Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Christ Church and St. Peter's were formerly united in one parochial
government, and to the two parishes ministered William White, the first
Church-of-England minister in Pennsylvania, the friend and pastor of
Washington, the chaplain of Congress and one of the first two bishops of
the American Church. The present structure of Christ Church was begun in
1727, but not finished for some years. The parish is older, dating from
1695. Queen Anne gave it a communion-service in 1708. In 1754 came from
England its still-used chime of bells, which were laboriously
transferred during the Revolution to Allentown, Pennsylvania, lest they
should fall into British hands and be melted up for cannon. At Christ
Church a pew was regularly occupied by Washington during his frequent
residence in Philadelphia; and here have been seated Patrick Henry,
Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and many another patriot, besides
Cornwallis, Howe, Andre and others on the English side. Around and
beneath the church are many graves covered by weather-worn stones, and
on the walls of the interior there are a number of mural tablets.
St. Peter's Church was begun in 1758, and completed three years later.
In quiet graciousness of appearance it is like another Christ Church,
and its interior arrangements are still more quaint, the chancel being
at the eastern end of the church, while the pulpit and lectern are at
the western. In the adjoining churchyard is a monument to Commodore
Decatur.
One cannot find in all America sweeter and quainter memorials of a
gentle past--memorials still consecrated to the gracious work of the
present--than the churches and other denominational houses in the old
Moravian towns of Pennsylvania. At Bethlehem, as one stands in the
little three-sided court on Church street and looks up at the heavy
walls, the tiny dormer windows and the odd-shaped belfry which mark the
"Single Sisters' House" and its wings, one may well fancy one's self, as
a travelled visitor has said, in Quebec or Upper Austria. Still more
quaint and quiet is Willow Square, behind this curious house, where,
beneath drooping willow-boughs, one finds one's self beside the door of
the old German chapel, with the little dead-house, the boys' school and
the great and comparatively modern Moravian church near by. Through
Willow Square leads the path to the burying-ground, where lie, beneath
tall trees, long rows of neatly-kept graves, each covered with a plain
flat stone, the men and the women lying on either side of the broad
central path. Several of the ancient Moravian buildings date from the
middle of the last century. The Widows' House stands, opposite the
Single Sisters' Range, and across the street from the large church is
the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies, established in 1749, and by far
the oldest girls' school in the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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