title: St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia)
text: # St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia)
  
  St. Paul's Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal church in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Located directly across Ninth Street from the Virginia State Capitol, it has long been a popular house of worship for Richmond political figures, including General Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and many Virginia governors throughout the years. (earning it the nickname "the Cathedral of the Confederacy").
  
  Other notable people associated with the church are Rev. Dr. Charles Minnigerode, who led the church from 1856 to 1889, including during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and Rev. John Shelby Spong, who was a retired bishop of the Diocese of Newark, began to attract national attention while rector of St. Paul's (1969–1976).
  
  St. Paul's was built in 1845 as a branch of the Monumental Church, which had outgrown its building. The Greek Revival church was designed by Thomas Somerville Stewart and modeled largely on St. Luke's Church, now Church of St. Luke & the Epiphany, in Philadelphia. The cornerstone was laid on October 10, 1843 and the church was consecrated on November 11, 1845. The estimated cost before construction was "not exceeding $53,500," excluding the organ and purchased lots. This cost later rose to $55,000. The organ was purchased for around $4,000 and the two lots for the church were $6,000 and $1,075. In 1845, there were 804 sittings in the nave and 358 in the gallery for a total occupancy of 1,162 parishioners.
  
  When St. Paul's was first built, it had a much more imposing figure than it does today due to the old 225 foot tall spire. This spire was significant in that it surpassed the State Capitol as the highest structure in the city of Richmond from 1845 to 1900-1905, when the spire was removed out of stability fears. It was replaced by a much smaller 135 foot tall octagonal dome, which is how the church appears in the present day. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as St. Paul's Church.
  
  