First Christian Church

Improved Essays
If Christianity as a religion has played significant roles in the history of the United States, the place of worship must also have an important meaning. John Smith, the earliest colonial leader of Jamestown, New Jersey, described the first Christian church built in the colony as "a homely thing like a barn set on crachetts, covered with rafts, sedge and earth" (“Jamestown Churches”). The picture of this structure in the imagination seems like an ordinary house made of logs and a thatch roof; it was not a sophisticated design as a church. Of course, as many of historical records show, the earliest colonial period was the toughest time in the history of migration, and the “homely thing” was the best product they could have constructed at the …show more content…
The design of the structure was general but has 196-foot steeple which was the highest building in the nation for more than half-century until 1810. Churches in the 19th century achieved compatibility with highly artistic designs and sophisticated functionality. St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan Island is one of the best known 19th century’s gothic style churches completed in 1879. The building employs the gothic revival style which literally sought the revival of medieval gothic design started in the 12th century France. Common characteristics of this style, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, are “complex and irregular shapes, steeply pitched roofs, high style elements such as castle-like towers, parapets, and tracery windows, as well as the pointed Gothic arched windows and entries” (“PHMC Gothic Revival Style 1830 – 1860”). The number and beauty of stained glass windows are remarkable. There are few thousand pieces of the stained glasses which recovered the former shine by restoring process from 2012 to 2015. This cathedral can accommodate about 2,400 people inside, the scale of structures dramatically increased compared to the early colonial period in the 17th

