Spann Methodist Church and Cemetery
National Register Listing
Street Address:
150 Church St., Ward, SC (Saluda County)
Alternate Name:
Spann United Methodist Church
NRHP Nomination Form
Record Number:
S10817741007
Description and Narrative:
Spann Methodist Church, constructed in 1873, is architecturally significant as a remarkably intact example of a vernacular meeting house that illustrates provincial faithfulness to the Greek Revival while alluding to the Romanesque Revival. The two-bay wide by six-bay long temple-form frame building features an engaged tetrastyle portico with a pedimented gable roof on the façade and an open bed pediment at the rear. Pilasters at the front corner of the building reflect the portico's square tapered wooden pillars with recessed panels. The round arched windows and doors and the louvered lunette in the pediment, both allusions to the Romanesque Revival movement of the late nineteenth century, soften the austere lines of the building and distinguish it from other vernacular meeting houses in rural South Carolina. The cemetery includes a significant collection of funerary art from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of the grave markers reflect the Victorian sentimentality and preoccupation with the rites of death. They include popular motifs and forms such as weeping willows, lambs, tree stumps, obelisks, and a draped urn. The oldest marked grave dates to 1842. Spann Methodist Church and its cemetery are also important for their association with the early development of the town of Ward and its founder, Clinton Ward. The church and its pastoral setting are remarkably intact. Listed in the National Register October 18, 2003.
Period of Significance:
1873
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture;Art
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
2003-10-18
Date of Boundary Increase:
No Boundary Increase
Location:
Saluda County;Ward
