St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a historic

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

style Episcopal church building located on a triangular lot at 416 Southeast Grand Avenue at the corner of Fifth and Green streets in

Lee's Summit Lee's Summit is a city located within the counties of Jackson (primarily) and Cass in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of the 2020 census its population was 101,108, making it the sixth-largest city in both ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The parish was established in 1867. The original sanctuary and current building were designed by the Rev. Frederick B. Scheetz and completed in 1884. The building is a rare example of an extant wood framed Carpenter Gothic church in the state of Missouri. The interior walls and vaulted ceilings are covered with narrow strips of wood paneling set diagonally on the walls and horizontally on the ceiling. A trio of stained glass windows is set above the wooden altar in the apse at the north end of the transept. The church has received few if any alterations since it was built in 1884. An early description of the newly built church would be accurate today: "The church is frame, 40 feet by 24, with a porch in front 8 by 10 feet, with a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

extending above the roof. It is strongly and well built, with a solid stone foundation, which is so high in the rear of the church as to give room for a cellar for wood. The interior is ceiled throughout with narrow stuff put on diagonally, the timbers above do not show."' St. Paul's Episcopal Church embodies a distinctive; type of 'vernacular' adaptation to the earlier

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style important in church construction. Economic exigencies as well as available materials quite probably limited this Midwestern frame structure to a relatively small derivative of the more expansive models constructed in the eastern United States. The simple form and decorative features of St. Paul's reflect the Midwestern 19th century philosophy of spiritual beliefs constrained by the realities of the time and place. The continuity in the structure can easily be interpreted to reflect the continuity in the religious community, which began and still maintains the building. St. Paul's Episcopal was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on October 9, 1985.

Current status

St. Paul's is still an active parish in the

Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri The Diocese of West Missouri is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and a member of Province VII. It has jurisdiction over sixty counties in western Missouri running from the cities Fairfax in the north to Branson i ...

. The Rev. Mark McGuire is the current rector.St. Paul's Episcopal Church: About us
http://www.stpaulsls.org/

References

External links

St. Paul's Episcopal Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Pauls Episcopal Church, Lee's Summit, Missouri Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Carpenter Gothic church buildings in the United States Churches completed in 1884 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Buildings and structures in Lee's Summit, Missouri Episcopal church buildings in Missouri Churches in Jackson County, Missouri Gothic Revival church buildings in Missouri National Register of Historic Places in Jackson County, Missouri