National Register of Historic Places

Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery

Halifax, Halifax County, North Carolina
Listed
June 3, 1997
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
97000533

About this property

Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery is a historic Catholic church and cemetery in Halifax, North Carolina. The church was designed by noted Philadelphia architect Edwin Forrest Durang, and built in 1889. The church is basically a rectangular gable-front Late Gothic Revival style frame building, 20 feet wide and 37 feet deep. It features a pair of asymmetrical projecting corner towers and lancet-arch window openings. Adjacent to the church is the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery, which contains the Michael Ferrall Family Vault built in 1859. Michael Ferrall, at one time mayor of Halifax, bought and lived in the former Eagle Tavern, built in the 1790s and now on the National Register of Historic Places, with his family. He operated his general commission business in a store house on the property adjacent to the former Eagle Tavern. When the store house burned down the land that it sat on was later subdivided into a rectangular, one-eighth acre lot and conveyed by Thomas W. Hill, trustee of Michael Ferrall’s estate, to the Catholic Church in 1889 for $100 for the construction of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Michael Ferrall’s granddaughter, Nanny Gary, who lived in the Eagle Tavern until her death in 1969, left the house, lot and the family graveyard adjacent to the church to the Diocese of Raleigh in her will of 1963. After accepting the gift from Nanny Gary’s estate, the Diocese determined that it was not feasible to use the Ferrall house (Eagle Tavern) for charitable or religious purposes. The house was then conveyed to the Historic Halifax Restoration Association and the house was moved up King Street in the 1970s to the location of the Halifax Visitors Center where it was restored and interpreted as a museum in the style of the “Eagle Tavern”. The lot and graveyard were kept by the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh and is now maintained by members of the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Roanoke Rapids. The church is one of only two churches still standing that were built by Servant of God Thomas Frederick Price, the first native North Carolinian to become a Catholic priest. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Location

145 S. King St.
Halifax, Halifax County, North Carolina
36.32612, -77.59108

Categories

ARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORYART
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Industrial
0 mi
Town of Halifax Historic District
Listed
0.1 mi
Eagle Tavern
Early Republic
0.3 mi
Davie, William R., House
Industrial
0.3 mi
Halifax County Courthouse
Industrial
0.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery listed on the National Register?

Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1997.

What type of historic resource is Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery?

Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery?

The period of significance for Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Michael Ferrall Family Cemetery is recorded as the industrial era.

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