PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



produced in the kilns using certain 

 woods — is largely lost now. 



"It's one of the decorative things 

 they did with bricks in that time," 

 Honeycutt says. 



Above the door is a projecting 

 molded brick archway that dates back 

 to the original construction. And on 

 either side of the door is a subtle 

 vertical pattern using quarter bricks 

 (called queen closures) in alternating 

 rows. 



Recognized today as a major 

 accomplishment for its time and place, 

 the church draws visitors from far and 

 wide. It is one of four exceptional 

 brick buildings from its era that 

 survive in North Carolina, Honeycutt 

 says. 



"We have tourists here all the 

 time from all over the world," says 

 Fulton. "We have a register of people 

 who have come from everywhere. In 

 Bath, during any given year, about 

 10,000 people come through, and 

 many look at the church." 



The single-room layout of the 

 church is original, and it seats 95 to 

 100 people, Fulton says. But a series 

 of restorations beginning in the 1840s 

 imposed later styles on the early 1 8th- 

 century building. Over time, structures 

 were added and removed, including a 

 bell tower and roofs, ceilings and 

 lighting fixtures, windows and doors, 

 pulpits and pews. 



Now, a major renovation is 

 underway to return the interior to its 



original colonial style, Fulton says. 

 Church furnishings will be restored 

 using the design, materials and work- 

 manship that might have been available 

 in a frontier town in colonial America. 

 The interior will remain simple. 



Among the surviving relics 

 original to the church are two candela- 

 bra sent in 1740 by King George II and 

 a silver chalice ferried from England in 

 1747. The bell, still used today to call 

 worshippers, hangs in a small tower on 

 the southwest side of the church. 

 Although the bell's origin is uncertain, 

 it's known to have been recast and 

 enlarged in New England in 1872. 



Less is known about the final 

 resting place of early parishioners. 

 Visitors are often astonished to learn 

 that no tombstones in the 

 igf^B cemetery are older than the 

 1820s. There are several 

 possible explanations for 

 this. Parishioners may have 

 been buried beneath the 

 church floor, a practice 

 common in England at the 

 time. They could have been 

 M interred in a nearby cem- 

 etery, or they might have 

 | been buried in unmarked 

 graves around the church. 

 A recent survey found 1 1 

 unmarked graves — one 

 dating back to the church's 

 ■ - earliest days — on the 

 grounds. 



Visitors are always 

 : welcome to these grounds 

 and to the church building, 

 Fulton says. 



For more information, 

 purchase a copy of A Short 

 History of St. Thomas 

 Episcopal Church for $5. 

 The proceeds will help pay 

 for the church's renovation 

 and maintenance. Call 919/ 

 923-9141 or write St. 

 Thomas Episcopal Church 

 9 at P.O. Box 257, Bath, NC 

 17808. □ 



COASTWATCH 25 



