St. James History

Colorado Cultural Resource Survey: 5HN68.23

St. James Episcopal Chapel is located in a single-story frame building with clapboard siding. The interior of the small chapel is arguably the best preserved of Lake City's four extant 19th Century church buildings and features original, locally constructed pews, reading desk (manufactured by local carpenters Stover & Overfield for the church in February, 1877), 1910 Estes organ, turned railing, and altar accouterments including silver chalice presented to St. James in 1878 by the Sunday School of St. George's Episcopal Church, Hempstead, New York, and brass altar cross subscribed to St. James in 1909 in memory of Episcopal Bishops Abiel Leonard and Edward J. Knight. Also of architectural interest are two hand-forged steel tie rods on the interior which span the chapel from east wall to west wall at ceiling height. Two leaded glass windows dating to 1991 are located within original window openings on either side of the front doorway, with two four-over-four pane windows on both the east and west walls of the chapel.

According to St. James' historical record, the chapel building was constructed in 1875 as a carpentry shop. The lots on which the church is located were assessed to Henry Finley in 1876 and used as an office and shop for the building and contracting firm Tumer & Lyons. A May, 1876, newspaper advertisements states the firm's location at the corner of Gunnison Avenue and Fifth Street, "special attention paid to the erection of mills and smelters... will furnish plans and specifications for all kinds of buildings, free of charge. Have the agency for the latest improved waterwheels. Will take contracts for buildings of all kinds, including mills and reduction works of all kinds." The firm's principals, H.E. Turner and J.B. Lyons, were primary known for building heavy industrial structures, including the Crooke Smelter, and a variety of heavy timber bridges on Henson Creek. Both Turner and Lyons built residences for their own use which are extant in the Lake City Historic District, a frame home built by Lyons (330 Gunnison) in 1875, and Turner's two-story hewn-log house, 513 Gunnison, built in 1877 a short distance north of the firm's carpentry shop.

Following use by Tumer & Lyons and prior to being acquired by Lake City's Episcopalian Society, the chapel building was briefly leased as a school room by Hinsdale County School District and, as such, represents the oldest surviving school building in the region. Public school classes were previously held in the Farnsworth Building, 201 Gunnison, but moved to the former carpentry shop on a lease basis in November, 1876. School classes continued in the building through March, 1877, when the building and corner lots were acquired as a "temporary chapel" by the local Episcopal Society.

St. James Episcopal Society was formed in December, 1876, under the direction of Bishop J.F. Spalding. Founding members of the Episcopalian society included "Father of Lake City" Enos T. Hotchkiss, SILVER WORLD newspaper publisher H.C. Olney, mining engineer T.W.M. Draper, and C.B. Hickman of the U.S. Land Office. The society's small congregation utilized rented storerooms for weekly services prior to purchasing the corner lots and small building on Fifth Street. Similar to their Presbyterian neighbors across the street at 431 Gunnison, it was evidently the Episcopalian's original intent to ultimately remove the small frame building and replace it with a larger church structure when economics and population growth allowed. Lake City SILVER WORLD reported the society's purchase of two corner lots and former carpentry shop in March, 1877, the newspaper noting religious services would temporarily be held Sundays in Farnsworth's building while the former public school class room was fitted up for use as a temporary chapel.

In its recount of the Lake City church's history, THE PACIFIC CHURCHMAN, November 1, 1905, wrote that the former carpenter shop was gradually improved after being taken over by Lake City Episcopalians: After purchasing the building, one of the congregation's first acts was placing "a heavy wooden cross on the front gable." The exterior walls of the original building were "finished in rough lumber, put on perpendicularly and battened. They improved, from time to time, the exterior walls and ceiling, and in 1892 the building was clapboarded and painted; but the old, rough, unmatched floor is still there, partly carpeted."

Rev. A.D. Drummond was resident Episcopal Priest through 1882, after which the chapel was served on a weekly basis by Episcopal clergy based in Gunnison. This arrangement continued until 1993 when Rev. Ed Nettleton moved to Lake City and became Lake City's first resident Episcopalian Priest in over a century. Apart from cosmetic changes, St. James Episcopal Chapel remained essentially unaltered throughout the 20th Century. The lack of a foundation beneath the original chapel was remedied in June, 1988, when a new concrete block foundation was built beneath the church. Discussions were held between the church congregation and Lake City's historic preservation committee in 1991 concerning the congregation's wish to replace original four-over-four pane windows with single-pane leaded glass windows. A compromise was reached allowing the church to replace the two windows on either side of the front doors, while retaining the original window sash and window panes on the east and west walls.

Sources of information:
Historical Register, Parish of St. James Episcopal Church, Lake City, Colorado; Lake City SILVER WORLD, Sat., September 4, 1875, page 3, Sat., May 20, 1876, page 3, Sat., November 4, 1876, page 3, December 9, 1876, page 3, Sat., March 2, 1877, page 3, Sat., March 24, 1877, page 3, Fri„ March 4, 1988, page, Fri., June 3, 1988, page 1, Thurs., August 9, 2001, page 1; Lake City TIMES, Thurs., January 14, 1909, Thurs., March 24, 1910, page 5; THE PACIFIC CHURCHMAN. November 1, 1905, page 26; The Episcopal Church of Colorado 1860-1963 by Allen duPont Brecki Big Mountain Press. Denver, 1963, page 370.