street SynagogueThe Eldridge Street Synagogue, built in 1887, is National Historic Landmark synagogue on Manhattan's Lower East Side.-History:The Eldridge Street Synagogue is the first synagogue erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews. One of the founders was Rabbi Eliahu the Blessed , formerly the...
, - Grace Church, New YorkGrace Church, New YorkGrace Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, located at 800 and 804 Broadway at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the north, with Grace Church School and the church houses – which are now used by the school – behind it at 86-98...
, - Old Quaker Meeting HouseOld Quaker Meeting HouseThe Old Quaker Meeting House is a historic Quaker house of worship located at 137-16 Northern Boulevard, in Flushing, Queens, New York. It is part of Flushing Monthly Meeting....
, - Plymouth Church of the PilgrimsPlymouth Church of the PilgrimsPlymouth Church of the Pilgrims is a church in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It was a station of the Underground Railroad, and the pulpit of Henry Ward Beecher, its first pastor...
, - St. Ann and the Holy Trinity ChurchSt. Ann and the Holy Trinity ChurchSt. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church is an historic Episcopal church located at the corner of Montague and Clinton streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The building was built as Church of the Holy Trinity, and opened in 1847. Following years of controversy, the...
, - Trinity Church, New YorkTrinity Church, New YorkTrinity Church at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
, - St. George's Episcopal ChurchSt. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)St. George's Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 209 East 16th Street at Rutherford Place, on Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan, New York City. Called "one of the first and most significant examples of Early Romanesque Revival church architecture in America", the church exterior was...
, - St. Patrick's CathedralSt. Patrick's Cathedral, New YorkThe Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
, - St. Paul's ChapelSt. Paul's ChapelSt. Paul's Chapel, is an Episcopal chapel located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton and Vesey Streets, in lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan.-History and architecture:...
).