Founded by Episcopalians in 1842, the Church of the Epiphany stood in Washington, a Southern city and the Union capital, where church spires symbolized the importance of houses of worship in the religious, social, and political life of the nation’s capital. By the Civil War, it stood in a residential neighborhood with strong Southern sympathies, and its walls witnessed the suffering of wounded soldiers when it served as a temporary hospital, with planks laid over pews to form platforms for beds. Many Washington residents had family and friends in the South and often held conflicting loyalties; Northerners even accused the city of being “Secesh.” The church’s nearby connections reflected that divided world: Jefferson Davis had lived nearby and belonged to the congregation, while Judah P. Benjamin and Robert Toombs lived one block away on F Street. The Reverend Charles Hall, the church’s rector, balanced Southern sympathies with loyalty to the Union and so convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton of his loyalty that Stanton began attending services regularly, sitting in Jefferson Davis’s former pew. Stanton’s example drew many Union generals as well, and President Lincoln came there for the funeral of General Frederick Lander of the Army of the Potomac. The Church of the Epiphany is the only original pre-Civil War downtown church building in Washington to survive.
