Rural Gothic Episcopal Churches

This earlier Upjohn church was built in Manhattan in 1803 and shows a more dramatic side of his architecture. 

This distinctive style of church was brought to the United States by Richard Upjohn, an English cabinetmaker-turned-architect, who began designing churches in New York in the 1830s. Historian Joan Gunderson points out that Upjohn's designs combined trends in the United States with those of England, and incorporated an interest in the medieval period, aiming to create “awe and mystery.”¹  This turn towards the past reflected the faction of the Episcopal Church moving towards a “high church” tradition modeled more closely on the faith’s historical tradition, based on rituals like the sacrament. His designs were first built in New York, but Upjohn’s work didn’t remain in the East. He made it an explicit policy to design a mission church every year, and published Upjohn’s Rural Architecture in 1852, which made his buildings easily accessible and his style increasingly popular.

Benjamin Whipple served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota from 1859 to his death in 1901. This photo shows him in 1898, at the age of 76.

Around the same time, in 1850, the National Episcopal Church sent its first missionaries to Minnesota. In 1859, Henry B. Whipple became the bishop of the new Diocese of Minnesota. Whipple, well known for his humanitarian work and arguable advocacy for Dakota and Ojibwe people, also spearheaded efforts to build Episcopal churches in Minnesota communities that could support them. This architectural style is sometimes affectionately referred to as "Whipple Gothic," given the bishop's important role in their construction. Upjohn’s design turned out to be a natural fit for the Minnesota environment. As a broad-church Episcopalian, one who sought to unite the "high church" and evangelical factions, perhaps Whipple found in this church design a happy medium. The churches were on-trend, but also simple and accessible to small-town residents with limited carpentry skills. They used vertical siding and pointed-arch doorways and windows. Some churches were constructed in stone but maintained similar lines. 

"I am charmed with [Minnesota's] little wooden churches ... which are models of economy & simplicity & yet perfectly true to Gothic rules."

—Bishop Joseph C. Talbot of Indiana

This Whipple Gothic church sits in the Lower Sioux Indian Community. It was built there in 1889 for a community of Dakota people returning to Minnesota after their exile in the aftermath of the Dakota War of 1862.

The popularity of Upjohn’s plans is still apparent in the Minnesota landscape. These churches may look quaint to us now, but at the time of their construction, they represented a massive effort by Minnesota’s settlers to make their mark on the landscape. Raising funds and constructing the buildings took the involvement of the whole community of a town. At All Saints Church in Northfield, the local missionary, Solomon Burleson, even “donned overalls” to assist in construction. Women in the community worked hard to raise money, and the success of the church was, according to Burleson, “due greatly to a band of loving daughters of the Church.”² 

These buildings stand as symbols of the investment and vision of Whipple, Upjohn, and the individual communities that worked to purposefully stake a claim to the frontier of Minnesota.