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Old Narragansett Church (also known as Old St. Paul's Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church) is a historic Episcopal church located at 60 Church Lane in
The church building was constructed in 1707, about five miles southwest of Wickford, on what is now Pendar Road. At the time, this road was expected to become the main route between Boston and New York, but this never came to pass. After some time the neighborhood became scarcely populated, and in 1800 the church was disassembled and moved to its current location.
The church contains box
File:Old Narragansett Church Episcopal in Wickford Rhode Island.jpg, Old Narragansett Church in 2009
File:Old Narragansett Church Wickford sign.jpg, Sign
The Old Narragansett Church (St. Paul's): Built A.D. 1707. A Constant Witness to Christ and His Church
published 1915 {{National Register of Historic Places Episcopal churches in Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Churches in Washington County, Rhode Island Cemeteries in Rhode Island Churches completed in 1707 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island 18th-century Episcopal church buildings 1707 establishments in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Rhode Island Colonial architecture in Rhode Island
Wickford, Rhode Island
Wickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20-minute drive across two bridges fro ...
, believed to be the oldest Episcopal church building in the Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
.
History
The church congregation was founded in 1706 as St. Paul's Church and was established by theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
(SPG). The original congregation consisted of 17 landholder families. The Rev. Samuel Fayerweather closed the church in 1774 due to the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, and in 1780 the SPG withdrew its support for Fayerweather because of his support for the American cause.
The church re-formed by the Rev. William Smith in 1787 after a thirteen-year hiatus. In 1799 the congregants voted to move the church to its present location in Wickford.
On April 11, 1756, the infant "son of Gilbert Stewart ye Snuff Grinder" was baptized in the church. The child later changed his name to Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...
and grew up to be known as one of America's foremost portraitists.
Building
The church building was constructed in 1707, about five miles southwest of Wickford, on what is now Pendar Road. At the time, this road was expected to become the main route between Boston and New York, but this never came to pass. After some time the neighborhood became scarcely populated, and in 1800 the church was disassembled and moved to its current location.
The church contains box pews
A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom.
Overview
...
, a balcony, and an organ built in 1680 by Bernard Smith, which is among the oldest organs still used in services in the United States. The church had a steeple attached to its western end from 1811 to 1846, but the steeple was not strong enough to hold the swinging bell, and it collapsed.
The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island
The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the state of Rhode Island. It is one of seven New England dioceses that make up Province 1.
The former Episcopal seat of the ...
currently owns the building, and it is administered by a trust which has representatives of the modern Saint Paul's Church in Wickford. A more modern church building, known as St. Paul's Church, was built nearby in 1847. Currently the congregation of St. Paul's meets in the Old Narragansett Church during the summer months.
The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and has a small churchyard cemetery.
See also
*St. Paul's Church (North Kingstown, Rhode Island)
St. Paul's Church is a historic church at 55 Main Street in the village of Wickford within the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. It is a single-story Romanesque Revival structure, designed by Rhode Island architect Thomas Tefft and built i ...
*Oldest churches in the United States
The designation of the oldest church in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving ''building'', and the oldest in the sense of oldest Christian church ...
*List of the oldest buildings in Rhode Island
This article attempts to list the oldest buildings in the state of Rhode Island in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in Rhode Island and any other surviving structures. Some dates are approximate and based on architectura ...
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Rhode Island
__NOTOC__
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Rhode Island.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington C ...
References
Further reading
The Old Narragansett Church (St. Paul's): Built A.D. 1707. A Constant Witness to Christ and His Church
published 1915 {{National Register of Historic Places Episcopal churches in Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Churches in Washington County, Rhode Island Cemeteries in Rhode Island Churches completed in 1707 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island 18th-century Episcopal church buildings 1707 establishments in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Rhode Island Colonial architecture in Rhode Island