St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

This is a beautiful and stately historic Episcopal Church across from Capitol Square. The interior architectural details are magnificent. The history envelopes you while in the church or garden.
I’ve attended many church services here, and they are always conducted in typical Episcopal good taste and reverence.

Another Richmond landmark church. This one is famous for its Tiffany windows, so if you are a stained glass or Tiffany fan, this is the place to see. As Paul M noted in his review, this church is also famous as being the place where Jefferson Davis learned the he had lost the Civil War from Robert E. Lee.
The church is also famous for being built by legendary Greek Revival Architect Thomas S Stewart and was completed in 1845.. A massive entrance portico of eight columns with ornate Corinthian capitals dominates the exterior of the building. An octagonal dome replaced the original 225 foot-​high spire, long since removed due to fear of its instability. This church is an excellent example of Greek Revival church architecture.

I go down to Richmond about once or twice a month for work, and when I have some time I come in here for some reflection.
I admire the history, the windows, the tombs and the monuments inside the Church. I like the flags, the silence, the solitude. I love the smell.
But most of all I come here to marvel at the fact that this Church is where President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis got the message from Robert E. Lee that the South had lost the Civil War.
On Sunday April 2^nd 1865, whilst attending this Church, Jefferson Davis got a message from Lee stating that he was withdrawing from Petersburg — that the 10 month siege was over — and thus he could no longer defend Richmond. General Grant and the Union army were on their way. Davis evacuated the Confederate Government from the city and then Lee surrendered at Appomattox exactly one week later.
Can you imagine this? You can sit in the same pew that Davis sat in when he was given that message. 10 months earlier Lee had been thwarting Grant, Sherman was getting stuck in Tennessee and Lincoln’s re-​election looked impossible. For a few horrible months it actually looked as if the South would win.
But then Atlanta falls, Lincoln is re-​elected, Lee gives in at Petersburg and the nation’s long nightmare has ended.
And in this Church, in a pew near the front, is where they finally realized that it was over.