Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church, a weatherboarded frame sanctuary, and its cemetery, located on a gentle rise on the southwest side of NC 87 at its junction with SR 1712, sit on grass-covered sandy soil shaded by native post oaks, blackjack oaks, sycamores, pines,
and dogwood trees. These mature trees rise up and above the church allowing it to visually dominate the site. In the cemetery to the west and southwest of the church there are native sycamores and cedars together with plantings of Camellia japonica, Magnolia grandiflora, long-leaf pines and conifers. These serve to ornament the burying ground which includes some 425 stones of modest size yet solid appearance. The overall form and finish of Mt. Horeb Church is plain yet impressive. The simple three bay ,only four bay structure, twenty-seven feet wide and forty feet deep, is dominated by the full-facade portico added to its southeast, front elevation in 1932. Its gable roof is consistent with the older gable roof over the sanctuary and the weatherboarded gable end is marked by shallow returns at each corner. It is supported by four simple Tuscan columns, paired near the edges of the porch, which rise from shallow bases to simply-turned capitals. The portico's poured cement floor, added in 1952, rests on a common brick foundation like the 1951 infill of the earlier brick piers on which the church sits. The portico shelters the central entrance and its flanking bays. The main entrance is comprised of a pair of six horizontal panel doors below a four-pane transom. It and the windows to its sides, which contain nine-over-nine sash, are enframed by simple original board surrounds embellished with a diagonally molded outer band. The sash are fitted with crinkle glass panes which replaced the original/replacement panes in 1932. The northeast and southwest side elevations of the sanctuary are syMmetrically arranged with four window openings on each elevation. These repeat the form and finish of those under the portico and, like them, they have shallow sills. The window openings are now
fitted with aluminum storm windows; however, the marks for the old (original?) blind pintels survive. The rear elevation of the church has a two bay, symmetrically disposed, elevation. There is a ventilating window high in the gable end shaded by an inobtrusive metal awning. The Sunday School addition, set at the north corner of the sanctuary and occupying portions of both the northwest and northeast elevations, was designed by Leslie Boney of Wilmington and erected in 1952 by contractors/builders Howard Johnson, Glenn Parker, and Kadell Peterson. It is a simply finished, weatherboarded, frame addition resting on a common bond brick foundation and covered by a gable roof, set perpendicular to the sanctuary's roof. It has two symmetrically arranged windows on both its northwest and northeast elevations. On the southeast elevation there is a shallow, centrally placed, stoop covered by a braced gable roof frame awning. A flight of three brick steps leads up to the poured cement floor of the stoop. The six panel door, flanked by windows, is simply framed, as are the window openings which contain six-over-six sash. They too have crinkle glass panes.
The interior of the church is a single chamber sanctuary and retains much of its original
character and finish. The tongue and groove flooring is now covered with carpet. Narrow
baseboards carry along the bottoms of the plaster walls. The ceiling is sheathed with
tongue and groove ceiling which probably dates from the early-20th century. The window
openings have simple molded surrounds almost identical to those on the exterior; however,
the apron below the openings is completely enframed by applied moldings, giving an
added flourish to the appearance of the windows. The church follows a center aisle plan
with ranks of original hand-planed pews to either side. The aisle focuses on the northwest
end of the room where the raised chancel occupies the space in front of and between
the two windows there. Steps are cut into the platform at its front corners. The pulpit
furniture is original to the church but dates from several periods. The most recent
additions are a pair of large chairs, behind and to either side of the pulpit. Their
broken pediment cresting served as the model for a carved pediment, installed in 1952,
over and connecting the windows. The space below the pediment and between the windows
was then hung with a red velvet dossal. There are two pews for the choir in the west
corner of the sanctuary and a piano in the north corner. Here a door opens into the
Sunday School addition. It contains a men's and women's lavatory and three classrooms.
The two larger of the three rooms, themselves of equal size and situated along the northeast
side of the addition, are fitted with folding doors in their common partition wall
which can be opened for larger gatherings. The finish here consists of tongue and groove
flooring, painted sheetrock walls, simple baseboards and surrounds, two panel doors, and
celotex on the ceilings.
The stones in the cemetery are a traditional group, ranging in date from the antebellum
period to the present. The styles of monuments are, for the most part, rather typical
and most appear to be the standard lot of the stonecarver. However, there are exceptions
of note. The marker for Charles H. Stevens (1879-1898) is signed "Cooper" and was made
in Raleigh. The gravestone of Edwin A. Pate (1832-1898) is inscribed "Tucker Bros(s),
Wil(,) N.C." The gravestones of Angus McFadyen (1821-1896) and his wife Sarah E.
(1825-1887) have inscribed, recessed circles in their upper plane in which an open book
is carved. A handsomely carved hand, set in a shaped, molded, recessed panel adorns
the stone marking the grave of Daniel N. Collum (1881-1909). The gravestone of James
A. Meshaw (1882-1909), carries the insignia of the Woodmen of the World. Its surface
is rusticated to simulate the bark of trees and it is further embellished with carved
cala lilies, ivey, ferns, and other leaves. The gravestone of Alexander Barber (1900-
1960), who operated a sawmill, was, no doubt, a private commission and features a rich
use of bark-like rustication on its base, plinth, to enframe panels on each of its four
sides, and to form the rounded top of the stone.
Signifcance:
1. Mt. Horeb Church and its cemetery are associated with the spread of Presbyterianism
in the upper Cape Fear Valley, settled first by Highland Scots in the 1730s. The
congregation of this church was organized-as a missionary effort by the Rev. H. A.
Monroe in 1843-1845 from an immediate community largely Methodist in their disposition.
2. Mt. Horeb Church, a white frame sanctuary erected in 1845 and altered and expanded
in 1932 and the 1950s, retains the significant elements of its original Greek
Revival finish, and represents the modest form and appearance of rural mid-19th
century church buildings in North Carolina. Mt. Horeb is architecturally
significant as one of a distinguished group of frame, Greek Revival style,
Presbyterian churches built by Highland Scot descendants in the Upper Cape Fear
Valley of North Carolina in the mid-nineteenth century.
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