St. Andrews Episcopal Church (Tampa, Florida)
Encyclopedia
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church is an active Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 and historic church building in Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, USA. The structure is located downtown at 505 North Marion Street (corner of Marion and Madison Streets), however, the parish offices are located at 509 East Twiggs Street. On April 15, 2009, the church building was added to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NRHP).

The congregation was officially established on July 24, 1871, and was the first Episcopal church in the city of Tampa. Initially, a hospital building at Fort Brooke
Tampa-Fort Brooke, Florida
Tampa-Fort Brooke was a single census area recorded by the United States Census Bureau during the 1850 federal census with the title Tampa, including Fort Brooke. It was designated to include Tampa and Fort Brooke, which were separate entities. The population recorded was 974...

 was used for worship services. In 1877, the congregation purchased the block of land bounded by Marion, Twiggs, Morgan, and Madison Streets, where they are presently located. A wood frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 church was erected on the site in 1883.

Construction on their current church building began in 1904 and three years later, the structure was completed. The historic Mediterranean Revival style building was designed by the prominent local architectural firm of Michael J. Miller & Francis J. Kennard, who had designed the Belleview-Biltmore Hotel
Belleview-Biltmore Hotel
The Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa is a currently closed historic resort hotel located at 25 Belleview Boulevard in the town of Belleair, Florida, USA. The hotel is situated along the eastern shores of Old Clearwater Bay, with views of the bay and the barrier islands which border the Gulf of...

 and other significant structures which today are also NRHP
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

-listed. Their design for St. Andrew's incorporated several components from the original wooden church, including the stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows, communion rail
Altar rails
Altar rails are a set of railings, sometimes ornate and frequently of marble or wood, delimiting the chancel in a church, the part of the sanctuary that contains the altar. A gate at the centre divides the line into two parts. The sanctuary is a figure of heaven, into which entry is not guaranteed...

, and lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...

.

As Tampa's population grew and the city expanded, St. Andrew's parish helped to establish the local Episcopal congregations of St. John's and St. Mary's. The church is under the Tampa Deanery of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida
Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida
The Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in Florida which extends from Marco Island on the south, to Brooksville on the north, and inland to Plant City, Arcadia and LaBelle on the east...

, which is within Province 4 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Province 4 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Province 4 , also known as the Province of Sewanee, is one of nine ecclesiastical provinces making up the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The largest of the provinces of the Episcopal Church, it is composed of twenty dioceses in nine Southeastern states...

.

Next door to the historic church, on the same block at the corner of Twiggs and Marion Streets, is the six-story Western Union
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...

 Building. The Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

styled, commercial office building built in 1929 was purchased by St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in 1996.

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