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Saint Peter's Episcopal Church

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1905–1906, W. J. Stone. 1917, rectory. 239 Second Ave., corner Adams St.
  • Saint Peter's Episcopal Church (Walter Smalling, Jr.)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Saint Peter's Church is a small parish church with a steeply pitched gable roof. Covered on the outside with wood shingles, the church has pointed-arch windows and doors. In the plan of a Latin cross, the building has two-stage buttresses and a parapeted gable. There is a gable-roofed vestibule on the front, echoing the pitch of the gable roof over the nave. The rather plain interior has a dramatic mural as its focal point, on the reredos. Installed in 1925, the painting by Jan van Emple, a Dutch artist, depicts the Resurrection of Christ, using Seward as the setting and Alaskans as the observers.

W. J. Stone, an architect who also supervised construction, designed the church. Stone also formed a general construction company and served as agent for the Miracle Pressed Stone Company. He designed the concrete-block Bank of Seward (since demolished), apparently using his “pressed stone” as the building material. In 1908, Stone was arrested for embezzlement in Santa Cruz, California.

In 1917, a bungalow-style rectory was built adjacent to the church. The low gable roof is echoed in the entrance porch, which has battered box columns. The one-story, wood-framed building is finished with wood shingles and rests on a concrete foundation.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Alison K. Hoagland
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Data

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Citation

Alison K. Hoagland, "Saint Peter's Episcopal Church", [Seward, Alaska], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AK-01-SC053.

Print Source

Buildings of Alaska, Alison K. Hoagland. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 114-114.

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