Saint Clement's Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
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Saint Clement's Church
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| Location | 2013 Appletree Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 39°57′22.44″N 75°10′23.62″W / 39.9562333°N 75.1732278°WCoordinates: 39°57′22.44″N 75°10′23.62″W / 39.9562333°N 75.1732278°W |
| Built | 1856 - 1859 |
| Architect | John Notman |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000555 |
| Added to NRHP | 1970 |
Saint Clement's Church is a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in Philadelphia, and is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. On November 20, 1970, Saint Clement's Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On September 13, 1855, a charter was granted to “The Rector, Churchwardens, and Vestrymen of St. Clement’s Church in the City of Philadelphia”. The first rector was the Rev’d Henry S. Spackman, who was elected as soon as the first charter was received. His incumbency began officially on January 1, 1856. The cornerstone of the church building was laid on May 12, 1856, by the Rt. Rev’d Alonzo Potter, third Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
The land on which St. Clement’s was built was furnished by William S. Wilson, a Presbyterian and an Englishman, who with his two brothers came to this country and made a fortune as a manufacturer. He owned most of the land in the section of the city where St. Clement’s now stands, and his interest was directed to the development of a residential area by building row houses on Arch, Race and Twentieth Streets. He was eager that a church should be built, not so much because of any religious devotion on his part, but because he felt the erection of a church would greatly enhance the attractiveness of his residential projects.
St. Clement's was the third Episcopal church to be designed by architect John Notman and built in Philadelphia between 1847 and 1859. He also designed St. Mark’s Church on Locust Street, the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square and, with Napoleon Le Brun, was associate architect for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul on Logan Square. In accordance with the architectural wisdom of the time, Notman maintained that the Gothic Revival style was best suited towards the liturgical worship of High Church congregations, while Romanesque Revival architecture was better suited for the conventional Low Church worship of mainstream Episcopal congregations. Unlike St Mark’s, which was erected for a High Church congregation and built in the Gothic Revival style, St. Clement’s was originally designed for a typical Low Church Episcopal congregation, and like the Church of the Holy Trinity, was designed in the Romanesque Revival style. Like its two nearby sisters, St. Clement’s was built entirely of brownstone. Its bell tower was originally topped by an impressive spire of over 200 feet in height. The weight of the spire was more than the foundation could support, and it was removed from the structure in 1869 in order to prevent damaging the foundation.
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