Bethesda Presbyterian Church (Aberdeen, North Carolina)
Bethesda Presbyterian Church | |
Bethesda Presbyterian Church, September 2011 | |
| Location | NC 5, Aberdeen, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°7′52″N 79°24′45″W / 35.13111°N 79.41250°W |
| Area | 22.2 acres (9.0 ha) |
| Built | 1860 |
| Built by | McLeod, Archie; McCaskill, Norman |
| NRHP reference No. | 79003345[1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 22, 1979 |
Bethesda Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located on NC 5 in Aberdeen, Moore County, North Carolina.
Architecture
It is a two-story, vernacular frame meeting house. It rests on tall granite piers, is sheathed in weatherboard, and has a hipped roof. The front facade features a projecting two-stage bell tower.[2] The upper gallery of the church were originally reserved for slaves.[3]
History
A Presbyterian congregation was established in Aberdeen in 1788,[4] founded by Highland Scots who emigrated to North Carolina. They built a church in the early 1800s but their congregation had outgrown the building by 1859.[3] In 1860,[2] a new church was constructed at the site.[3] It was the third church built on those grounds and was dedicated on May 10, 1862.[4]
During the American Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army camped on the church's grounds.[5] The exterior sustained bullet holes during the war, which are visible today.[6]
In 1907, the congregation moved to a larger space,[3] a newly constructed Gothic Revival Bethesda Presbyterian Church on High Street.[7] The original 1860 church building has since been preserved in its original condition.[3] The Old Bethesda Cemetery Association was formed to maintain the church and its cemetery in 1927.[2]
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[1] It is now the oldest surviving church in Aberdeen.[3] It is often used as a venue for weddings and other events.[6]
Cemetery
Also on the property is the Bethesda Cemetery which has historically been used by both the church's congregation and members of adjacent communities.[2] Several historical figures, including Aberdeen's founder Allison Francis Page,[8] Walter Hines Page,[5] Frank Page,[9] and Robert N. Page,[10] are buried there.
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Davyd Foard Hood and Jerry Cross (April 1979). "Bethesda Presbyterian Church" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
- ^ a b c d e f Farrell, Robert A. (2013). Aberdeen. Arcadia Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7385-9815-4.
- ^ a b Massengill, Stephen E. (1998-05-01). Around Southern Pines: A Sandhills Album. Arcadia Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-7385-5419-8.
- ^ a b Project, Federal Writers' (2013-10-31). The WPA Guide to North Carolina: The Tar Heel State. Trinity University Press. p. 350. ISBN 978-1-59534-231-7.
- ^ a b Craig, Ruth; Sullivan, Mark (2007-02-13). Fodor's the Carolinas & Georgia. Fodor's Travel Publications. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-4000-1741-6.
- ^ Farrell, Robert A. (2013). Aberdeen. Arcadia Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7385-9815-4.
- ^ Powell, William S. (2000-11-09). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 5, P-S. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8078-6700-6.
- ^ "Page, Frank | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2025-07-28.
- ^ Spencer, Thomas E. (1998). Where They're Buried: A Directory Containing More Than Twenty Thousand Names of Notable Persons Buried in American Cemeteries, with Listings of Many Prominent People who Were Cremated. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-8063-4823-0.