Memorial Church of Our Father in Foxburg is Now Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Memorial Church of Our Father, built in 1881.
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The Memorial Church of Our Father, Foxburg, Pa., an Episcopal mission parish in the Diocese of northwestern Pa., has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places effective March 31, 2022. The historic landmark recognition by the United States Department of the Interior was based on the Memorial Church of Our Father’s architectural integrity as a lasting example of late 19th-century Victorian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture.
The Memorial Church of Our Father was built in 1881 by Mary Rodman Fox, her son Joseph Mickle Fox, and daughters Sarah Lindley Fox and Hannah Fox in memory of Mrs. Fox’s husband Samuel Mickle Fox and her son William Logan Fox.
The High Victorian Gothic church was designed by Philadelphia architects James Peacock Sims and Wilson Eyers, Jr. James Peacock Sims had been a classmate of Mrs. Fox’s son William Logan Fox in Philadelphia.
The first service in the Church held on June 22, 1882, was a memorial service for Mrs. Fox’s twenty-seven-year-old daughter Sarah who had died on June 20, 1882, at her home in Philadelphia of a sudden illness.
Sarah Lindley Fox and her sister Hannah Fox had been very instrumental in Memorial Church of Our Father becoming an Episcopal Church and it was with much sadness that the first service in the yet-to-be-completed Church was the memorial service for Sarah.
It was not until November 26, 1882, that the first official service was held at Memorial Church of Our Father.
Mrs. Fox later commissioned the services of famed 19th-century artist and sculptor Edwin Howland Blashfield to paint a mural as a memorial for her daughter Sarah Lindley. The painting was that of a resurrection angel and it was placed above the altar in the Church in 1896 where it has remained. (See below pic.)
Photo left: (The altar at the Memorial Church of Our Father with the mural of the resurrection angel painted by the 19th-century artist and sculptor Edwin Howland Blashfield in 1896.)
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In letters obtained from the Fox family records at the Philadelphia Historical Museum it is noted that as Mr. Blashfield was working on the memorial painting for Mrs. Fox, he was also commissioned to paint a mural on the ceiling of the Main Reading Room at the newly built Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Mr. Blashfield’s murals, which adorn the dome of the Main Reading of the Library of Congress, occupy the central and highest point of the building according to congressional historical records.
The Memorial Church of Our Father remains an active Episcopal Mission Church in the Diocese of Northwestern, Pa. Services have been continuous since its official opening in 1882. The bell ringing to announce the beginning of each service is the original bell which was donated by the Furness sisters of Philadelphia, Pa., as a memorial to the Fox family in 1883.
Church services are currently held on Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM. Weekly Bible study is held in the Church Parish House on Sunday morning from 9:30 to 10:15 AM with Vicar Geoffrey Wild as group discussion leader.
Vicar Wild, a native of Australia, serves at Memorial Church of Our Father as Vicar in Charge. Prior to his service as full-time Vicar at Memorial Church of Our Father, Fr. Wild served as Priest at Epiphany Episcopal Church, Grove City, Pa.
Vicar Wild and his wife Cheryl are very active in the local Church congregation as well as the Diocese and surrounding area.
Continuing its lifelong service to God and the community, the Memorial Church of Our Father remains an active welcoming church that is open to all.