St. Peter's Church is a historic church on Starr between 29th and 30th Streets in the Old Tacoma neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, United States.
St. Peter's Church | |
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| Location | Starr between 29th and 30th Sts., Tacoma, Washington |
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| Coordinates | 47°16′28″N 122°27′45″W / 47.27444°N 122.46250°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1873 |
| Architect | Bonnell, Rev. C.R. |
| NRHP reference No. | 74001974[1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 5, 1974 |
It was built in 1873 and added to the National Register in 1974. Old St. Peter's Church was the first church built in Tacoma[2] and is now Tacoma's oldest existing building. The first services were held on Aug. 10, 1873.[3]
St. Peter's bell tower is unique. The bell was a gift from the Sunday school children at St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia.[4][2] It arrived in October 1874, but the church in Tacoma had no belfry. Loggers cut off the top of a tree growing next to the church and a crew of sailors used the ship's rigging to hoist it up on the stump.[5] The rings of the tree were counted when the tree was cut, revealing that it was over 300 years old.[6] The tree claimed fame as "the oldest bell tower in America".[7] The original tree stump was damaged by a windstorm in 1935 and had to be replaced.[2]
References edit
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Tacoma Public Library - Image Archives". search.tacomapubliclibrary.org. Archived from the original on February 8, 2015.
- ^ http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/dt6build.asp [dead link]
- ^ Woodbridge, Sally; Montgomery, Roger (1980). A Guide to Architecture in Washington State (First ed.). Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 272. ISBN 0295957794.
- ^ Hunt, Herbert (1916). Tacoma: Its History and Its Builders; a Half Century of Activity. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 224.
herbert hunt tacoma st. peter's.
- ^ http://www.oldstpeters.org/About_Old_St_Peters.html
- ^ "Oldest Bell Tower in America - 1889".
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