St. Lukes Episcopal Church was built at Cahawba in 1854 but was dismantled and moved sometime after 1884 but
before 1888. It was reassembled fifteen miles away in a rural community called Martin's Station. The raised outline before you indicates the original location of this church.



Archeology



Finding the original location was not easy. In 1906 a former resident Anna Gayle Fry published her memories of Cahawba. Her book states that St. Luke's was located on the corner of Pine and First North Street. This must have been a typographical error, because the actual location was here at the corner of Vine and First South. Archaeologists were able to confirm this location, by discovering the buried "footprint" of the missing church.



In this photograph of the excavation, the dark linear stain in the soil indicates where the north wall of the church once stood.



The Church Returns! - Original Stained Glass Discovered



In 2008, architecture students from Auburn University's Rural Studio program dismantled the church and brought it home to Cahawba. It could not be put back here on it's original location because of the threat of flooding. So it stands today on higher ground near the park's visitor center.



The students numbered and mapped every piece of the church so it could be accurately reconstructed. They also found artifacts hidden with the walls, including several broken pieces of colored, enameled and stenciled glass windows. Two stenciled examples are pictured here. The glass found in the walls matches matches historical newspaper accounts of the original stained glass windows in the church.

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Show me all markers in:  Orrville, AL  |  Dallas County  |  36767  |  Alabama  |  United States of America

St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cahawba - circa 1500
Vine Street
Cahaba First State Capital
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A Prison Chimney?
Castle Morgan & Jesse Hawes
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Site of Alabama's Statehouse

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