St. Mary's Episcopal Church, also known as Old Saint Mary's Church, is a historic Episcopal

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located on Warwick Road, Warwick Township in Elverson,

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially referred to as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in ...

. The church was built in 1843, and is a one-story, rectangular

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

structure in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style. It measures 50 feet wide and 70 feet deep. The church is surrounded by the parish

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

, with burials dating to 1806. ''Note:'' This includes Founded by the Rev. Levi Bull, DD, in 1805, the first church here was built in 1806. J.F. Sachse, of the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

, believed it to be the first church built in Pennsylvania after the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. A notable military officer

Samuel Van Leer Captain Samuel Van Leer (January 7, 1747 – October 15, 1825) was a military officer from Pennsylvania who served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as a lieutenant in the Chester County Light Horse Vo ...

played an important role in 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 the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

and is buried here. Dr. Bull continued to minister to the congregation here for almost 50 years. During Dr. Bull's tenure, in 1843, the original church was replaced by the present structure. By the 1970s, the congregation had fallen to about ten attendees. However, the congregation was revived in the 1990s by financial support from the Brandywine Deanery and adopted elements of the

charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity, with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spiritual gift ...

under the rectorate of the Rev. John Maher. It was added to 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 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys Episcopal Church, Elverson, Pennsylvania Cemeteries in Chester County, Pennsylvania Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Gothic Revival church buildings in Pennsylvania Churches completed in 1843 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Churches in Chester County, Pennsylvania Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania 1805 establishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Chester County, Pennsylvania