St. Thomas Chapel, also known as St. Thomas Episcopal Church or St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Chapel, is a historic building located at 7854 Church Street in
Middletown,
Frederick County, Virginia
Frederick County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,419. Its county seat is Winchester. The county was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. It is Virginia's northernmost county. ...
, United States.
Built in the 1830s, regular services were held at the
Episcopal church for almost 100 years. The building has been restored twice, once after being heavily damaged during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and again in the 1960s.
The church was added to the
Virginia Landmarks Register
The Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) is a list of historic properties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The state's official list of important historic sites, it was created in 1966. The Register serves the same purpose as the National Registe ...
(VLR) and 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 ...
(NRHP) in 1973.
History
The congregation of St. Thomas Episcopal Church was established in 1834, becoming the seventh Episcopal church founded in Frederick County. The congregation, which included the Hite family of the nearby
Belle Grove Plantation, raised the necessary funds and began construction of a church building on a lot purchased for fifty dollars.
[
The church served as a military hospital for wounded ]Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
soldiers during the Civil War. (The congregation worshiped temporarily at the nearby Grace Methodist Church.) In 1864, Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
general Philip Sheridan
General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...
's troops arrived in the area. The Union soldiers removed the wounded Confederate troops from the church hospital and converted the building into a stable.[ The Union troops later broke out the windows, burned the pews, and burned window shutters. Only the four walls of the building were left standing once they were done. After the war, the Federal government paid for some of the repairs to the church. This, along with contributions from church members, resulted in the church being reopened in 1867.][
Throughout the next several decades a small congregation worshiped at St. Thomas Episcopal Church with approximately thirty people in attendance.][ Services regularly took place at the church until 1930 and on an occasional basis until 1945. The church building had deteriorated by that point and was abandoned the following year.][ The ]Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
The Diocese of Virginia is the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing 38 counties in the northern and central parts of the state of Virginia. The diocese was organized in 1785 and is one of the Episco ...
retained the property for several years before transferring ownership to Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
. In 1966, the church was given to Middletown's government to be used "as a chapel, museum or for any good moral purpose."[ The name of the building was changed to St. Thomas Church in 1967 to reflect it becoming an ]interfaith
Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...
facility. A group of citizens founded the St. Thomas Chapel Trust and restored the building in the 1960s.[ Work included the installation of central heating and electricity, the restoration of the original organ and pews, laying a new floor, replacing the windows, and restoring the steeple and bell tower.][ St. Thomas was added to the VLR on January 16, 1973, and the NRHP on April 11, 1973.][ The building is also designated a ]contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
to the Middletown Historic District, listed on the NRHP in 2003.[
]
Architecture
The building is a one-story, stepped gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
-roofed, three bay by three bay church in the 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. It measures by and the recessed chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
measures by .[ The exterior is made of the original stucco, coursed ashlar, and brick, while the foundation is made of brick and stone.][ The standing seam metal roof is flanked on either end by ]parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
walls. The cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, from ...
is made of wood and features Gothic style vents, an octagonal belfry with Gothic arches, pyramidal roof, and a wooden cross.[
]
See also
*
Notes
:1. In 1836, Frederick County was divided into three separate counties: Frederick, Warren
A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...
, and Clarke
Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name.
Irish surname origin
Clarke is a popular surname i ...
.
:2. The windows were replaced again in 2001. The older ones were placed in storage.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Thomas Chapel
19th-century Episcopal church buildings
American Civil War hospitals
Churches completed in 1837
Churches in Frederick County, Virginia
Episcopal churches in Virginia
Gothic Revival church buildings in Virginia
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Frederick County, Virginia
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Episcopal chapels in the United States