Saint Peters Church - 1912

 

ST. PETERS CHURCH

New Kent County Virginia

ST PETER's Parish, it is believed, was established with the forming of the New County of Kent, which was formed from the County of York in 1654. There are no extant records for the period between its foundation and the year 1684.

 The first reference in the Vestry Book to the present St Peter's Church is found in the minutes of the meeting held August 13 1700: Whereas the Lower of this Parish is very much out of Repair and Standeth very inconvenient  for most of the inhabitants of the said parish Therefore ordered that as as conveniently may be a Church of Brick Sixty feet long and twenty fewer feet wide in the cleer and fourteen feet pitch with a Gallery Sixteen feet long be built and Erected upon the maine Roade by the School House near Thomas Jackson's and the Clerk is ordered to give a Copy of this order to Capt. Nicho. Merewether who is Requested to show the same to Will Hughes and desire him to draw a Draft of said Church and to bee at the next vestry...

 Work on the new church was begun the spring of 1701 and in 1703 the was so far advanced that services could be held in the building. This building remained unaltered for twenty years or more except for a brick wall built around the church yard, "s'd wall to be in all Respects as well done as the Capitol wall in Williamsburgh." 

 In 1722 a belfry was erected at the west end of the church and in the rear 1740 we find that, "the Minister and Vestry of this Parish have Agreed with Mr Wm Worthe of the Parish of St Paul in the County of Stafford, Builder, to Erect and Build a Steeple and Vestry Room according to a Plan Delivered into the Vestry drawn by the S'd Walter(?) for the Consideration of One Hundred & thirty Pounds at times to be paid."

 Such minor alterations and repairs as have been made to the old church since 1740 have not changed its outward appearance to any great extent. St Peter's looks to day much as it did toward the middle of the eighteenth century with the added attractiveness produced by the mellowness of age.

 During the Civil War St Peter's was defaced by the soldiers who used the building for a stable. The war did much to scatter the congregation. There were those left, however, who set to work to renew and repair the damaged church.

 The interior of St Peter's Church as it appears to-day deserves notice. The walls are plastered, marked off in blocks and colored a soft grey. The benches are simple in design and have been painted a sober brown. The picture obtained is somewhat severe in its simplicity, but not without advantage as offering little to distract the worshippers attention.

 St Peter's Church is about Twenty miles from Richmond on the York River Branch of the Southern Railroad. One drives from Tunstall's station for a short distance 

 Services are still being held in St Peter's on one Sunday of the month.

-  The Architectural Record, March 1912, Vol. XXXI No. III