Give a Cheer
We went to check out this church one day. Stenciled bg- Tim Holtz, made the cross embellie (TH twine) , used wood veneers - Prima and ?, brads - stash
Digital journaling and strips
Journaling: The Walters traveled from Germany and arrived in Fredericksburg early 1847. The Walters soon began building their permanent home, a two-room fachwerkstructure, of rough-hewn logs, rocks, and mortar. This building technique was common in the German villages of their birth. Later they added the back room of hand-cut limestone, and then purchased several adjoining lots for farming and built a wooden barn close to the house.
In 1952, an Episcopal mission was established in Fredericksburg. The group, now made up of five families with 16 members, met at the Nimitz Hotel or in private homes. In 1954, Rev. Rowland noticed that the Walter property on Creek Street was for sale. The buildings were in poor repair, but he saw the property’s potential as a home for the congregation.
The property was purchased on June 13th. For three months, the congregation worked hard to create a place of worship out of the 106-year-old structure. They replaced the rotted pine floors with bricks and covered the exterior sides with overlapping wood shingles.
They held their first worship services in the building in September 1954. On December 23, 1954, Rt. Rev. Everett H. Jones dedicated the building and named the new mission St. Barnabas. For the next ten years, the pioneer home of the Walter family would be the worship center of the Episcopal Mission of Saint Barnabas.
On January 31, 1965, the new St. Barnabas Episcopal Church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Everett H. Jones, along with the Priest-in-Charge, the Rev. Jack Langford. The congregation, with 50 communicants, had outgrown the little chapel. Though the historic building is no longer the primary site for worship, it is a cherished part of parish life.
After the new sanctuary was built in 1964, the building continued to be used as a chapel, office, and fellowship hall. In 1983, the church conducted a major restoration of the chapel. The restoration team installed antique wood floors, stabilized the beams and walls, and removed the exterior side shingles. With the timbers, rocks and mortar exposed, the building appeared much as it had for its first 100 years.
Through the years, the chapel has remained a holy place of prayer and inspiration – a place of celebration and solace. It has been a witness to events both joyful and sad: weddings, baptisms and funerals. Those whose loved one’s remains lie in the adjacent Columbarium often visit the chapel for prayer and contemplation. Once a week, a special noon service in the chapel offers healing and comfort for those who are sick and suffering. The building is open every day around the clock for individual prayer.
The former Walter family home, now the gateway to the St. Barnabas campus, is one of the oldest buildings in Fredericksburg. The farm fields, barn, and log cabin are gone; but the house, more than 160 years old, remains, along with the well and grape arbor, where Peter and Anna Margarethe Walter placed them.
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