Note: This is the second half of a two-part series on RP church buildings. See the October installment on RPWitness.org.

Did you know that several RPCNA buildings are US federal historic sites? This month, we look at four that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two are listed by themselves, and two are included within larger historic districts.

Wisconsin’s only RP Church, Vernon, was founded in 1844 by settlers from New York and Ontario. Although they disorganized in 1848, the members went on to build a church in the rural town of Vernon in 1853, and they were reorganized three years later. After years of decline, the congregation closed in 1940. The 1853 building is a white frame structure sitting on a stone foundation. Although mostly plain in design, its broken pediment and more elaborate entrance give the building a vaguely Greek Revival style. It joined the National Register in 1999.

Associate Presbyterian minister R.A. Boyd joined the RPCNA in 1911 and convinced his central Kansas church, Stafford, to follow him. Using money from the Board of Church Erection, they completed a new building in 1913. Having suffered through the Dust Bowl, the congregation consistently declined after World War II and disorganized in 1961. Their former building is a Carpenter Gothic structure—wooden walls with pointed-top Gothic Revival windows—with a corner tower and a concrete-block foundation. Since 1961, it has been occupied by groups such as a Missionary Church and a bed and breakfast, which nominated it to the National Register in 2005.

During the Civil War, RP missionaries started working with freedmen in various parts of the South. One of these efforts began in 1874 at Selma, Ala., and the congregation was organized a year later. The church building is a simple gable-front structure with weatherboarding above brick. A wide staircase provides access to the second-story sanctuary.

Editor’s note: On Jan. 12, a tornado caused significant damage in Selma and destroyed this church building. No one at the church was injured. The RP Witness will provide future updates.

Around 1920, most members of the Billings congregation in northern Oklahoma migrated to the town of Orlando, Fla., and founded the first RP Church in the South since the Civil War. Being so far from other RP churches, for 40 years they were part of the Philadelphia presbytery. Built of stucco-covered brick, the 1927 church features arch windows and a second-story sanctuary. It became part of the Lake Eola Heights Historic District in 1992.