PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



State's Oldest Church 

 a Bath Landmark 



St Thomas 

 Episcopal 



Church 



Built: 



1 734 under direction of 

 the Rev. John Garzia 



Location: 



Craven Street, Bath 



Architectural 

 note of interest: 



Because the east and south 

 walls are longer than their 

 west and north counterparts, 

 the walls of the church 

 are several feet out of square. 



By Jeannie Fans Norris 



St. Thomas Episcopal Church 

 stood in Bath 42 years before the 

 Declaration of Independence was 

 signed in 1776. Its groundbreaking 

 took place just 16 years after the death 

 of Blackbeard, the ruthless pirate 

 legendary for terrorizing coastal 

 shipping in the area. 



This modest 263-year-old church 

 has the distinction of being the oldest 

 of the old. It is the state's oldest 

 church building in North Carolina's 

 oldest town. It witnessed the unfolding 

 of our country's early history and 

 survived the many hurricanes that 

 have blown ashore over the centuries. 



At the time St. Thomas Episcopal 

 Church was built, Bath was a hub for 

 1 8th-century political leaders — a 

 position it enjoyed from 1696 to 1785. 

 The town lost some of its luster, 

 however, when the county seat and 

 trade activity moved to nearby 

 Washington. 



These days, Bath is a quiet, 

 historic village on the Pamlico River, 

 and its landmark church is humble by 

 modern standards. Its small size and 

 simplicity reflect the challenges of 

 building well under pioneer conditions 

 with short supplies of money and 

 materials for construction, according 

 to A Guide to the Historic Architec- 

 ture of Eastern North Carolina. 



But take a closer look, and you'll 

 see evidence of a master brick mason 

 at work. 



The brickwork is one of the 



structure's most interesting features, 

 says the Rev. Gary Fulton, rector of 

 the church. Although no information 

 about the construction survived, 

 archives suggest that the bricks used 

 to build nearby St. Paul's Episcopal 

 Church in Edenton, begun in 1736, 

 were formed and fired in the area. 

 Since the bricks of the two churches 

 are very similar in color and size, it is 

 safe to assume that the bricks used to 

 construct St. Thomas were also fired 

 locally. 



"The brick would have been made 

 right there on the site," agrees Al 

 Honeycutt, restoration branch supervi- 

 sor in the State Historic Preservation 

 Office of the N.C. Department of 

 Cultural Resources. "All they had to 

 dig was the clay .... They would have 

 built a beehive kiln right out of clay 

 bricks and burned them." 



The walls of the church were laid 

 up 2 feet thick in Flemish bond, a 

 popular style in the 18th century that 

 alternated bricks lengthwise (stretch- 

 ers) and widthwise (headers). The 

 mortar was made with lime from 

 crushed oyster shells, and much of it 

 can still be seen on the outside walls 

 of the building. 



Bricks used around corners and 

 windows were lightened in a labor- 

 intensive process of manually rubbing 

 the finish off with another brick. 

 Glazed headers and rubbed brick gave 

 pattern and texture to the outside 

 walls. The glazing — a glossy finish 



24 HOLIDAY 1997 



