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Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

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1775, unknown. 1922, Delos Smith. Rock Creek Church Rd. and Webster St. NW

The brick walls of Saint Paul's Church date from 1775. The second church to be erected on the site, it is located within the grounds of Rock Creek Cemetery, the oldest burial ground in the District of Columbia, where interments first took place in 1719. The first church, constructed of wood, was contemporaneous. The present Saint Paul's was remodeled in 1868 but gutted by fire in 1921. Its square brick tower and octagonal wood belfry as well as all the interior woodwork were designed in a simple Neo-Georgian style by Delos Smith. Some evidence suggests that the church prior to 1868 had a three-bay facade with three round-headed windows on the second floor and two entries topped by rectangular fanlights separated by a central rectangular window. The proportions of Smith's narrow two-story windows immediately suggest the Georgian Revival, as does the elaboration of the belfry on such a simple country church.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Adams Memorial, Rock Creek Cemetery, Section E
United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Morton Street Church
Notre Dame Chapel, Trinity College

Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "Saint Paul's Episcopal Church", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-NE10.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 290-290.

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