02/20/09

Photo Gallery: St. George's Episcopal Church

For more information on this church, visit www.saintgeorges.org

In 1839 General Lewis Lawrence Griffin (1794-1867) purchased 800 acres in the northern part of what was then Pike County hoping to establish a city that would be the commercial and transportation hub of Georgia and the South.  Of that 800 acres he gave 22 acres for the churches and public use.  The Episcopal Church was one of the six churches endowed with a one-acre lot.  As early as 1846 Episcopal priests were serving as missionaries to the small group of Episcopalians in the area.

In 1858 the first record of any action to form a parish indicates the election of wardens and vestrymen.  The next year the church was formally organized.  Over the next several years the War Between the states and the Reconstruction delayed any aggressive growth;  but on November 14, 1869, the cornerstone was laid.

The cruciform plan identifies St. George's Episcopal Church as a Gothic Revival style church. This traditional plan consists of a choir and nave running east-west crossed by a north-south arm.  The two lateral arms, known as transepts, intersect the main sanctuary at the crossing and separate the nave from the chancel.  The chancel and choir consists of the altar and choir located in the eastern end known as the apse.  The narthex on the western end leads to the nave.
(Source: www.saintgeorges.org)