In 2009, Catherine W. Bishir wrote: Richard Upjohn (1802-1878) was an English-born artisan and architect who established an architectural practice in New York City and became a national leader in the picturesque mode in American architecture...
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| St. Mary's Chapel, Raleigh, NC (built 1855-57) Photo 1953 (NCSU Libraries) |
...On May 1, 1856, the Reverend Aldert Smedes, chaplain and principal at St. Mary's, an Episcopal school for women in Raleigh, opened correspondence with Upjohn. He stated that he had been attracted to a design for a wooden chapel on page 12 of Upjohn's Rural Architecture as a model for a chapel for the school.
Smedes soon sent a series of requests for adjustments to the design, and on May 15, 1856, probably at Upjohn's suggestion, he wrote, "I accept your offer to design for me a better plan than the one in rural architecture." Smedes made further adjustments to Upjohn's plans before the highly picturesque, board-and-batten St. Mary's Chapel was nearly completed on October 7, 1857, when Smedes reported that the outside was ready to be painted and asked for suggestions on the colors. He promised, "The plan shall be preserved, and returned to you, when we shall have finished."...
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| St. Paul's Episcopal Church - Beaufort, NC Photo (NCSU Libraries) |
...Examples of churches probably adapted from Upjohn's book [Rural Architecture] were built in North Carolina from the 1850s into the 1880s. Wodehouse's study of Upjohn's Rural Architecture in North Carolina cites as examples St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Halifax (1854-1855); St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Beaufort (1857); St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh (ca. 1870, no longer standing); St. Athanasius Episcopal Church, Burlington (1879-1880); Grace Episcopal Church, Trenton (1885); and St. John's Episcopal Church, Battleboro (1891), which Bishop Theodore Lyman praised as an especially "tasteful and well-ordered" church building. Other examples include St. James, Kittrell (ca. 1872); St. Barnabus, Snow Hill (1887) and St. Philip's, Germanton (circa 1890). Click to more on Richard Upjohn by Catherine W. Bishir: North Carolina Architects & Builders
