St Philips Aerial View

St Philips aerial view is an acrylic painting of the third church erected for this congregation which was founded in 1680 as the oldest congregation south of Virginia.

The first structure was erected on the corner of Meeting and Broad Streets where St Michaels stands today. The first structure was of wood and quickly the congregation outgrew it's space with a rapidly growing , mostly Anglican colony. The 1711 hurricane ravaged the building  so significantly that a second structure was designed and built on the "outskirts " of the city at its present site on the north end of the street. The second structure was much larger and quite grand and reportedly was the finest religious structure on the continent at that time. The new church opened for service on Easter in 1723,.            Edmund Burke wrote in 1777 that it was " spacious, and executed every handsome taste, exceeding everything of that kind which We have in America".

Unfortunately, with wooden structures predominated the peninsula and fires were the daily source of heat and cooking, devastating fires have raged frequently in this colonial city with much loss of valuable real estate. St Philp's second church caught fire in 1835 and burned completely to the ground.

With the help and determination of our ancestors, the third church was erected on the same site as the second church and is virtually unchanged since that time. The building has survived wars, bombardment, earthquakes, and hurricanes . 

16 X 20

430 grms