St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1702 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The church is a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. It is located at 301 East 9th Street and is an active worship center.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1702 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The church is a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. It is located at 301 East 9th Street and is an active worship center.
England, The Netherlands and Sweden each claimed the territory flanking the Delaware River. Swedish colonists established a permanent settlement at Upland, New Sweden (now Chester, Pennsylvania), by 1644. [1] : 2
Dutch soldiers, under the command of Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, arrived in a squadron of ships in 1655, and seized the Swedish colony. It was renamed New Netherlands, although Swedish and Finnish settlers were allowed to remain.
The English seized New Netherlands in 1664, at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch formally ceded the colony to England a decade later, in the 1674 Treaty of Westminster.
The Swedes had set aside a plot of land on the south side of 3rd Street, east of Market Street, as a burial ground. [1] : 179 It is believed that they never erected a church building, but held religious services in a nearby blockhouse. [1] : 179
In 1700, Reverend Evan Evans was sent to the province of Pennsylvania by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He is frequently mentioned in the society records as traveling to Chester, Chichester, Concord and Radnor. [2] : 337
St. Paul's Church was erected on site of the Swedish burial ground in 1702–1703. The original church was built of brick – 49 ft (15 m) in length, 26 ft (7.9 m) in width, and 25 ft (7.6 m) in height [1] : 181 – with a wooden steeple containing the bell. [3] : 399–400
The former Quaker Anglican missionary George Keith is known to have preached at St. Paul's twice in 1702. [2] : 339
The St. Paul's Church parish included St. Martin's Church in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania and St. John's Church in Concord. In 1704, Reverend Henry Nichols was sent by The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts as a missionary to work in all three churches. [2] : 485
In 1707, Reverend Evan Evans, travelled to England and returned the same year with a pewter Holy Communion Service, a gift from Queen Anne to the parish. [4] Inscribed on these are the words "Anna Regina, in usum Eccelesiae Anglicanae apud Philadelphiani, A.D., 1708." [5] The communion service was displayed at the east end of the church. [2] : 338
Missionaries were sent from Philadelphia to preach to the congregation, however problems arose due to the distance the preachers had to travel and the church began to have ministers from the Swedish Church in Wilmington, Delaware preside over the congregation.
Israel Acrelius, the noted Swedish Lutheran missionary and priest was a church minister at St. Paul's in 1756. [2] : 340
In the west end of the Old St. Paul's Church was a large grey slab of sandstone erected to the memory of James Sandilands, [1] : 182 an early landowner and merchant in Chester, with the following inscription:
In 1835, extensive repairs were made to the church with an increase in the number of pews and the addition of a gallery in the west end with a large main entrance underneath. [3] : 400
The old St. Paul's Church on Third Street was demolished in 1850. [6] : 133
In 1859, a new church was built on the opposite side of Third Street. The new church was built of pointed stone in Gothic style with a spire one hundred and twenty-four feet high. [3] : 400
In 1872, the church was again remodeled. On June 3, 1877, the church was struck by lightning and suffered damage. On March 19, 1884, the church caught fire and suffered additional damage. [3] : 400
In April 1900, the current St. Paul's church was established at the 9th and Madison Street. The English Gothic architecture building is built of granite with doorways and windows of Indiana limestone. [7] The architect was William Provost, Jr. [8]
In 1956, St. Paul's Church received a memorial gift of an Aeolian-Skinner organ. [9]
Also known as St. Paul's Burying Ground and St. Paul's Cemetery.
John Morton, a signer to the Declaration of Independence is buried at the old St. Paul's burial ground. His remains lay beneath a plain marble obelisk, 11 feet in height. The inscription on the west side of the memorial reads:
The inscription of the east side of the memorial reads:
The inscription on the south side of the memorial reads:
The inscription on the north side of the memorial reads:
David Lloyd, personal lawyer to William Penn, Attorney General of Pennsylvania, six term Speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Colony is buried at old St. Paul's burial ground along with his wife Grace. [7] The Lloyds were removed to St. Paul's after the Quaker burial ground on Edgemont Avenue between 6th and 7th avenue was removed to make way for new development in October 1959. [7]
William Anderson, a Major in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and a U.S Congressman from Pennsylvania is also buried at Old St. Paul's cemetery. [6] : 85
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located within the Delaware Valley metropolitan area on the western bank of the Delaware River between the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.
