St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Snow Hill North Carolina

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St. Barnabas Episcopal Church is a modest, example of the Carpenter Gothic style popular for small churches in the mid and late-nineteenth century. The impact of Richard Upjohn's Rural Architecture shaped the design of churches, especially Episcopal, for nearly a half-century, providing the impetus for buildings of stylish form, which contrast with their characteristically simple contemporaries. A few Episcopal churches of this type survive in southeastern North Carolina. These represent the full-blown introduction of pattern book architectural styles, particularly the Gothic, into the rural and small-town communities of the region. Grace Church, Jones County is especially notable and shares with St. Barnabas the use of an arcaded upper cornice linking the battens of the board and batten walls, a subtle technique that emphasizes the verticality of the structure and makes each wall surface a stylized lancet arcade. Completed in 1887, St. Barnabas was the sixteenth church in Greene County, but more importantly, it was the only representative of the Episcopal denomination in the county for seventy-five years.

The last service was held in St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Snow Hill in the 1960s. A few remaining Episcopal families have assumed responsibility for its care and maintenance. Though never an outstanding member of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, St. Barnabas is significant in the religious history of Greene County and of immeasurable nostalgic value to the residents of Snow Hill.

The Diocese of East Carolina was created by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America on October 22^nd, 1883. In December of that year, a primary convention was held in Christ Church, New Bern, to organize the new diocese. John D. Grimsley from Greene County represented St. Barnabas Parish at that meeting.

A new congregation was being formed near Snow Hill and was assigned to the Rev. Israel Harding as part of his circuit. By May 1884, Harding had conducted four services in Snow Hill despite the lack of a church or an established place of worship. Earliest services were held in the courthouse; later the Baptist Church allowed the Episcopal congregation use of their structure.

From the time of its organization, the Episcopal congregation was building its own house of worship. On October 24^th, 1884, Bishop A. A. Watson preached at the courthouse, and "after the service I met the principal persons of the congregation in consultation with reference to the erection of a church." Two and one-half acres of land in Snow Hill had been acquired from Aguilla Sugg by the Diocese in 1883 but no funds had been available for construction. The Building Fund of the Diocese of East Carolina depended upon contributions from member churches, and the donations lagged for several years. Using a few funds raised locally and promises of repayment, John D. Grimsely, William E. Best, John Harvey, and Theophilus Edwards secured the services of W. T. Faircloth and the firm of Porter & Godwin to construct a small building which was completed early in 1887. The new church was named St. Barnabas which had for several years been the name of the parish, and immediately was listed as such among the mission stations of the Diocese of East Carolina. The church, capable of seating 150 worshipers, was more than adequate for the 50 individuals regularly attending service.

Unable to draw substantial amounts from the meager balance in the Diocese Building Fund, and with few contributions coming from the ten families belonging to the church, the trustees of St. Barnabas faced a financial dilemma. They were unable to pay their creditors for labor and materials used in the construction of the church. Faircloth and the firm of Porter & Godwin apparently threatened to attach mechanics liens to the property. To prevent legal actions against the St. Barnabas congregation, the trustees initiated a series of complicated land transactions with the Diocese by which the St. Barnabas land in Snow Hill was used as collateral for a loan. On March 15^th, 1888, the trustees received $600 from the American Church Building Fund Commission in New York, payable in five yearly installments. For labor and materials, W. T. Faircloth received $225.33 and the firm of Porter & Godwin $165.04. The remainder was dispensed in small amounts to a variety of individuals, most of whom were members of the congregation.

In 1889, the trustees began acquiring materials for the interior of St. Barnabas. A red carpet was purchased for the aisle and steps to the pulpit. A wood stove, the only source of heat, was placed in the opposite front corner from a new pump organ imported from York, Pennsylvania. A stone baptismal font stood near the pulpit and a large stained glass window, the only original one, faced the congregation from the rear of the church. Later two more stained glass windows that had been in St. Mary's in Kinston were installed on each side of St. Barnabas.

The Rev. Israel Harding remained as the priest in charge of the St. Barnabas Mission until his death on January 13^th, 1891. For the first five years of his ministry, services were irregular at St. Barnabas, but in 1889, he began regular bimonthly visitations. The church was not consecrated during Harding's lifetime because a canon of the Episcopal Church in America withheld consecration until the congregation was free of debt. The final payment of the lean to St. Barnabas was made early in 1893, and on April 23^rd, Bishop A. A. Watson consecrated the church at Snow Hill in honor of " … the Rev. Israel Harding, whose memory finds another monument in this Church of S. Barnabas."

After the death of Israel Harding, St. Barnabas placed in the Convocation of Wilmington where it was served by an itinerant evangelist. For twenty-two years (1895-1917) the Rev. Edward Wooten attended to the ministerial needs of the Snow Hill church. He initiated monthly Sunday services with occasional weekday sessions. Under Wooten's leadership, the number of communicants rose to twenty-seven, the most in the church's history. A Sunday school was begun and St. Barnabas contributed regularly to the various funds of the Diocese. In 1917 Wooten was replaced by the Rev. J. H. Griffith, beginning a string of eleven different ministers who were to serve St. Barnabas until the church ceased to function in 1962. For a time during the 1920s, the mission at Snow Hill flourished, then began a slow decline. Improved roads and modes of transportation led to bigger and better-funded churches; death took its toll on the older members of the congregation; and the Diocese became increasingly reluctant to assign a regular minister to the mission. The number of communicants dwindled until only a few remained in 1962. With such a small congregation, the Diocese could no longer justify keeping St. Barnabas on its active roil. The church was closed but not deconsecrated, meaning that it remains an inactive member of the Diocese of East Carolina.

