Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is a tale of two churches, both drenched in Colorado Springs history.

The pale coral-colored building, designed by famous Scottish architect Thomas MacLaren, with its castlelike exterior and 120-foot tower rising above the downtown skyline at 631 N. Tejon St., was originally the home of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, founded in 1894. Several blocks to the south was Grace Episcopal Church, one of the city’s first churches. It opened in 1873 in the current location of 217 E. Pikes Peak Ave., and is now home to St. George’s Anglican Church. Over the decades, the building has inhabited several lives, including turns as a Village Inn and the nightspot Club Eden.

In 1923, the two churches came together as Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church inside the Tejon Street location. A free centennial birthday fête on Sunday will celebrate the merger.

“Grace had 50 years of history and St. Stephen’s had a 30year history, but when they came together they started a new chapter,” said the Rev. Jeremiah Williamson, lead rector at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. “It’s a special moment in the history of the Episcopal movement in Colorado Springs. To have two congregations who had different characters and different styles of worship, but were united around the cause of Christ, and to say despite our differences we can be together and have this witness together, which is still a part of who the congregation is.”

The city’s first churches

Springs founder Brig. Gen.

DETAILS

Centennial birthday fête, noon-2 p.m. Sunday, Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 631 N. Tejon St., free; 328-1125, gssepiscopal.org

William Palmer, a Quaker, greatly believed a city should have churches, in addition to educational institutions and open spaces. To realize his vision, he gave land for five downtown churches: First United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, First Lutheran Church, First Baptist Church and Grace Episcopal Church.

At the time, William was bringing backers for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to town from England and the East Coast, as well as many of his soldier friends from the Civil War. It was a group that tended to be more “high church,” which meant church services were more formal, says Marianna McJimsey, historian and archivist for Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

Two decades later, in 1893, the city’s population had changed and was now made up of railroaders, railroad engineers and others. The group at Grace Episcopal Church craved a less formal form of worship and formed St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. More years passed, which encompassed World War I, and saw the city stretching toward the north from Pikes Peak Avenue.

“The rectors of those two churches felt their ministry would be far more effective if they joined together,” McJimsey said. “That’s what they did in 1923.”

The church on Tejon Street was selected due to its larger space. Extra land was purchased, some homes around the church were razed, and a Boston architect was hired — it was his idea to change St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church into the parish hall and build a new Gothic revival church.

It’s hard to say the size of the 1923 congregation, Williamson says, though the worship space today holds about 450.

“They would have expected to have fewer than that number worship on a Sunday,” he said, “because they would have wanted some room to grow.”

The two rectors, one from each church, worked together in a “little bit of this, little bit of that” manner, McJimsey says.

“In a lot of ways it’s persisted,” said Williamson, who’s been at the church since 2016. “Where our worship can feel pretty formal, the congregation is not as formal. It’s a nice mix, so when folks come they feel comfortable, but there’s still a formality, really emphasizing the beauty and holiness of Christian worship.”

The church post-merger

The Rev. Arthur Taft, the rector at St. Stephen’s, was active in the social gospel, meaning he took the church into the community in the ’20s and ’30s. He helped establish the Red Cross, Visiting Nurses Association and Associated Charities, which is today’s United Way.

Philanthropist Alice Bemis Taylor, who helped found Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, was a member of a different congregation, but after visiting all the downtown churches, decided in 1928 to gift a pipe organ to the city in memory of her husband, Frederick Morgan Taylor, and house it at Grace and St. Stephen’s due to its acoustics and musical leadership. The organ was accompanied by an endowment for free concerts.

Today the Taylor Memorial Concert Series features world-renowned organists, singers, chamber ensembles and choirs.

“She really wanted the working man and woman of Colorado Springs to enjoy music,” McJimsey said. “She asked that first music director if he would give concerts two or three times a week at 4:30 p.m. so people could stop on their way home.”

Music is still a significant part of the church’s mission, with the adult Taylor Choir, St. Nicholas Children’s Choir, Cherub Choir and Grace Notes handbell choir. The church has also served as the rehearsal space for Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble for three decades. And when it began, Opera Theatre of the Rockies rehearsed in the building, too. Summers feature the Jazz in the Garden series, which draws about 600 people to Friday evening concerts. Free candlelit concerts also are offered on the last Sundays of the month during the academic year.

Also notable are the church’s 48 stained glass windows designed over the course of almost a century by eight men and one woman.

“We had a Depression beginning in 1929,” McJimsey said, “and yet there was so much happiness to have this church in the ’30s, during the war, that all those stained glass windows were eventually filled in by people who gave the money for them.”

And there’s a story behind the old church bell in the tower that gets manually rung before every service. The Russian Revolution in 1917 left many children orphaned in Moscow, and a number of Americans traveled overseas to adopt them, including a member of the church. While she was in Moscow, she visited a foundry and ordered the bell for the church, which arrived around 1926-1927.

Today about 300 worship during the two Sunday morning services. The organ is played at the 8 and 10:30 a.m. gatherings, while the full choir performs at the latter.

Over the last decade, the church has worked to be open to people from all backgrounds and to make sure all feel welcome and loved by God, Williamson says.

“We’ve been intentional about that, being truly inclusive, where there are folks all over the political spectrum who can worship here,” he said. “It’s been important to the congregation in recent history, but there’s deep roots to it. It’s not a new thing. It’s a thing maybe we reignited over the last decade.”

And he acknowledges the facade of the building might belie its insides.

“They look at our old beautiful building and the expectation is the congregation is going to be older, to represent the building,” Williamson said.

“And the churches that have praise bands and guitars are where the young people are, but the truth is this congregation is age diverse. There are many young people, and they are highly involved in the life of the church.”