Wartburg Presbyterian Church Wartburg, Tennessee

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The Wartburg Presbyterian Church is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance. The period of significance is the date of construction of the historic church building: 1883. This building retains a high level of both exterior and interior integrity, and serves as a strong example of local vernacular craftsmanship as a Folk Victorian church building. The church is an example of a transitional style, between the simple rectilinear churches characteristic of rural Protestant religious architecture in Tennessee up to that point, and adoption of the Victorian architectural vocabularies of the period, both in the ornamental details on the church and in the irregular footprint of the building. Rather than exhibiting traditional styles of religious architecture, this building borrows from both Gothic Revival and Queen Anne styles in a unique local expression of Late Victorian religious architecture. As a religious property whose significance derives from its architectural design, it meets the burden of Criterion Consideration A.