Grace Episcopal Church

Organized March 15, 1827, Grace Church is the second oldest Episcopal church in Louisiana. The present Gothic structure was build 1858-60, its cornerstone laid by Leonidas Polk, the Fighting Bishop of the Confederacy. Grace Church's beauty owes much to the restraint of its builder, local master carpenter C.N. Gibbons. Severely damaged by shelling during the Civil War, Grace Church nevertheless saw the burial by its rector of Federal gunboat captain John E. Hart. A Mason, Hart had desired a Masonic burial, and fighting stopped for a day while Confederate and Union Masons honored a brother's request. The Rev. D.S. Lewis read the Episcopal burial service as Commander Hart was laid to rest in the time-honored Masonic plot.