| All Saints' Torresdale Episcopal Church | |
| Location: | 9601 Frankford Avenue (Route 13), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Country: | United States |
| Denomination: | Episcopal |
| Website: | http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org/ |
| Founded Date: | 1772 |
| Architect: | Frank Wills |
| Style: | Gothic |
| Groundbreaking: | 1854 |
| Completed Date: | 1855 |
| Construction Cost: | $13,500 |
| Materials: | stone |
| Diocese: | Pennsylvania |
| Province: | Three |
| Rector: | Reverend Jay Walton |
| Organist: | Joseph Kulkosky |
All Saints' Torresdale Episcopal Church is an Episcopal church in the Torresdale neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1]
The church was founded in 1772, an extension of Philadelphia's Old Trinity Church. The present church building, designed by Frank Wills, was completed in 1855.
During the late 17th century, Church of England services were the first religious services to be held at the site of what is, today, All Saints' Torresdale Episcopal Church. First conducted in 1698, they were held in a Quaker meeting house built from hewn logs. Replaced by a brick building in 1711, the structure was further improved with the addition of pews in 1759, eventually became known as the Old Trinity Church, and remains situated in what is now Oxford Township, Pennsylvania.
By the early 1770s, however, a group of congregants came to realize that their beliefs were not completed aligned with other members of their church, and decided to begin a search for another more suitable location to worship. Writing to the Propagation of the Gospel in London on behalf of those restive congregants in 1771, Dr. William Smith secured permission to build a new facility, found land roughly five miles away in Torresdale, an area in Philadelphia County which would become part of the city of Philadelphia in 1854, and began working to make the new church a reality. Groundbreaking was held on November 3, 1772, on land provided by Christian Minnick, the building was completed, and dedication ceremonies were held on November 3, 1772. "Included in the covenant of ground from Christian Minnick," according to historians at All Saints' Episcopal, "was a stipulation that the church was not to be separated from Trinity Oxford and that the Swedish minister was to preach in it every three weeks."[2]