Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, known also as Borough Church, greets you here in Norfolk, Virginia. The Nave you see was built in 1739 and is the sole colonial-era building in the city that survived the various wars Norfolk has witnessed. This building has worn different robes: originally a Church of England parish, it became part of the new Episcopal Church after the Church of England was disestablished in Virginia during the Revolutionary War.
In 1797 the Elizabeth River Parish of that new church split in two by feuding congregations; one faction went on to form Christ Church, which later became Christ and St. Luke's Church, while the other faction kept this building until 1803, when it was acquired by Baptists and served as a Baptist parish in the early-19th century. The Episcopalians reclaimed the building in 1832, and Bishop Richard Channing Moore reconsecrated it under the name Saint Paul's. Stand close and let the centuries settle around you: the stone of the nave, the echoes of shifting congregations, the layered history of a place that has changed hands yet endured.
Your gaze settles on the nave built in 1739, this church, and the Norfolk that surrounds it.