Richard Upjohn designed St. Mary's Chapel at 900 Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the Gothic Revival style. This historic Episcopal chapel sits on the grounds of St. Mary's School, the college-preparatory boarding and day school founded in 1842. The chapel is a 19th-century building designed by architect Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style and later expanded; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
Listen to the layers here: before St. Mary's School for Girls opened, an Episcopal School for Boys was established in 1833 on a 159-acre tract acquired from Colonel William Polk. Construction on those early school buildings began in 1834, but by 1837 the school had closed. The property later passed to businessman and politician Duncan Cameron, who with Reverend Aldert Smedes — the school's first rector and president — reopened the site on May 12, 1842 as St. Mary's School for Girls. Religious services were first held in the parlor of Main Hall, now called Smedes Hall, and later on the first floor of the historic East Rock building.
The chapel's Gothic Revival details, the sweep of the school grounds, Smedes Hall, and the East Rock building carry those 19th-century beginnings into view before you.