Grace Episcopal Church - Anniston, AL - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

from the historical marker:

Called "A poem of cedar and stone," its history is intimately related to that of Anniston. Town Founders, Daniel Tyler and Samuel Noble, inspired its conception, funded its construction and caused the Woodstock Iron Company to donate the land on which it was built. George Upjohn, Architect, and Master Stonemason, William Jewell, used native pink sandstone and Tennessee knotty cedar to emulate Solomon's Temple. The Gothic Revival edifice, the oldest church in town, was organized on April 8, 1881, built in 1882-5, and consecrated by Bishop Richard H. Wilmer on May 19, 1886. Its first service was conducted on Christmas Eve, 1885.

from the church website:

The history of Grace Episcopal Church is inextricably woven into the history of the city of Anniston itself; for the same two families - those of Samuel Noble and Daniel Tyler who founded Anniston in 1873 - also founded the church.

The two founding families - the Nobles from Rome, Georgia, originally from Cornwell, England, and the Tylers from Connecticut - were both attracted to the pleasant valley, where Anniston presently exists, by the red clay banks evidencing rich deposits of iron ore which they needed for their corporation, the Woodstock Iron Company.

Laborers were imported from the North, as well as from England, to work the blast furnace. Every one of the thousand inhabitants at that time was connected with the Woodstock Iron Company, and almost everyone was an Episcopalian.
Congregations met wherever they could - sometimes in private homes and sometimes even in the railroad station. A priest from Talladega came up at regular intervals to conduct services. By 1880 communicant strength was secure enough so that a chapel was built and regular rector employed. In 1881, Grace Church was granted parish status by the Diocese.

In 1882, Woodstock Iron Company began construction of Grace Church under the leadership of the Noble and Tyler families. It was modeled after a church that General Tyler had greatly admired during his cadet days at West Point at nearby Highland Falls, New York and was designed by a famous architect of the era, George Upjohn.

It was the inspiration of Samuel Noble to carry out in the whole of the interior the cedar, stone and brass theme of Solomon's Temple as described in the First Book of Kings.

The exterior of the church was built of native buff sandstone obtained from a nearby quarry. Simon Jewell, a master craftsman from Cornwall in England, was brought to this country to serve as stonemason. Stones were to this expert mason like precious gems. He held each individually in his hands and planned with care the exact chiseling which would bring out the proper lights and shadows inherent in its shape.

Ever since its completion in 1885, the church building has been used by architectural text books as a model of perfect proportion and pure Gothic symmetry.

Literary tribute was paid to its beauty by James Ryder Randall, author of "Maryland, My Maryland" who for a short time was editor of the Daily Hot Blast - now the Anniston Star. He is said to have called the church "a poem in cedar and stone."

Finances for the church were obtained from a tax on the ale sold in a local taproom maintained by the Woodstock Iron Company. When a local prohibition law was passed, these funds literally dried up. The company was compelled to abandon building the porch called for in the Upjohn plans and to complete the church with a temporary makeshift wooden structure.

This "temporary" porch lasted about 70 years, at which time Mr. and Mrs. Oscar M. Kilby built a suitable fronting and foyer in memory of their son, Thomas Erby Kilby, III, who died in the Korean War. At the same time, two sets of pews were added with funds from the estate of Caroline Tyler Kelley which had been left in bequest to the church for such enlargement.

In addition to being the oldest church in Anniston, Grace is considered by many to be the most artistic. Artists come frequently to sit all day observing the faultless architecture and the changes of light and shadow on the incomparable stonework.

Street address: 1000 Leighton Ave Anniston, AL USA 36202 County / Borough / Parish: Calhoun Year listed: 1985 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875 - 1899 Historic function: religion - religious structure Current function: religion - religious structure Privately owned?: yes Season start / Season finish: From: 01/01/2008 To: 12/31/2008 Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/30/2008 Thorny1 visited it

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