Lynchburg Presbyterian Church
National Register Listing
Street Address:
SC Highway 341, South Lynchburg, SC City Vicinity (Lee County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817731016
Description and Narrative:
Lynchburg Presbyterian Church, built in 1855, is significant as an excellent example of late antebellum Greek Revival ecclesiastical architecture. It is one of the few antebellum buildings still extant in the original community of Lynchburg (now South Lynchburg). The sanctuary was built by members of the congregation, with the assistance of members of the Lynchburg Methodist Church and several slaves and free blacks as well. The church is a two-story temple-form Greek Revival style building with an engaged tetrastyle portico featuring four massive stuccoed solid brick columns. Set upon an open pier brick foundation and sheathed in six-inch wide weatherboard, the building is a local interpretation of the Tuscan order of architecture. A small triangular-shaped, bifurcated and louvered ventilator interrupts the wide expanse of the portico’s pediment. Corner and wall pilasters adorn each side elevation. The interior is primarily a single room with plaster walls and twenty-one foot high ceiling, undecorated except for a large circular plaster medallion in the center. Paneled wainscoting surrounds the interior space along the outer walls, while a paneled balustraded gallery supported by square pillars with capitals extends along the sides of the interior space. The back half of the church’s three-acre lot is the church cemetery, with randomly placed plots and monuments of various designs and dates from the mid-nineteenth through the late twentieth century. Listed in the National Register October 1, 2004.
Period of Significance:
1855
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
October 1 2004
