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St. Benedict the Moor Church

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1949, Cletus W. Bergen. 441 East Broad St.

Established in 1874 as the second oldest Catholic parish in Savannah, St. Benedict’s flourished because of community need and the patronage of Mother Matilda Beasley. A New Orleans native, Beasley was the second wife of prosperous African American merchant Abram Beasley, who died in 1878. Beasley took Franciscan orders and founded the St. Francis Orphanage for Colored Children in 1887. Replacing the original church built in 1889, St. Benedict the Moor Church combines a brick front-gabled hall and traditional basilica plan with midcentury modernism. The East Broad Street facade features a central projecting bay containing a recessed entrance at its base and an inlaid glass-block cross in the upper wall below a two-tiered gabled parapet. The lower gable roof covering the sanctuary is buttressed by angled walls extending beyond the edge of the building, and a bell tower is tucked to the side.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler
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Data

What's Nearby

The Clarence Thomas Center for Historic Preservation, SCAD (Orphanage and Convent for the Missionary Sisters of the Franciscan Order)
St. John Baptist Church
King-Tisdell Cottage
Prince Hall Masonic Lodge and Order of the Eastern Star
Houses

Citation

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "St. Benedict the Moor Church", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-9.8.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 174-175.

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