Two near disasters prompted substantial renovation work to the church. On February 27^th, 1952, sparks from the corner wood stove ignited the shingle roof underneath the tin covering. The tin prevented the fire from engulfing the church, but the ceiling in the vicinity of the fire was destroyed. G. Frank Warren of Snow Hill, treasurer of St. Barnabas from 1938 to 1962, had the damaged portion replaced with timber specially cut to resemble the original woodwork. A second renovation was the result of vandalism. In 1971, five teenage boys entered the abandoned structure and wrecked the interior. The stained glass window over the altar was broken; the hymn books were torn and used as projectiles to destroy the glass light fixtures; a hole was knocked in the ceiling; swinging doors to the vestibule were ripped to shreds; roofing cement was poured on the floor, carpet, and pews; the baptismal font was chipped and broken; covers for the kneelers were split open; the pump organ (which had been converted to electricity) was damaged beyond estimation; and the church and grounds were littered with beer cans and other debris.

Appeals to the Diocese of East Carolina for funds to repair St. Barnabas brought no response. In 1973 a memorial fund drive in honor of Mary Wall Bost Exum, a long-time member of the church whose family pioneered the settlement of Greene County, brought sufficient monies to begin the restoration. According to Frank Warren, about $6,000 has been spent and the repairs still are not complete. The memorial funds are gone. The families are too few and inflation is too high to continue the project.

The only area being maintained at public expense is the cemetery, which is kept mowed and weeded by the town of Snow Hill. All the plots have been taken or assigned; consequently, only an occasional burial now takes place there. The cemetery itself, however, has an interesting history. The earliest grave is that of James G. Edwards who died February 19^th, 1850. Yet the church records state that the first person to be buried in the St. Barnabas Cemetery, which surrounds the church, was Addie Grimsley, the infant daughter of John D. Grimsely. She was buried on February 5^th, 1877. Obviously, the property was used as a private cemetery before St. Barnabas Parish was created and before the land was sold to the Diocese of North Carolina. Unlike many churches that sold or gave burial privileges to members of their congregation, St. Barnabas sold the actual land plots to its members, indicating that much of the two and half acres belonged to a number of different families. Frank Warren believes that most of the members never completed payment for their plots; thus the land reverted to the Diocese. For those that may have completed payment; however, the legality of ownership is extremely complicated. Because of its policy of selling the plots, St. Barnabas lost its authority over the cemetery, leaving the care and maintenance to the individual owners. As families died out or moved away, interest in maintaining the cemetery waned. By the mid-1950s, weeds and shrubbery obscured the tombstones even though sporadic services were still being held in the church. Frank Warren led a campaign to clear the cemetery and see to its keeping, and when St. Barnabas became inactive, he secured the services of an attorney who discovered a municipal ordinance requiring the town to maintain cemeteries within the corporate limits. One interesting feature of the St. Barnabas cemetery is an enclosed square section to the rear of the church which was reserved for paupers. The graves are unmarked, but Frank Warren recalled the burial of a gypsy girl there many years ago.

Building Description

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church is a small rectangular frame building, three bays wide and four deep, with a gable roof chancel extending to the rear. It sits on a low brick foundation and is covered with a rather steep gable roof. All bays are marked by lancet openings with plain board frames. The gable end forms the main (west) facade. The central entrance features a double door surmounted by a solid two-part tympanum. The door panels and the panels of the tympanum are filled with narrow vertical boards. The windows contain simple sash without tracery. As noted above, the walls are covered in board and batten, with the battens rising from a molded water table to tiny caps from which spring miniature lancet arches, creating a lancet arcade. The gables are also of board and batten; a simple kingpost system of ornamentation defines the main gable. To the rear projects the chancel with flanking shed extensions that contain entrances. These are finished with plain board and batten. Near the rear of the church stands a bell tower of open framing with a shallow pyramidal roof.

The interior of the church, like the exterior, is of simple, straightforward Gothic Revival character, well preserved and intact after repairs necessitated by vandalism. Two banks of pews are separated by a central aisle that leads to the chancel. The white plastered walls contrast dramatically with the dark wood of the pews, door and window frames, narrow vertically sheathed wainscot, ceiling, and linear truss system that articulates the ceiling. The chancel is framed by a wide > pointed arch and ends in a stained glass window. Stained glass also fills the two side windows nearest the chancel. The pews are probably original, and they resemble others of the period seen in various eastern North Carolina churches. The upper portions of curvilinear ends resemble abstracted whales in profile. Curvilinear brackets also support the simple members of the X-truss system. The stone baptismal font, ornate wooden organ, and other ecclesiastical furniture remain.

The cemetery adjoining the church is shaded and quiet, with a collection of various types of stones, well kept by the community.

Interior view (1979)

Exterior (1979)