Our Building, Worship Space and Appointments
Grace Church at 3700 Canal Street was built in 1953 and 1954
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Grace Parish was founded in 1886 by Episcopalians in downtown New Orleans
after Christ Church, the mother church of Episcopalians in Louisiana and the
oldest non-Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans, moved from Canal Street to an
uptown location.
Grace Parish
had two earlier church buildings on North Rampart Street and at 1501 Canal Street. In 1915,
Grace Church founded a parochial mission in Mid City, named St. Matthias
Mission. In the 1920s the property at 3700 Canal Street was purchased for St.
Matthias and the mission congregation met in a large antebellum home at that
location. |
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In the early 1950s, Grace Parish was outgrowing its 1501 Canal Street
facility and began considering a move. During this period, the Texas Company
(TEXACO), approached Grace Parish about razing the church building and leasing
the property for an office building.
In 1952, the old church was razed and the congregation worshipped with its
parochial mission in Mid City while a new large facility in the Modernist style
was built on the corner of Canal and N. Telemachus Streets. Grace
Parish and St. Matthias Mission were reunited. The mission is remembered by the
designation of the chapel of Grace Church as St. Matthias Chapel (Joe W. Brown
Memorial). Our current buildings were dedicated fifty years ago on 12-13 September 1954 by The Rt. Rev'd Girault Jones, Bishop of Louisiana, and The Rt. Rev'd Iveson Noland, Bishop Suffragan of Louisiana. |
