St. George's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal Church building located in

Le Mars, Iowa Le Mars is a city and the county seat of Plymouth County, Iowa, United States. It is located on the Floyd River northeast of Sioux City. The population was 10,571 at the time of the 2020 census. Le Mars is located within America Township an ...

, United States. Designed in the

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 architecture, Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massin ...

style of architecture, it was erected in 1881. It is one of the few remnants of the English era in Le Mars' early history. The church building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1976.

History

After Fred and William Close of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

opened a land sales office in LeMars in 1879, they began to plan an English colony. with Men from England were sent to the Le Mars area to study farming in the late 19th century. Over the years over 1,000 people would settle here as a part of this program. Some were the sons of established upper-class English families who returned home after they learned farm management techniques. Grace Mission was established in order to serve their spiritual needs. Its first building was located at Fifth and Hubbard Streets, now First Street SW and Fifth Avenue SW. They later moved to the Apollo Hall. The congregation reorganized itself as St. George's Church on October 4, 1881. The present church building was completed the same year for about $3,200. The money was sent from

to build the church. It was consecrated on June 9, 1882. The church's first rector was a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

graduate, and his successor graduated from

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. By the 1890s, the parishioners were mostly non-English residents as most of the English had left Le Mars. The church is one of the few structures left from the city's English era. The parish hall was built in 1963 and housed St. George's Preschool. St. George's is still an active parish in the Diocese of Iowa.

Architecture

The church building is built over a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

foundation, and utilizes a unique

board and batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

border just below the horizontal

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...

. There are narrow hoods over the Gothic arched windows. The double-hung windows feature various designs of colored glass. The windows on the south side contain unique cut glass. The

lancet arch Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

over each window is

pressed glass Pressed glass (or pattern glass)
is a form of glass made by pressing molten glass into a Mol ...

. There is an entrance tower on the main

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

. It was originally capped by a small

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

, but it was removed around the turn of the 20th century and the roof

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 ...

was extended to cover the tower. The wooden exterior steps feature railings that were reproduced in the early 1990s to mimic the early banisters. The pews on the inside are original to the church. The

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

is similar in appearance to the original and the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

dates from 1892.

References

External links

Waymarking listing

Janine Calsbeek, ''A small Episcopal church grows in Orange City'', Sioux County Capital-Democrat March 8, 2008
tells the story of an

Orange City, Iowa Orange City is a city in, and the county seat of, Sioux County, Iowa, United States. Its population was 6,267 in the 2020 census, an increase from 5,582 in 2000. Named after William of Orange, the community maintains its Dutch settler traditio ...

parish which grew out of St. George's.
flickr 1994 Confirmation, St. George's Episcopal Church, Le Mars, Iowa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George's Episcopal Church (Le Mars, Iowa) Religious organizations established in 1881 1881 establishments in Iowa Churches completed in 1881 Carpenter Gothic church buildings in Iowa Le Mars, Iowa Buildings and structures in Plymouth County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Episcopal church buildings in Iowa 19th-century Episcopal church buildings