L-46 Organ Or Zion Church
Posted by: 
NCDaywalker
N 35° 32.855 W 080° 27.113
17S E 549680 N 3933908
The marker is located roadside on NC 152 at Organ Church Road west of Rockwell, NC.
Waymark Code: WMZ8H7
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 09/29/2018
Views: 1
Marker Text: Lutheran. Organized by early German settlers. The building erected in 1794 is 1 1/2 mi. south.
Essay:
"Like neighboring Grace Church, Organ or Zion Church has a history central to the story of Lutherans in North Carolina and the story of settlement of the Piedmont. The architecture of the two churches, described in 1938 by Thomas Waterman as being of “uncompromising simplicity,” was in keeping with the tenets of their faith.
German settlers poured into what in 1753 became Rowan County throughout the mid-eighteenth century. Initially their numbers were too few to erect both Lutheran and German Reformed churches, so they built a temporary house of worship to share. That first church was constructed of hickory logs and known as “Hickory Church.” No evidence remains of the first structure. Church members resolved to send to Germany for a minister and the Reverend Adolph Nussbaum took up the call in 1773. J. G. Arends (or Arndt) joined him in preaching to the congregants.
The present church building, dedicated in 1796, is the oldest Lutheran Church structure in North Carolina. Constructed on a tract donated for that purpose by John Rendleman and his wife in 1786, the church derived its name from an organ, first used in the original log church and moved to the new building. Like its neighbor Grace Church, it is a two-story meetinghouse of local granite. Early twentieth century additions included a tower but the essential form remains unchanged.
References:
G. D. Bernheim, The History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and Ministerium of North Carolina (1902)
James S. Brawley, The Rowan Story, 1753-1953: A Narrative History of Rowan County, North Carolina (1953)
Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas Tileston Waterman, The Early Architecture of North Carolina (1941)
Davyd Foard Hood, The Architecture of Rowan County (1983)
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003)
Location: NC 152 at Organ Church Road west of Rockwell
County: Rowan
Original Date Cast: 1950-P"
Marker Name: L-46 Organ Zion Church
Marker Type: Roadside
Related Web Link: [Web Link]
Required Waymark Photo: yes
Local North Carolina markers without State Number Designation: Not listed
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