Christ Episcopal Church (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Description and history
Christ Episcopal Church is located within Raleigh's Capitol Area Historic District, just east of the North Carolina State Capitol at the southeast corner of East Edenton and South Wilmington Streets. It is a generally cruciform structure, built predominantly out of rough-cut stone that is varied in color, with dressed stone at the corners and openings. It has a red tile roof that is topped by cruciform finials at the gable ends. The walls are buttressed at the corners, and separating the bays on the long axis. A covered arcade extends north from the west end of the church, joining it to an otherwise-freestanding tower. The tower has three stages, with buttressed corners, and a lancet-louvered belfry in the upper level. It is crowned by a spire and a distinctive bronze weather vane.
The Christ Church parish was organized in 1821, and its first church was a wood-frame structure built in 1829. The present church was designed by Richard Upjohn in 1846, and was consecrated in 1854. At the suggestion of the church's Bishop Levi Silliman Ives, Upjohn based his design on St. Mary's in Burlington, New Jersey, which he had recently completed. The church's parish house with chapel, added in 1913–1914, was designed by Upjohn's grandson Hobart.
The Ravenscroft School, a private K–12 school in Raleigh, was started by members of the church and named after the Episcopal Bishop of the area at that time, John Stark Ravenscroft, who was also the rector of the church.
Olivia Raney served as organist until her death in 1896.
Notable people
- Author Armistead Maupin attended the church with his family as a child.
- Anti-suffragist Mary Hilliard Hinton attended this church.
- NC First Lady Fanny Yarborough Bickett attended this church.
- Socialite Lucile Aycock McKee attended this church.
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Wake County, North Carolina
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ "Christ Episcopal Church". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2008.
- ^ "Home". christ-church-raleigh.org.
- ^ Carolyn Pitts (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Christ Episcopal Church" (pdf). (includes Design Drawings by Richard Upjohn). National Park Service. and Accompanying 20 or so photos, exterior and interior, from 1920, 1960, 1973, and 1987 (32 KB)
- ^ Pattison, Kate (May 6, 2009). "The Olivia Raney library, Raleigh's first". Raleigh Public Record. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
- ^ Maupin, Armistead (2017). Logical Family: A Memoir. London, U.K.: Penguin. p. 23. ISBN 9780857523518.
I was just as enthralled by Christ Church, the neo-Gothic stone pile on Capitol Square that our family had attended since before the Civil War.
- ^ "Legacy Guild". September 30, 2019.
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