St. Mary's Episcopal Church
 

The Rectory for St. Mary's Church, design by Richard Sharpe Smith, 1925.
Drawing held by the Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC.

 
Title: St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Alternate Title: St. Mary's
Creator -
Architect:
Richard Sharpe Smith
Creator - Landscape Architect Chauncey Beadle
Creator -
Architectural Firm:
 
Building Address: Macon and Charlotte Street, Asheville, NC (North Asheville)
Subject -
Keyword:
Richard Sharpe Smith ; St. Mary's Episcopal Church ; Episcopal Church ; religion ; churches ; Chauncey Beadle ; Grove Park ; E.W. Grove ; Gail Godwin ; architects ; architecture
 
Subject - LCSH: Smith, Richard Sharpe
Asheville (N.C.) -- History
Architecture -- North Carolina -- Asheville
Historic buildings -- North Carolina – Asheville
Building -- St. Mary's Episcopal Church --(Asheville, N.C.)
Asheville (N.C.) -- Building
Asheville (N.C.) -- Commerce and downtown and warehouse
Description: A Gothic Revival Style building that was established at the corner of Charlotte Street and Macon Avenue in 1914. The property was purchased from E.W. Grove who had begun to develop his large real estate holdings on near-by Sunset Mountain. Richard Sharpe Smith, formerly the assistant to Richard Hunt for the construction of the Biltmore Estate, was contracted to design and construct the church. Smith was a vestry man in the new Episcopal parish, had a personal interest in the project. In addition to the church, a small rectory stands behind the church, also designed by Smith, but not constructed until 1925. The Wayside Shrine at the juncture of Macon and Charlotte was put into place in 1915, just shortly after the first service on Christmas Day, 1914. A plan for the landscape was devised by Chauncey Beadle who had also worked on the Biltmore Estate. His mentor, Frederick Law Olmstead was a master landscape architect whose work may be seen in Central Park in New York and many other parks across the country. The work of Chauncey Beadle was later enhanced in the 1960's by Doan Ogden, another well-known landscaper who was responsible for the near-by Botanical Gardens on Weaver Boulevard and for Kenilworth gardens in Asheville.

The church has a long history in the community and has been the source of many weddings and funerals of Asheville people. The noted author, Gail Godwin used the church as the setting for parts of her well-known novel set in Asheville, Father Melancholy's Daugher.

Publisher: Digital: D. H. Ramsey Library, UNC Asheville
Contributor:  
Date building constructed / ended: 1914 date building cornerstone laid.
Date building destroyed:  
Building Type: church
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Building Current Function: church
Building Historic Function: church
Tenants: Episcopal Church
Format: Stone, brick
Identifier:  
Source of Item: E.M. Ball Collection
Language: English
Related: St. Mary's National Register of Historic Places Application ;
Bibliography: Archives, St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Related Images: E.M Ball Photographic Collection - ball3691
Coverage -
Temporal:
1914 - present
Coverage -
Spatial:
Asheville, North Carolina
DC Record Type: text ; image ; collection
Rights: Any display, publication or public use must credit D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Copyright retained by the authors of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Processed By: Special Collections Staff 2007
Updated: 2007-05-06