St. Luke's Church is a National Shrine or National Historical Landmark, depending on what source you're reading from. It's not much to look at, just an old brick church with a graveyard around it, nothing terribly exciting unless, like me, you've got a significant ancestral link to it.
My ancestors went to and lived near this church when they first came to American back in the 1600's, so I really wanted to see it. History lesson: It's the oldest standing church in America, having been established around 1632 or so. (It most likely predates that by about 10 years or so, but the original vestry books were buried in a horsehair trunk, and therefore rotted away, for years, so a conclusive date can't be established.) My ancestors were there when the church began, so of course their records there are lost in the original vestry books, but we know they were members there, and may have been involved in its administration as well. They are not buried in the surrounding graveyard, which didn't come into use til about 20 years later. They were most likely buried on their own land (the tradition at that time), which means their graves are probably lost to time and nature's encroachment. At any rate, I didn't have time on this trip to figure out precisely where their land was located, or who owns it now, or ask if there are any known graves on it. We did, however, take a tour of the church, learned about it's history and significance, and meandered around the graveyard. There is an old gravel path along the edge of the cemetery that was part of an Indian trail route, which pre-dates the church by who knows how many years. Despite the fact that the Indian Massacre of 1622 (a massacre by Indians, not of them) occured all around it, the church as an institution survived. It would most likely have been a simple wooden structure at that time, however; the brick building that stands today was built sometime in the 1630's.
The inside of the church as it would have appeared in the 17th century, with the exception of the pews. At that time, it is likely that all the pews would have had high backs, not the low ones pictures here. Families sat together and might have had their own pew which they constructed themselves, so the pews may not have been uniform in size and structure. The stained glass windows up front came from Germany and were originally inscribed with German words; those words were taken out and replaced with the names of men prominent to the early English settlers when the windows were installed here. The stained glass windows on the side walls denote families of the area. Mine is not depicted, probably because they had moved on by the point that the side windows were constructed; the original windows were plain clear diamond-shaped pieces of glass set in lead cams.
The pulpit has three tiers; in this picture you can see that the bottom one was a short step above the floor, the middle one another step above that, with a Bible on a stand, and the top had its own short staircase, which is where the preacher would stand (or the magistrate, when court was in session.) The octagonal structure above the top tier was an actual sounding board, used to reflect the speaker's voice out over the pews instead of ascending directly into the ceiling.
Another history lesson: there would have been several hourglasses set up on the pulpit, much like preachers today set their watch on it to keep track of time. The reason was completely different, however: they were there not to make sure the preacher stayed within the allotted time for the message, but to make sure he preached long enough. How long was long enough? Three to four hours. And that was just the sermon. The entire service usually lasted 6-8 hours; in other words, you spent an entire work day sitting in a hard wooden (and sometimes very hot or cold) pew with your immediate family, listening to someone proclaim hellfire and damnation. I can't even imagine sitting through that myself, let alone with several children. My kids can't sit still through an hour-long church service; six to eight hours and I would have killed all of us.
There was only one door to the church. It looks a bit confusing from the outside. As you can tell, it is a door within a door; the smaller inner door with the handle was used for everyday, common usage such as church, court, and ceremonies like weddings, etc. The larger outer door can only be opened from the inside. Why?
Because it was only used in times of military occupation, in order to let in horses and large pieces of weaponry. The church was twice militarily occupied, once during the American Revolution and again during the Civil War. Once the outer door was closed, it afforded fairly good protection, since it could not be opened from the outside; the smaller inner door was easier to defend. The walls of the church are three feet thick of Flemish-bonded brick, enabling it to serve as a fort when necessary.
There are four people buried within the church itself; two of these graves are marked by marble slabs in front of the chancel altar. One of those two has been exhumed for examination and not yet returned. The other is still there, under the marble slab inlaid on the floor. Yet another person is buried in an unmarked grave beneath the baptismal font at the back of the church, just to the left of the door ins the picture above. I don't know where the fourth person is buried; the docent didn't tell us and I forgot to ask. It is, however, another unmarked grave within the church.
I didn't get a picture of it, but there is a creek that runs alongside the cemetery surrounding the church. It is fairly small and shallow now due to damming further upstream, but in the 17th and 18th centuries it was a prime water route for transportation of goods inland. So the church not only served as a place of worship and a fortress, but also a commercial transport post.
No comments:
Post a Comment