St. Mark's Church has historical significance because of its longevity and the magnificence of its physical structure; its membership and some of their specific ministries; and the work the church has undertaken to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the community, the city, and the world beyond. 

St. Mark’s Church, Frankford is an active Episcopal Church in the lower Greater Northeast with deep roots in the community and a storied history. The church was planted along traditional lines during an intense period of evangelical mission work in the 1830s (1832) through the mission work of Trinity Church, Oxford.  The church is also noteworthy because of important members; James Ashworth, a decorated Union Army officer who raised a company from the men of St. Mark’s and was himself wounded four times; Thomas Creighton, an important Hudson River School artist and vestryman; William Welsh, an 19th century merchant who personally funded several church plants, was a member of President Grant’s Indian Affairs Bureau, and conceived the idea and implemented the Lay Cooperation of Ministry, which changed the way ministry is done across the United States; and of course, Frank Rushmore Watson, vestryman, church musician, historian, and most important, church architect, who designed churches up and down the eastern seaboard. 

The church is also important because of the very structure itself.  The building is considered the pinnacle of Watson’s work.  It is a vertical Gothic church building, built for 1000 worshippers and to become the Cathedral of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.  It is constructed of Port Deposit Granit and Indiana Limestone; the windows are the most important example of Nicola D’Ascenza’s corpus of work in the United States; there are 69 stone carvings done by Whiteman Studios of Philadelphia; and numerous memorials by church members. 

As a group St. Mark’s members have played a significant role leading Northeast Philadelphia; over 16 streets were named for members; during times of epidemic, the church opened its doors to serve as a clinic; and 188 troops were raised from our parish to fight in the War to Preserve the Union, and 39 men from our parish laid down their lives on battlefields foreign and domestic.

St. Mark's Church, Frankford is celebrating its 175th Anniversary this year. Throughout its storied history this simple Episcopal congregation has had a significant impact in Frankford, Philadelphia, and the greater Christian Church.

There are specific records of Episcopal missions in Frankford that go back as far as 1709. In each case schools were reported, but it wasn’t until 1816 that the Reverend George Sheets, Rector of Trinity Church, Oxford in Oxford Township was given authority in Frankford and Holmesburg and the church was birthed among the people of these growing, though still largely rural communities.

In 1820, Rev. Sheets and Mary Glenn, a regular communicant of St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia, started a Sunday School in Frankford in the Morrow Schoolhouse at Paul and Ruan Streets.

In 1832, the cholera epidemic struck the city of Philadelphia and many people left the compact cityscape to flee to the wide open suburbs such as Frankford. As the population of Frankford grew, church services were held in the schoolhouse under the leadership of the Rev. Sheets, the Rev. Dr. Spackman, and Mrs. Mary Glenn.

Within a short time, the congregation outgrew the Morrow Schoolhouse and rented a room at the Frankford Academy on Paul Street.

In 1835, the congregation outgrew their space at the Frankford Academy and a lot was purchased on 4444 and 4446 Franklin (now Griscom) Street, where a frame building was erected. The church was named The Tabernacle Church.

In 1837, The Tabernacle Church membership continued to grow, so the congregation purchased yet another lot, which was to become the site of the current church on Main Street, which is now the current address of the Church, 4442 Frankford Avenue.

In 1845, some members of the congregation met at the home of a fellow parishioner, William Overington, to plan the building of a larger church and the cornerstone was laid that year. The church was ready for worship services in 1846, and the name was changed from the Tabernacle to St. Mark’s Protestant Episcopal Church.

The church flourished under the clerical leadership of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Sutter Miller (served from 1854-1881), as well as the lay leadership of the Welsh Family (William Welsh served from 1858-1878). The first Lay Co-operation in the Episcopal Church in this country was started here under the leadership of the Welsh Family. Parish records from the era indicate that there were Bible study classes, college lectures, a parish library, a savings and loan, mother’s meetings, a sewing school, a burial association, the sick people’s club, Mother’s Aid Society, diet kitchen for the sick, Alms House Mission, St. Mark’s Guild, Temperance Society, reading room and a day nursery.

