All Saints' Chapel
a.k.a. All Saints Episcopal Church
209 W. 27th St., Austin, TXAll Saints' Episcopal Church is a historic church building in Austin, Texas, United States. It was built in the Gothic Revival style in 1899 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, located at the northern edge of the University of Texas campus in Austin, was founded in 1899 as a chapel for the Young Ladies Church Institute, housed next door in Grace Hall, under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The founder was the second bishop of the diocese, George Herbert Kinsolving, whose official residence was located in the same block of Whitis Avenue. Because of his vision of a church residence hall and chapel, All Saints' has had a significant influence on the development of the University of Texas and on the lives of many of its students and faculty, as well as on the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and the wider Episcopal Church. Designed by Austin architect A.O. Watson in Gothic Revival style and built of white Austin limestone, the chapel, a parish church of the diocese since 1909, has been altered little over the years. It bears mentioning that on June 24, 1908, the church officers adopted resolutions requiring the appointment of a consulting architect, and that all plans for changes in the building and “all permanent decorations and fittings, of whatever sort” be submitted to the consulting architect. Following this policy has stood the church in good stead, as only an extension of the chancel to the east in 1939, enclosure of the narthex in 1951, and additions of stained glass windows beginning in 1930 have changed its appearance. Major preservation work was completed in conjunction with its centennial in 1999-2000 and was performed with great sensitivity to original fabric and design.
All Saints' is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an intact and well preserved example of Gothic Revival church design and construction. Though small, All Saints’ design—with traditional cruciform plan, offset entry, bell tower with steeple, central nave from baptistry at the west to chancel and altar at the eastend, north and south transepts, lancet stained glass windows, vaulted ceiling, prominent exterior gabled ends, steep roof, and shallow buttresses—exemplifies Gothic Revival church architecture.Because the building is significant primarily for its architectural qualities, it satisfies Criterion Consideration A for religious properties.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.