St. Thomas Episcopal Church is a historic

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United States ...

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 at 21 South Main Street in Newark,

New Castle County, Delaware New Castle County is the northernmost of the three List of counties in Delaware, counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent County, Delaware, Kent, and Sussex County, Delaware, Sussex). As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. It was built in 1843–45 and designed by noted

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 ...

Richard Upjohn Richard Upjohn (22 January 1802 – 16 August 1878) was a British-American architect who immigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to popula ...

. It is a one-story, three bay wide brick structure built of brick with

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 ...

facing and a gable roof. It features a 35-foot entrance tower, added in 1866, and is 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. In 1956 the building was

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from something that had been previously consec ...

when the parish moved to a larger church. It has since been bought, restored, and renovated by the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

, installing a 1,234 pipe organ in the process. The building is now used as a music recital and event hall by the university. 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 1982.

History

The Episcopal parish of St. Thomas was established in Newark in 1843, and a lot at the corner of Elkton Road and Delaware Avenue was purchased for the new church at a cost of $70. Construction started in August of that year and the new building was consecrated on February 25, 1845. The construction cost was approximately $3,825. The church is thought to have been designed by

, although the available documentation does not completely confirm this. The church was enlarged in 1866, adding a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and the entrance tower. The present

stained glass window Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

s were added later in the 19th century. By the 1950s, St. Thomas Parish had outgrown the old church, moving to a new site on South College Avenue. The old church was deconsecrated and served as Newark's public library from 1956 to 1974, but eventually this tenant too outgrew the building. It was later used for storage. The vacant church was eventually purchased by the

in 1996 and refurbished to fix extensive structural damage due to leaks and neglect. Taking advantage of the church's acoustics, the university turned it into a recital hall equipped with a custom-built Dobson pipe organ and restored 1920

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

piano. It was renamed Bayard Sharp Hall after a university donor.

References

Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Episcopal church buildings in Delaware Gothic Revival church buildings in Delaware Churches completed in 1845 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Buildings and structures in Newark, Delaware Churches in New Castle County, Delaware 1843 establishments in Delaware University of Delaware buildings and structures National Register of Historic Places in New Castle County, Delaware Richard Upjohn church buildings Music venues in Delaware {{Delaware-Anglican-church-stub