Marcus Hook is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,397 at the 2010 census. The current mayor is Gene Taylor. The borough calls itself "The Cornerstone of Pennsylvania". The 2005 film One Last Thing... was set and partially filmed in Marcus Hook.
Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
John Morton was an American farmer, surveyor, and jurist from the Province of Pennsylvania and a Founding Father of the United States. As a delegate to the Continental Congress during the American Revolution, he was a signatory to the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence. Morton provided the swing vote that allowed Pennsylvania to vote in favor of the Declaration. Morton chaired the committee that wrote the Articles of Confederation.
Gloria Dei Church, known locally as Old Swedes', is a historic church located in the Southwark neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 929 South Water Street, bounded by Christian Street on the north, South Christopher Columbus Boulevard on the east, and Washington Avenue on the south. It was built between 1698 and 1700, making it the oldest church in Pennsylvania and second oldest Swedish church in the United States after Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware.
Holy Trinity Church, also known as Old Swedes, is a historic church at East 7th and Church Street in Wilmington, Delaware. It was consecrated on Trinity Sunday, June 4, 1699, by a predominantly Swedish congregation formerly of the colony of New Sweden. The church, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, is among the few surviving public buildings that reflect the Swedish colonial effort. The church is considered part of First State National Historical Park. The church, which is often visited by tourists, remains open for tours and religious activities.
Israel Acrelius was a noted Swedish Lutheran missionary and priest.
David Lloyd was an American lawyer and politician from Chester, Pennsylvania. He was the first Attorney General of the Province of Pennsylvania and a member of the popular party. He served 9 terms in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including 9 terms as its Speaker, and 14 years as Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
William Anderson was an American politician who served as a Democratic-Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district from 1809 to 1815 and from 1817 to 1819.
Patrick Anderson (1719–1793) was an American Patriot who was an officer in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution and later was a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. It is located at the northwest corner of Huguenot Street and Division Street. This church represents the body of the majority group of New Rochelle's founding Huguenot French Calvinistic congregation that conformed to the liturgy of the established Church of England in June 1709. King George III gave Trinity its first charter in 1762. After the American Revolutionary War, Trinity became a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America.
St. David's Episcopal Church, also known as St. David's at Radnor or Old St. David's, is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 763 South Valley Forge Road in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. The church property contains the original church built in 1715, a chapel, church offices, school and cemetery. The property straddles the borders of Radnor Township and Newtown Township in Delaware County and the majority of the cemetery is in Easttown Township, Chester County. It was founded c. 1700 in the Welsh Tract section of the Province of Pennsylvania by Welsh settlers and has grown to be the largest congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania with approximately 3,000 members. The original church and cemetery were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Chester Rural Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery founded in March 1863 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of the first burials were Civil War soldiers, both Union and Confederate, who died at the government hospital located at the nearby building which became the Crozer Theological Seminary.
St. Martin's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1699 in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at 22 Church Street, only 500 feet from the Delaware River. It is one of the earliest and last riverfront churches in Pennsylvania. The cemetery at St. Martin's Church contains a memorial commemorating war veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the American Civil War, and the Spanish–American War who are buried in the cemetery.
St. John's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1702 in Concord Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at 576 Concord Road and is an active worship center.
Asbury AME Church is an African Methodist Episcopal Church founded in 1845 in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the second African Methodist Episcopal church founded in Chester behind the Union African Methodist Church in 1832. Asbury AME Church is located at 1712 Providence Avenue and is an active worship center.
Madison Street Methodist Episcopal Church is a Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1874 in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at 701 Madison Street. The building is currently being used by the Wesley House Community Corporation as a homeless shelter.
