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West Virginia » Eastern Panhandle » Jefferson County » Shepherdstown » St. Peter's Lutheran Church

St. Peter's Lutheran Church

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1906–1908, Holmboe and Lafferty; Charles Ellsworth Jones, stonemason. Southwest corner of High and King sts.
  • St. Peter's Lutheran Church (Michelle Krone)
  • St. Peter's Lutheran Church (Michelle Krone)

Clarksburg architects Holmboe and Lafferty designed this church for one of Shepherdstown's oldest congregations. According to Gladys Hartzell in On This Rock: The Story of St. Peter's Church, Shepherdstown, 1765–1965, Charlie “Big Mustache” Jones, a well-regarded local stonemason, clothed the rather squatty Neo-Gothic building in “native blue limestone with Ohio granite trim in rough broken range, with beaded pointing.” A spired tower provides the only serious vertical note. The sanctuary walls to either side have large centered windows with a plethora of Perpendicular Gothic tracery. The rich stained glass they contain was designed and manufactured by the Von Gerichten Art Glass Company of Columbus, Ohio. One window depicts the Adoration of the Magi, the other, quite appropriately for Shepherdstown, the angel appearing to the shepherds. Interior decorations were by the G. M. Strichy Company of Washington, D.C.

The brass escutcheon on the front door, dated 1795, was taken from the first church. Its German inscription, from the Book of Ecclesiastes, translates, “Guard your feet when you go into the house of the Lord.”

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

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