Christ Episcopal Church is a historic church building in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population o ...

. It was organized on January 7, 1828, by thirteen men who elected the first

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

that night. In the first year, the vestry hired the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

William Nichols to design the building and oversee its construction. The building was added to the

Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage The Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, commonly referred to as the Alabama Register, is an official listing of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts deemed worthy of preservation in the U.S. state of Alabama. These properties ...

on July 28, 1975.

History

The lot was purchased from the Masons for $150.00, and the cost of the building was $1,700.00. Twenty-five pews were placed in the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

and were sold for bids ranging from $75 to $150 or were rented for $8 a year. This was the only source of income at the time. The building was completed, and on April 12, 1831, the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

held charter ceremonies here. Additions and changes to the church building have taken place over the years: in 1882 the building was enlarged and remodeled from

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

to Gothic Revival style, and the bell tower was added. An organ was installed in 1830 when the building was finished, but in 1941 the console was moved from the south to the north side of the chancel. The parish hall and rectory were begun in 1906, but in 1952 the old rectory was torn down and ground was broken for the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

and education building. In 1984 a

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

was added on the west end of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

to protect the church from street noise, and at the same time, a

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

ed walk was built from the education building and the bell tower. Today Christ Church is the oldest church in the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

. Thirty-five stained glass windows add colorful inspiration to the buildings on the property: seventeen in the main church, eight in the parish hall, six in the chapel, four in the narthex and a domed ceiling in the

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. Ov ...

. The Rev. William H. Judd was the first priest to serve Christ Church.

References

External links

Christ Episcopal Church (Official website)
Episcopal church buildings in Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabama William Nichols buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in Alabama Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage {{Alabama-church-stub