Step into one of America's great buildings, a National Historic Landmark that stands today virtually unchanged since 1735. An architectural masterpiece, Christ Church's soaring walls feature detailed, beautiful brickwork with molded-brick doorways while its interior includes vaulted ceilings, large compass-headed windows, a walnut altarpiece, stone pavers, and colonial Virginia's only surviving high-backed box pews. It also has one of just two triple-decker pulpits to survive from the period: community announcements were made from the bottom tier, the Gospel read from the middle tier, and the sermon given from the top tier.
Christ Church was the gift of Robert “King” Carter, the wealthiest, most powerful planter of early eighteenth-century Virginia. Carter built Christ Church to replace a wooden church his father, John, had constructed on the site in 1670. Free, indentured, and enslaved craftsmen built the church, creating one of the most visually stunning buildings in America and the most finely crafted Anglican parish church in all of colonial Virginia.
More than three centuries after its construction, Christ Church continues to inspire. Welcome.