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Ap World History Dbq

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Although religion was certainly a factor in early expeditions to the new world, it did not see a drastic rise in attention until much later. The Mayflower first brought Europeans in 1620 to settle what would later be the thirteen colonies. Although religious freedom was not their sole objective, one could argue it was a major factor in early colonization. The earliest data represented in document two shows a small quantity of churches within the thirteen colonies around the year 1740; by 1776 this number near triples from 1256 to 3179 (E2).…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the early establishment of the English colonies in North America just how big of a role did religion play? While considering and looking at colonies such as Plymouth, Maryland, Massachusetts and among others and seeing how they were utterly dominated by religion one could argue that religion played not only a huge role but a very crucial one as well. As for the direction of saying that religion was a enormous role in the beginning, a team of researchers and journalist can attest to this theory by stating in their work “Religion was of the upmost importance towards the establishment of English colonies in North America. Colonies were developed as economic ventures, grants for the monarch, a penal colony (Georgia), yet most significantly for religious reasons.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the motives for the English traveler’s interest in the establishment of Jamestown was religious freedoms and growth. The English settlers whole lives revolved around Christianity (B). They believed that they had to promote…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s goal was to escape the King’s religion and the “religious and worldly corruptions of English society” (p66), the settlers of Jamestown’s goal was to aquire their own land and riches. Religion did not only exist in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but also was incorporated into essentially all aspects of life. The Puritans wanted to be able to worship and govern themselves in a “truly Christian manner” (p66); therefore, their religious principles also influenced how their society should be organized. For example, the church and state were considered closely connected as seen with several of the laws such as one that required each town to establish a church and to levy a tax to support the minister…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    There were many different religions in the colonies and they were pretty much the same. Some colonies supported the religions while others wouldn’t. The New England Colonies were all puritans except for Rhode Island. The Middle Colonies had either no religion or were Anglican while the Southern Colonies were mostly Anglican. Most colonies, like European countries of the time financially supported on religion, called “established church” and supported.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Even though these are two different regions with their own lifestyle, these colonies had some similarities! No matter what your religion was, the church was a major part of the town/village. Some of the town meetings were held there, it was a place to worship, and other church services.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By the 1700s, the New England and the Chesapeake regions developed into two different colonies due to each colony’s reason for settlement, consisting of religious and economic reasons, their personal beliefs, and their growth in their society. While the settlers of New England immigrated to the Americas to escape religious persecution, the settlers of the Chesapeake region immigrated for more economic reasons—the search of gold. Each colony’s way of life contrasted from one another in the way they lived in their societal systems. The impacts of these differences evolved the colonies uniquely. Documents A and D reveal the religious motivations behind the New England settlers’ settlements.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beginning in the 1630’s Puritans came to the colonies after facing persecution in England for their want to purify and reform the Church of England. The Puritans believed that the New World was similar to the Garden of Eden and that the New World was going to be the “city upon the hill”. The Puritans settled in the now known area of Boston, and held services in bare churches throughout the town. Three people who were principal to Puritan religion in the colonies were Richard Mather, a minister in Dorchester Massachusetts who drafted the Cambridge Platform, a description of the Congregational system.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I know by the time you receive this letter it will be months later since I wrote it. But nonetheless, I think you guys should leave England and come to the middle colonies in America because throughout my ten years of being in America and traveling through all the colonies, I have decided that moving to the middle colonies would be the best decision for our family. I know you guys have been ambivalent about where you should live when you arrive in America but I think that place should be the middle colonies because of the benefits they have here. You guys should come to the middle colonies because of its fertile land, tolerance of religion, and abundance of natural resources.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the dawn of time, every major civilization has had religion or a certain set of beliefs shape how that collective grows, thrives, lives, or dies. In its infancy years, the New World colonies were certainly not an exception. Religion can either be a center of unity or an area of disagreement between enemies. For the European populace, religion was just that; a disagreement on what to believe that spurred groups to migrate to the new world to avoid persecution and to worship in peace. What the community believed and how they combined those beliefs with the governing body, shaped the lives of every person living in the New World.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beginning in the early 17th Century, English settlers scattered themselves along the eastern coast forming some of the first clearly defined regions of the United States. While both the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies had deep-seated aversion for the natives, they differed in their religious homogeneity and economic policies. The New England colonies were strictly Puritan whereas the Chesapeake colonies followed no universal religion; also, while the New England colonies relied on fishing, shipbuilding, and farming, the Chesapeake colonies relied on their strong tobacco based economy. Although both regions were eventually conquered by the British and forced to merge as one nation, the New England colonies and the Chesapeake…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Essay: "A Model of Christian Charity" In 1630, Puritan layman and leader John Winthrop delivered a sermon to the Puritan people on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Unbeknownst to him or those in attenedence, his sermon would go down in history and serve as a defining literary example of American colonization. The main purpose of his speech can be linked to preparing the puritans on how to develop a new society in a dangerous environment. During the sermon, Winthrop reminded the colony of its purpose and the reason for existence.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Development of America: Comparing and Contrasting the Northern, Southern, and Western Regions In today’s world, everyone sees America as a strong united country, but not to long ago, this was not the case. The United States was not always so united. America used to almost be looked at as three different parts; those parts being the North, the South, and the West.…

    • 2041 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the tradition the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Chartres has housed the tunic of the Blessed Virgin since 876. The Chartres communicates a message through the imagery of good and bad found throughout the church. Some symbolism found in the Cathedral are the light-stained glass; this makes you look toward the “light” and away from the “darkness”, it also allowed the church to be light-filled with colors which makes an breathtaking experience while standing in this large church. The vertical standing Cathedral makes people look up in the sky, which symbolizes looking up at God and divinity. Similarly, the Basilica allowed you to walk in and be in a “new world” from its vast spaces.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Moreover, in the same section, the author examines the Reformed tradition in America (72). According to him, the Anabaptist tradition of worship provides the first example of “Free Church” worship (80-81), which had a strong influence on worship tradition in America. Furthermore, White introduces a concise historical background of the main worship practices and traditions developed by Anglicans, Separatists, Puritans, Quakers, Methodists, Frontiers, and Pentecostals. The author closes the book with a sequence of rhetorical questions and answers about the future of Protestant…

    • 1003 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays