Meet Emmanuel, Warrenton

By Mary Raiford

The first record of Emmanuel Parish appeared in the Diocesan Journal of 1821, where it is stated that a congregation had been formed in Warrenton.

Land on Warrenton’s Main Street was given by Miss Hanna Lees, and the church was built in 1824 by Thomas Bragg, father of General Braxton Bragg. Over the next century, several renovations and additions were made, but the original church remains within the walls of the 1928 renovation that gave the church the look it has today. The rectory and parish house were also built in 1928.

Several graves are on the church grounds, including that of young Mary Turner, granddaughter of Francis Scott Key and also of North Carolina Governor and United States Senator James Turner. Bishops of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee were associated with the parish. In 1836, Horace Greeley married Mary Youngs Cheney, a teacher from Connecticut, in Emmanuel Church.

The church’s interior features a reredos and altar hand carved by Silas McBee of Lincolnton, who also carved the reredos of St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington. The pulpit, lectern and parclose are of hand-carved Appalachian oak.

Of special beauty are the stained glass windows. Eight of them, depicting the Life of Christ, are done in the Tiffany mode.

The church, with all of its preserved Gothic beauty, has services at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday and is open for visitation upon request.