Founded 1869, Throughout our 145 years, St. Marks has been a landmark for religious leadership, public education, and community service. Each year, we celebrate the blessings of God’s continuous presence in our life and rejoice in his constant
presence in all of our ministries. The theme for 2013 is “Walking by Faith and Growing in God’s Grace” and reminds us of how past generations struggled to keep the doors open on the corner of Sixth and Grace Streets. Faced with difficulties
and adversity, St Mark’s has survived and still rests on a solid faith-based foundation. It is our constant prayer that we continue to foster the same Christian principles as those who walked these hallowed grounds generations ago.
Established in 1869, St Mark’s was the first African American Episcopal in eastern North Carolina. It sits on a tree shaded corner of downtown Wilmington, looking like nothing so much as the little brown church in the vale.
Flanked on all sides by homes that share its century-plus history, St Mark’s Episcopal Church lends a quiet dignity to the neighborhood at the corner of Sixth and Grace streets. It was more than 144 years ago that, with
the help of funds donated by friends in Boston, Wilmington’s black community began construction on what would be yet another place of worship for the city’s African- American community. Up until then, Blacks and Whites
worshipped together as part of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church. In 1869, Black worshippers founded a new church they dubbed St. Paul’s, but later named St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Funds for the church came from the congregation
themselves, who raised the needed cash through Wilmington subscriptions and donations from their Massachusetts brethren.
The congregation of Wilmington’s newest church gathered in March 1871 to break ground for their
house of worship. The cornerstone was laid three weeks later on March 23, 1871 and construction began in earnest. Alfred Howe, a local architect and member of the St. Mark’s congregation, supervised construction crews whose
hammers and saws brought the English Gothic design of Boston’s Emerson & Fehmer architectural firm to life. William Randal Emerson did the design for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, as it is one of the few buildings don
by him in the South. Emerson was noted more for his larger than life summer homes done for wealthy New England clients than for his churches. The pastoral look of St Mark’s is due in large part to the elements of design
found in rural English churches that Emerson incorporated into his plans for Wilmington’s new church. The elements include the low eaves, high ridge, and octagonal corner tower. By the fall of 1871 Wilmington newspapers
were reporting “ St. Mark’s Church rapidly approaches completion. The church building has been erected by the colored members of the Protestant Episcopal denomination in this city, and is one of the neatest edifices of
its kind in the State.”
Today we are a multicultural congregation, from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life.