National Register Listing

All Saints' Episcopal Church

a.k.a. All Saints' Church

516 N. Central Ave., Valley City, ND

The first stone Episcopal church in North Dakota, All Saints' Episcopal Church in Valley City is a significant example of the property type, Episcopal Churches of North Dakota, 1872-1920s, for the multiple properties submission and context of the same name. The essentially unaltered building is significant at the state level under Criterion C (architecture), for it embodies the Gothic Revival Style, especially as it relates to the principles of the Episcopal Ecclesiological movement. Examples of this distinctive building type are unsurpassed in terms of unity of design, style, materials, and craft in North Dakota and comprise a significant architectural body of work. The church is also significant under Criterion A in the area of exploration/ settlement, for it is an important remnant of the state's earliest settlement period, a period largely dominated by easterners and Canadians of English descent. As such, it may be one of the few extant examples in Valley City associated with this first period of settlement. Still used as an Episcopal church, All Saint's derives its primary significance from its architectural distinction (Criteria Consideration A). Built in 1881, All Saints' Church displays the key defining design elements listed under the registration requirements (side porch, steeply pitched roof, pointed arch openings, asymmetry, honest use of materials, chancel design). The period of significance for criterion C covers when the building was constructed, and the period of significance for criterion A is 188197. This period begins when the church was constructed during the first Dakota Boom (which began in 1878) and ends in 1897 with the close of this initial intense period of settlement.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1992.