Common name: Saint Peter's Episcopal Church
Historic name: Saint Peter's Episcopal Church
General Location: Southwest corner of Division and Telegraph Streets, Carson City, Nevada
Address: 314 North Division Street
Assessor's PN: 003-201-01
Current use: Church
Original use: Church
Year of construction: 1867-1868
Architect: Unknown
Builder: Cornet Brothers
The one and one-half story, T-shaped, wood-frame church structure is Gothic Revival in style. The exterior building material is clapboard and the foundation is stone. The roof is formed of intersecting gables except for the modified hip roof of an extension at the rear. A tall slender steeple rises from the front of the church, containing double entry doors with a large pointed, arched window above, circular louvered vents, and four small gabled and bracketed vents clustered at the base of the spire. The tramsomed wing at the rear contains a gabled portion of one and a-half stories and a hip-roofed, one-story portion whose roof connects to the taller wing. The taller wing contains windows similar to those of the church while the smaller addition mixes several window and door types, including rectangular doors and windows with leaded glass transoms. Rather heavy projecting moldings emphasize the fenestration design. A number of fine stained glass windows have been donated by the congregation.
The structure received its only major alterations in 1875 when the church was lengthened 24 feet to a total of 75 feet. At the same time, the one-and-a-half-story rear two wings were added to the existing structure, one for a Sunday school and the other for parish needs. In 1911 a guild room, kitchen toilet, and study were added and created the one-story rear portion attached to the Sunday School room. The steeple is now fiberglass and restoration after a fire did not include the use of original materials. The building was once a "drab" yellow with a darker trim. The entry lamp is from Virginia City.
The rectory stands to the south and is now in a sense a related feature. Built as a private residence, probably in 1867-1868, the structure was purchased in 1891 for $3,500 by the church to serve as a rectory.
Although the church form is taller and more massive than adjacent residential structures; its scale is still compatible to the area. The building form is particularly enhanced and to a degree screened by the many mature trees.
The structure is an exceptionally fine rendition of the Gothic Revival style used so widely and appropriately in ecclesiastical design of the 19th century. Its detailing, though relatively simple, is very fine and the building is enhanced by its siting with open lawn and numerous tall trees. The building conveys a very strong presence and image of the past due to its striking design and use of scale. It contributes substantially to the atmospheric quality of the area and to the character of the city.
Rectory building: The structure is important culturally, as the church rectory, and architecturally, as a particularly good example of its type and style. Built of locally produced brick and completed between 1862-1868, the structure was the residence of several local businessmen before it was sold to the church in 1891. Since then, the structure has served as a residence for the priest and his family at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
According to an article in the Nevada Appeal, St. Peter's Episcopal church and Parish was organized Nov. 9, 1863, in Carson City, while the sanctuary came four to five years later. St. Peter's is Nevada's second-oldest Episcopal church still in operation, according to Reverend Jeff Paul. The first service in the church was Aug. 9, 1868, with the first rector of the church being William Maxwell Reilley. (The oldest continuously used Episcopal church in Nevada is St. Paul's in Virginia City, having been established in 1861.)
The Carson City church building is of East Coast influence, the shape of the interior resembles the hull of an upside-down ship. The interior arrangement of the pews in three rows and no center aisle makes St. Peter's the only Episcopal church west of the Mississippi without a central aisle leading to the alter, another New England Protestant feature. The interior features a half-domed ceiling in the sanctuary supported by Corinthian columns.
Sources: Carson City Historic Tour; Rhonda Costa-Landers, "Blessed be St. Peters: Celebration of building's 140th anniversary...," Nevada Appeal, 17 October 2007, p.A1; First Hundred Years, 1863-1963, St. Peter's Parish; Historic American Building Survey, 1974.
Listed in the National Historic Register: 1978 January 03.
City Landmark: Kit Carson Trail, Plaque No. 15.
Year of construction: 1867-1868 (factual), on the original site.
Subdivision: Proctor and Green, Block 35.
Architect: Unknown
Builder: Cornet Brothers
Text: Carson City Historic Resources Inventory, 1980.