Christ Episcopal Church

Christ Episcopal Church. . , At 7:30 on the evening of December 23, 1855, a bell on the steamship "Wave" moored to the wharf at the foot of Main Street tolled to summon residents to the first church service to be held in the newly founded (1851) town of Riverton. The Episcopal service was offered in the parlor of "The White House," a summer guest house near the riverbank. Five years later in 1860, the first Episcopal church was constructed at the southwest corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue (now Broad Street). The year 1868 witnessed the construction of the parish rectory, the first building on the present site. The 1860 frame church was moved here in 1871, but by the early 1880s that structure proved to be too small for the growing congregation. The current church building was constructed in 1883-84. The parish house, built behind the church, completed the complex in 1894-95., The two architects associated with these buildings were John Fraser (1825-1906) and his son, Archibald A. Fraser (1861-1895), both Riverton residents and members of the parish. A Scotsman by birth, John Fraser was a noted architect who practiced primarily in Philadelphia where he is best known for the design of the Union League building on Broad Street. He later served as the architect to the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C. Archibald Fraser, born in Riverton in 1861, joined his father's firm as a partner in 1889. His career was cut short in 1895, just after the dedication of the parish house he had designed, when a bout with pleurisy suddenly took his young life., Each of these Fraser-designed buildings serves as an important architectural enhancement within the Riverton Historic District.