About

In 1846, the Rev. Alexander McLeod came to the village of Providence and established the first services of the Episcopal Church, soon after given the name of Grace.

After 20 years or so, a frame church building was erected using materials that arrived by steamboat from New Orleans.

Grace Church remained at the site of Church Street until 1888. Because of persistent encroachment of the Mississippi River, the congregation decided to move the church onto Lake Street where the church had earlier built a rectory on land purchased from Nicholas D. Ingram.

The wooden church was dismantled in 1925 and the church rectory moved to Ingram Street. Construction began on a brick church which is the present Grace Episcopal Church. During construction, services were held in the courtroom of the Parish Courthouse.

In 1926 the new church was completed. The first person to be baptized in the new building was Helen Key Van Fossen.

A parish house was built in the early 1980s. Virginia Harris Hall serves the congregation and community as a meeting place with full kitchen and several meeting rooms.

Grace Episcopal Church will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2021.