Pictured here is our second church which functioned from 1850 to 1880.

During the Civil War, a St. Mark’s parishioner named James Ashworth, set up a recruiting station on Frankford Avenue near the church and due largely to his efforts Frankford had the most recruits of any town its size in the nation. First Captain then Colonel Ashworth was to command the storied 121st Pennsylvania Volunteers who fought heroically and with many losses during the Battle of Gettysburg. On the south wall of the main church building is a plaque commemorating the 192 men from St. Mark’s Church, Frankford who fought in the War to Preserve the Union. Over the years, 39 St. Mark’s men have laid down their lives on battlefields, foreign and domestic, for our freedom.

The 1800’s were years of growth for Philadelphia itself as well as the businesses and churches of the City of Brotherly Love. During this period the members of St. Mark’s Church, Frankford were responsible for starting seven new worshipping communities: St. Stephen’s Church, Bridesburg; St. Bartholomew’s Church, at Comly and Ditman Streets; St. Luke’s Church, Kensington; St. Paul’s Church, Aramingo; a rail depot mission east of the church; the Chapel at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; and St. Mark’s Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming as well as other projects of religious merit in the Episcopal Church.

Probably St. Mark's Church, Frankford most important influence to the wider Christian Church was publishing a document explaining what was then a relatively new concept in ministry: lay people and ordained people working together as a team, known as the Lay Cooperation in Ministry. Prior to the St. Mark’s report, the work of the Church was generally considered the responsibility of the clergy. After the report and still true today that the work or ministry of the laity and the clergy compliment each other to the glory of God and the expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. This report, first given at the Diocesan Convention in 1861 spread well beyond the Episcopal denomination and was published in the Godey’s Lady’s Book. One can only imagine the influence an article in the Lady’s Book must have had; the periodical had a readership stretching across the continent.

Some will look at the church more as a building than the collection of people who form a community of faith. The cornerstone for the church was laid on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels in 1908 before hundreds of onlookers. For them we offer that the present church building is truly a work of art. The architect for the project was Frank Rushmore Watson, who designed churches up and down the eastern seaboard. The church was built to accommodate 800 worshippers under an oak roof designed to replicate the hull of Noah’s ark and surrounded by layered walls consisting of Indiana Limestone and Port Deposit Granite. The magnificent stained glass was done by local artist Nicola D’Ascenzo, who was a versatile artist and former president of the Philadelphia Sketch Club. The stained glass adorns two levels of this vertical gothic church. In the lower (eye) level one can trace the work of Christ as developed from the synoptic Gospels; in the clerestory, towering above the church there is a procession of saints, which through the vivid colors that D’Ascenzo is noted for, 70 ten feet tall Biblical characters march toward the East. D’Ascenzo has work on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but the pinnacle of his work is clearly the stained glass at St. Mark’s Church, Frankford.

Today the church feels active and healthy, as membership continues to climb each Sunday. There is a sense in the congregation that God has called us to the high calling of sharing God’s love in this broken world, by focusing on local ministry in the Lower Northeast and especially Frankford. Today and especially each Sunday the church is called home by people from across the globe. The congregation has members from Europe, Puerto Rico, Africa, and Asia, all of whom come together to worship God through the Divine Liturgy. Every Sunday our worship services are festive as well as fun: we are united in one voice.

Please contact the church for genealogy and folk history related to the following families:

The Bromley Family – mill owners

The Battersby Family – (descendents still attend)

The Creighton Family – (descendents still attend)

Thomas Duffield

Lynford Lardner (Lardner’s Point – Tacony)

John Lardner

The Overington Family

Benjamin Castor

Harvey Rowland and his family – steel mill owner

Robert Whitaker and family

The Wilbraham Family – Frankford Hospital

The Knorr Family

The Cottman Family

The Brous Family

The Foulkrod Family

The Devereaux Family

The VanKirk Family

The Comly Family

The Horrocks Family

The Ashton Family

The Welsh Family