Prairieville: St. Andrews Episcopal Church

No wonder that St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Prairieville is popular with photographers. The small board-and-batten Carpenter-Gothic church was built in 1853 by slaves and features wooden buttresses, gothic windows and tiny white-painted wooden crosses that embellish each roof ridge. The unaltered interior has hand-carved symbols and figures on the altar rail and in the chancel. A mixture brewed from tobacco plants was possibly used to stain the interior walls. The design may have been influenced by Richard Upjohn, a British-born architect who immigrated to the United States and became famous for his Gothic-Revival churches including Trinity Church in New York City.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy