Greek Revival brick church built during the 1860s
About
Location: 150 Church St, Murphy, NC
Website: First United Methodist Church
Photo Credits – See Google Photos
Info
Harshaw Chapel is a small vernacular Greek Revival brick church built during the 1860s for the first Methodist congregation in Murphy, North Carolina. The church building was donated by Joshua Harshaw, a prominent early settler in the county.
The site of the church and surrounding cemetery had been donated by Harshaw in 1844, land he had purchased six years previously in the Indian land sales. The small church was replaced by the congregation in the 1920s, and its subsequent survival is remarkable in that it has received little use since. It is the oldest church building in Cherokee County, and is the oldest structure surviving relatively intact in Murphy. Harshaw Chapel is also the sole surviving example of mid-nineteenth century brick architecture in the county.
The church is surrounded by a cemetery, containing the graves of many locally prominent citizens and a collection of notable Victorian grave markers. Among the graves is that of Abram Enloe, subject of a North Carolina folk tradition concerning the parentage of Abraham Lincoln.
There is no admission charge and lots of good, small-town FUN!
