Religious Community | Capitol Hill DC

Christ Episcopal Church is almost as old as the city of Washington, nearly as old as the nation itself. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, this charming, tidy building, later remodeled to look like an English country church in Gothic Revival style, has crowned a little knoll on Capitol Hill, the bell tower soaring above the neighborhood's Federal and Victorian row houses. In 1993, the Society of Architectural Historians, in its book Buildings of the District of Columbia, cited the 1807 church unequivocally as "the earliest structure in the city built to serve an ecclesiastical purpose."

The founding of the church parish dates back even earlier, to 1794. It was created by an act of the Maryland legislature. In 1994, Christ Church, Washington Parish, celebrated its bicentennial as the "mother parish" of all Episcopal parishes in the original Federal city. The Interior Department put the building on its National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

Thomas John Claggett, the first Episcopal bishop to be ordained on American soil, consecrated Christ Church in 1809, two years after its completion. Of it he wrote: "It is not large, but sufficiently elegant, and is the first building that hath been erected by the Protestant Episcopalians, for public worship, at the seat of government." Famous men attended services at Christ Church and events that shook a nation took place nearby. But in all eras across the centuries, ordinary citizens carried on its mission of worship and witness on Capitol Hill. And always, the little church, its history, its parishioners and even its appearance have reflected changes in the greater society.

Thomas Jefferson came to the log tobacco barn that was Christ Church's first house of prayer; it was located on New Jersey Avenue near D Street Southeast, not far from what is now the Capitol South metro station. For several years, Jefferson contributed $50 annually to the church coffers.

In 1806, when the cornerstone was laid for the church's second and only formal structure at 620 G Street Southeast, and the next year, when it was finished, the surrounding lands were meadows, woods and fields of hops and corn dotted with farmhouses. The Capitol building was slowly rising a mile to the northwest. The population of the city was only 14,000.

For many years, the celebrated architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe was believed to have been the designer of Christ Church. In fact, the still-standing original central section was designed by Robert Alexander, a vestry member, a builder, Latrobe's friend and chief contractor for the Washington Navy Yard.

In 1814, Christ Church's members saw invading British troops occupying the U.S. Marine commandant's superb brick mansion less than two blocks east at Eighth and G Streets. More troops were bivouacked at its adjoining barracks.

The British set fire to both the Capitol and the White House. Meanwhile the Navy Yard to the south of Christ Church was going up in flames, put to the torch by its :fleeing commandant, Thomas Tingey, so that it would not fall into enemy hands. Captain Tingey was a devoted and dynamic church vestryman for decades. The British spared Christ Church, the only other prominent public structure in the immediate vicinity.

John Quincy Adams was a Unitarian, not an Episcopalian, but decided while Secretary of State to go to Christ Church anyway. The reason, he wrote in his diary in 1819, was that its rector, Andrew McCormick, was the only preacher in town worth hearing. "I have at last given the preference to Mr. McCormick, of the Episcopal Church," Adams noted in the entry for October 24, "and spoke to him last week for a pew." McCormick had served earlier as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate and had officiated at the wedding of Lydia, Benjamin Latrobe's daughter.

John Philip Sousa, America's "March King" composer and great Marine band- master, was born in 1854 three doors east of the church on G Street. He became a member following his mother, a faithful parishioner for 50 years. Sousa and many family members are buried in Congressional Cemetery, the church's graveyard.

Christ Church's tower was a lookout post for Union soldiers during the Civil War. From it they watched Confederate armies maneuvering across the Potomac River. At various times during the conflict, the threat to Washington of yet another invasion seemed imminent.

Joshua Morsell, rector during all but the final months of the war, preached fiery anti-slavery sermons; his parishioners were heavily pro-Union in a city that had its share of Confederate sympathizers. Mark Olds, Morsell's successor, eschewed all politics, North and South. His letter of acceptance as Christ Church's rector was read at a vestry meeting on April 13, 1865.

The following night, in the midst of rejoicing over the end of the war, John Wilkes Booth shot and fatally wounded Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater. Joy turned to grief. By order of the vestry, Christ Church was draped in swags of black "for the space of Thirty days in Commemoration of President Lincoln the magistrate of the nation." On April 20, 1865, the parishioners could hear the guns fired at the Navy Yard every half hour from sunrise until the funeral service for Lincoln was over.

One of those parishioners was David Herold, whom some thought to be a slow- witted boy. He was accused of helping the assassin Booth to make his escape on horseback from Washington into the countryside. Another member of Christ Church's congregation, Dr. Samuel McKim, testified in Herold's defense at the trial that he might not have understood fully what he had done. But all the plotters were found guilty. David Herold, aged 23, was the youngest.

On July 7, 1865, the Reverend Olds stood on the scaffold with Herold as he and three other conspirators were hanged. The execution took place at 1:30 PM.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Olds comforted Herold's mother at home on Capitol Hill. The Oldses' daughter-in-law recounted later in her memoirs that the rector's wife had stopped all the clocks in the house so that the mother would not know the moment of her son's death. David Herold is buried, along with the other Lincoln conspirators except Mary Surratt and John Wilkes Booth, in Congressional Cemetery.

Christ Church has owned the cemetery, also listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since 1812. It is located at 18th and E streets Southeast.

Holy Comforter - St. Cyprian Roman Catholic Church: 1250 Constitution Ave., NE @ 11pm (Christmas Hymns with Full Choir); Midnight (Christmas Mass)

Imani Temple: 609 Maryland Ave., NE @ 11:30pm (Christmas Carols); Midnight (CHristmas Mass)

St. Peter's Catholic Church: 313 2nd St., SE @ 5pm (sign interpreted Mass especially for children); 7pm (Mass of Christmas); 9:30pm (Preludes of Hymns and Carols); 10pm (Mass of Christmas)

Parish of St. Jame's and St. Monica's: 222 8th St., NE @ 8pm (Lessons and Carols)

St. Mark's Episcopal Church: 301 A St., SE @ 4pm (Family Service and Pageant); 10pm (Christmas Festival Eucharist)

The Lutheran Church Of The Reformation: 212 East Capitol St., SE @ 7pm (Youth Service); 10pm (Choir Service)

Holy Comforter - St. Cyprian Roman Catholic Church: 1250 Constitution Ave., NE @ 10am (Christmas Mass)

Imani Temple: 609 Maryland Ave., NE @ 10am (Christmas Mass)

St. Peter's Catholic Church: 313 2nd St., SE @ 9am (Canton and Organ); 11am (Folk Group)

Parish of St. Jame's and St. Monica's: 222 8th St., NE @ 10am (Christmas Mass)

St. Mark's Episcopal Church: 301 A St., SE @ 10am (Christmas Mass)