This is the Church of the Good Shepherd, which houses an Episcopal congregation founded in 1884, and in 1886, the original church building was constructed on the site in Cashiers, North Carolina. However, in 1892, the original, wood-frame church, built by the rich southern families whom spent their summers in the valley to escape the heat of the southern lowlands, burned down, and work began on the present church building along what is now North Carolina Highway 107. Constructed in 1895, the wood-frame Gothic Revival-style building is almost identical in appearance and layout to the episcopal churches in Highlands and Franklin built around the same time. The church, which was for almost a century used only during the summer season, is sheathed in weatherboard with a steeply pitched roof, and features several lancet windows, including a set of three on the west (front) facade, and a smaller, projecting entrance pavilion with a double door, which has a lancet shape that echoes the windows. During the early 20th Century, the congregation, much like the congregation of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Cullowhee, began to dwindle due to death of the members, and church services were discontinued for some time. Despite this, in the mid-1920s, the building underwent repairs and summer services were begun once more. The church got a boost in the late 1940s with the appointment of Henry Conkle as a church warden by an Episcopal Bishop, and a rectory was constructed to house visiting clergy during the summer season when the church was open. As the community grew increasingly less seasonal and into a year-round community, the church held its first winter services in 1981, and a full-time vicar was appointed to the church in 1982, becoming the rector when the church became a parish in 1984. In 1985, an annex was added to the church to house a larger sacristy and rector’s Office, with a parish hall being constructed in 1990. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the church today is a thriving organization, and is one of the many historic landmarks in this secluded, beautiful mountain valley community.

This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 86000317.