Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
St. Alban’s History
One can never tire of hearing about the legacy of Phoebe Nourse. Her grandfather, Joseph, owned the land overlooking Washington, named Mount Alban, where our Parish sits today. A devout Christian, he hoped a church would be built on the 30-acre plot, but when he died in 1841 Mount Alban had to be sold. It became the site of an Episcopal school for young boys, however, and neighbors attended Sunday services in the school chapel. When Joseph Nourse’s granddaughter Phoebe died in 1850 at the age of 23, she left a small box on which she had written that it was to be given to the Reverend Anthony Ten Broeck, headmaster of the school, to start a fund to build a church on Mount Alban. In the box were some 40 dollars in gold, which Phoebe had earned, in part, from the sale of her needlework. Neighborhood churchgoers made contributions, other offerings were received, and ground was broken for the church on the first anniversary of Phoebe’s death. Three years later, with the help of the Nourse family and neighbors, the church was completed, and the doors were opened to worshippers on April 30, 1854. A tiny wooden structure with benches for the congregation, St. Alban’s had one bell, painted glass windows, and an altar of black walnut.
From that humble beginning, St. Alban’s has been remarkable for the breadth of its vision, the quality and spirituality of its leadership, and the extent and impact of its contribution to the local community, the city, and the wider world. From its earliest days, St. Alban’s has reached out into the surrounding neighborhoods, attracting new members into our vigorous and growing congregation and establishing missions—St. Columba’s and St. George’s in 1875, St. David’s in 1901, and All Souls and St. Patrick’s in 1911—four of which are now thriving, independent churches. Under the leadership of dynamic rectors like G. C. F. Bratenahl (1896–1911), Charles Warner (1912–48), E. Felix Kloman (1948–52, 1956–69), A. Theodore Eastman (1973–82), and Francis H. Wade (1983–2005), St. Alban’s has developed into a major urban Parish with over a thousand members who come together, week after week, to worship, to serve, and to find a loving community.
Today, St. Alban’s is a church that is moving vigorously into the 21st century. Following our 150-year tradition, we step forward to serve the needs of the city around us. We are forging new relationships and coalitions with our sister churches to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters, building and sustaining organizations like the Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place, Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington, and the Transitional Housing Corporation. And we have embraced the growing empowerment of the members of our congregation, just as we embrace our call to share in the responsibility for Christian ministry, outside as well as inside the walls of St. Alban’s.
St. Alban’s plays an active role in the Diocese of Washington. Created in 1895, the diocese embraces the District of Columbia and four nearby Maryland counties, and includes 94 congregations with some 40,000 baptized members. Congregations in the diocese range from small rural churches to large urban parishes, and church membership includes a spectrum of people.
Our bishop, John Chane, reminds us that “The heart of what we want to do as the people of this diocese is to support each other—as individuals and as congregations—in our common commitment to Jesus Christ and to making the Gospel real wherever we live or work. That task of ‘building up the saints’ can only be done together, in a community of faith and in a community of congregations.” Our parish is involved with the diocese in many ways, including participating in meetings of our regional diocesan assembly and the annual diocesan convention, providing leadership on many diocesan committees, and contributing generously to the diocese on an annual basis. Many St. Albanites serve the diocese as volunteers, and youth from the Parish participate in diocesan youth retreats and other events.
St. Alban’s Parish in Washington, DC, is located in a beautiful setting, standing in the shadow of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul and adjacent to the buildings and campus of the Cathedral Close. Located at the highest point in the District of Columbia, St. Alban’s overlooks the Capitol, famous monuments, notable cultural centers, and the majestic Potomac River. It stands at a major crossroads of the vibrant cultural, ethnic, and racial mix that is our nation’s capital.
As individuals or as a broader community, we are the product of our past. Because St. Alban’s has such a rich history, reaching back over 150 years, we are blessed with a strong Parish family—we are strong in our faith, strong in our community care, and strong in our desire for good stewardship. For those members who are the most active and for those rarely seen, there is a community of care and giving at St. Alban’s that is available for each and every individual who passes through our doors.
St. Alban’s celebrated its 150th birthday in 2004–5, and our buildings are old and venerable. They consist of the church and Nourse Hall as one unit, Satterlee Hall, and the Rectory. Our church is a stately, stone-encased, wooden edifice of gothic design, with an interior bathed in sunlight filtered by richly-colored stained glass windows, depicting a host of the saints of the Anglican Communion. Nourse Hall, which adjoins the church, has meeting space for 200, choir rehearsal space, and a number of other smaller rooms. Satterlee Hall sits across from the church, and has meeting space for 300, a large production-style kitchen, offices, and smaller meeting rooms, and a library. It houses the Opportunity Shop, the Crossroads Shelter, and classrooms for the Church School and the St. Alban’s Early Childhood Center. The Warner Memorial Rectory, also across from the church, is a gracious and comfortable three-bedroom house utilized since 1993 as a space for adult and youth education, meetings and fellowship functions.
Major renovation of the narthex of the church and Nourse Hall occurred in 2006–2007. The project opened up the narthex, updated and expanded Nourse Hall, and added new lavatories, stairs, and an elevator.
For a more
detailed history
of St. Alban’s,
browse the
Parish Timeline.