St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal

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 * Chris ...

at Old York and Ashbourne Roads in

Elkins Park Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly from Ce ...

, Cheltenham Township,

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 73rd-most populous county in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 856,55 ...

. It was originally built in 1861, and is a gray stone church in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. The church was conceived by noted financier

Jay Cooke Jay Cooke (August 10, 1821 – February 16, 1905) was an American financier who helped finance the Union war effort during the American Civil War and the postwar development of railroads in the northwestern United States. He is generally acknowle ...

(1821–1905), along with John W. Thomas, J.F. Peniston and William C. Houston. Its size was doubled with an expansion in 1870, and a 60-foot-tall tower added. A

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

was added in 1883, and the two-story parish hall wing in 1891. Architect

Horace Trumbauer Horace Trumbauer (December 28, 1868 – September 18, 1938) was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of ...

(1868–1938) made some refinements to the church during the 1897 to 1924 period. The main sanctuary of the church features 13 stained glass windows from

Tiffany studios Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname Known mononymously as "Tiffany": * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter, actress know ...

. Also on the property is the -story

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

built in 1868 and a stable. Jay Cooke Memorial

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

(1906), and sexton's cottage (1923), were designed by architects Churchman & Thomas and Thomas, Martin & Kirkpatrick, respectively. (See

Walter Horstmann Thomas Walter Horstmann Thomas (1876–1948) was an American architect from Philadelphia whose career spanned 44 years. He is best known for approximately eighty church designs. Early life Thomas was the younger of two children of Richard Newton Thomas ...

.) Adjacent to the church is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

laid out in 1879 and expanded in 1905. Located in the cemetery is the Jay Cooke

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

. ''Note:'' This includes St. Paul's Episcopal Church 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 ...

in 1982. Saint Paul's remains an active parish. The church's sister organization, The Friends of St. Paul's Elkins Park, hosts a popular concert series featuring music from several genres including classical, jazz, and gospel.

Gallery

File:St Paul Episcopal Church, Elkins Park PA 03.JPG, North-west side of the church and parish house. File:St Paul Episcopal Church, Elkins Park PA 05.JPG, South side. File:St Paul Episcopal Church, Elkins Park PA 06.JPG, Jay Cooke Hall. File:Jay Cooke Mausoleum PA.jpg, Jay Cooke's Mausoleum, behind the church. File:St Paul Episcopal Church, Elkins Park PA 04.JPG, Rectory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Pauls Episcopal Church Cemeteries in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Gothic Revival church buildings in Pennsylvania Churches completed in 1861 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Churches in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Elkins Park, Pennsylvania 1861 establishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania