St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at Cahaba, AL (built 1854, recently restored by Auburn Rural Studio)
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is a historic Carpenter Gothic church, built in 1854 at Cahaba (also spelled Cahawba), the first capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1826. The builder closely followed plans published by architect Richard Upjohn in his 1852 book Rural Architecture. Exterior features of the Gothic Revival structure include lancet windows, pointed arch doorways and vertical board and batten sheathing. The building originally had a square bell tower on the corner to the left of the current main front entrance, but this was not rebuilt when the church was relocated in 1878.
St. Luke’s was built during Cahaba’s antebellum boom years, on Vine Street near the intersection of Vine and 1st South Street. Following the post-war decline of Cahaba, the church was dismantled in 1878 and moved 11 miles to the community of Martin’s Station where it continued to serve an Episcopal congregation for several decades. St. Luke’s was then used by an African-American Baptist congregation for over 60 years before being acquired by the Alabama Historical Commission. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 1982.
During the academic years of 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, students from Auburn University’s Rural Studio carefully dismantled the church and reassembled it at Cahaba near the corner of Beech Street and Capitol Street, across from the Old Cahawba Archaeological Park visitor center. The new Cahaba location was chosen because of the original location on Vine Street was in a floodplain. The majority of the original timbers was saved and used, including the 50′ heavy timber buttressed arches. Some of the original wood had rotted considerably over the years and students replaced it with oversight from the Alabama Historical Society and Cahawba Advisory Committee.
Pictures that are provided were taken between April 2010 and February 2012. Work is nearing completion on the St. Luke’s church.
The Old Cahawba Archaeological Park is located southwest of Selma, AL near the Alabama River. GPS coordinates of the church are N32.319444,W87.105111.
Source: Wikipedia
2/9/12
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