There is a little Episcopal country church in Madison County, Mississippi, called The Chapel of the Cross. The church building itself is as beautiful as its name, and it is widely recognized as one of the finest examples of Nineteenth Century Gothic Revival church architecture in the United States.
The chapel began as a vision of John Johnstone, a wealthy plantation owner in Madison County during the early 1800s, as a house of worship for his family and their servants. Sadly, Mr. Johnstone died before his vision became a reality. Upon his death in 1848, his wife, Margaret Johnstone, brought his dream to life with "the help of slave labor, hired artisans, grim determination, and three thousand dollars."
Although very few records relating to the construction of the church survived, it is commonly believed by architectural scholars that English-born architect Frank Wills designed the Chapel of the Cross for Margaret Johnstone.
The bricks, which would ultimately make the chapel's walls two feet thick, were "river bottom" brick, cast on-site from area clay, and were instrumental in the building surviving the ravages of war and time.
Margaret deeded the church and 10 acres to the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi in 1851, and the Chapel of the Cross was consecrated in 1852. Its original parishioners were Margaret Johnstone, her youngest daughter Helen, the family of her elder daughter Frances Britton, and the servants of the two plantations which housed both families, Annandale and Ingleside.
In 1861, a couple of years after Henry's death, the glory days of plantation life faded with the coming of the War Between the States, and the ensuing destruction and poverty took its toll on the little chapel. According to information I found on the church's website, "for the next 40 years, The Chapel of the Cross would alternate between being an active church and an abandoned, neglected house of worship until the church was declared extinct by the Diocese of Mississippi, shortly after the turn of the century.
The church found new life in 1911, when Margaret Britton Parsons, a granddaughter of John and Margaret Johnstone, persuaded the Diocese to reactivate the Chapel as an active house of worship.
In 1956, an accurate restoration of the chapel was begun, and in 1979, the United States Department of the Interior awarded the chapel a $50,000 matching grant to finish the restoration the church to its original antebellum appearance.
From its humble beginnings as the vision of one man ... and his wife's love and determination to bring his dream to life ... the Chapel of the Cross has become a significant house of worship, both historically and architecturally. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and currently hosts four worship services on Sundays.
I had the privilege of visiting the Chapel last week, and would like to share some of the pictures I captured of the church and the beautiful little cemetery behind it.
As I entered the churchyard, the sun broke through the clouds and I was pleased to have a few minutes of pretty blue skies as a background for my pictures.
