Steeples on the Skyline: A Walking Tour

For a hundred years, steeples were the tallest things in most American towns. Before water towers, grain elevators and cell towers crowded the sky, a traveler approaching a small town would see the steeples first, rising above the trees like signposts. They told you where the town was, and they told you something about the people who lived there long before you met a single one of them.

This walking tour visits six, each in a different style. I put it together a few years ago for a group of my former students who wanted a Saturday outing, and I’ve led it a dozen times since for church groups, scout troops and anyone else who asks. The route is a little under two miles, mostly flat, with plenty of shade and a good cafe at the halfway point. You can walk it in about two hours if you stop to look, which is the whole point.

Spot the style

Pointed arches mean Gothic Revival; round arches and heavy stone mean Romanesque. That’s the quick version, and it will get you surprisingly far. American church builders borrowed freely from European styles, adapting them to local materials, local budgets and local tastes. Once you know a few key features, you can name the style of most old churches from across the street.

Here’s a simple cheat sheet I hand out at the start of every tour:

• Federal and Georgian. Symmetrical brick or wood, multi-tiered steeple, round-topped windows, often from the early 1800s.
• Greek Revival. A front porch with columns and a triangular pediment, like a small temple, with a square tower above.
• Gothic Revival. Pointed arches, steep roofs, tall narrow windows and a sharp, needle-like spire.
• Carpenter Gothic. Gothic shapes built in wood, with decorative trim and board-and-batten siding.
• Romanesque Revival. Heavy stone, round arches, thick walls and squat, sturdy towers.
• Colonial Revival. A twentieth-century return to the early American look, with white columns and a classic steeple.

The tour, stop by stop

Our route starts at the courthouse square and loops through the oldest neighborhoods in town. Every town’s lineup will be different, of course, but you’ll likely find a similar mix wherever you live.

Stop one: the brick meeting house

The oldest church on the tour dates to the 1840s. It’s a simple, symmetrical brick building with tall, round-topped windows and a white wooden steeple stacked in tiers like a wedding cake. That stacked steeple is a hallmark of the Federal style. The congregation was founded by families who came south from Virginia, and you can see the Virginia influence in the neat brickwork.

Stop two: the temple on the corner

Two blocks east stands a Greek Revival church from the 1850s, with four big columns holding up a triangular pediment. It looks a little like our courthouse, and that’s no coincidence. In those decades, Americans loved the idea of ancient Greek democracy, and they built banks, courthouses and churches to match.

Stop three: the needle spire

The tallest steeple in town belongs to a Gothic Revival church from the 1880s. Look for the pointed arches over every door and window and the steep slate roof. The spire rises nearly a hundred and twenty feet. Inside, I’m told, the stained glass was made by a regional studio and shipped in by rail, one crate at a time.

Each steeple was a town saying: we plan to stay.

Walter

Stop four: the little wooden chapel

Tucked on a side street is my personal favorite, a small Carpenter Gothic chapel built in the 1870s by a congregation that couldn’t afford stone. They used wood instead and borrowed Gothic shapes, pointed windows, a steep roof and a tiny spire, then added lacy trim along the eaves. It’s modest and lovely, and it proves that you don’t need a fortune to build something beautiful.

Stop five: the stone fortress

A few blocks north stands a Romanesque Revival church from the 1890s, built of rough-cut granite with round arches and a squat, heavy tower. It looks as if it could survive a siege. Romanesque was popular for a few decades around the turn of the twentieth century, especially for churches that wanted to appear solid, permanent and dignified.

Stop six: the revival of the revival

The tour ends at a Colonial Revival church built in the 1920s. With its white columns, red brick and graceful steeple, it looks older than it is. That’s intentional. Colonial Revival was a deliberate look back at early American buildings, and it became one of the most popular church styles of the twentieth century. It’s a good reminder that architecture is often a conversation with the past.

Visit respectfully

Many are active congregations. Look from outside unless you’re invited in. This is the rule I stress at the start of every tour. These buildings aren’t museums. They’re places where people gather to worship, marry, baptize their children and say goodbye to their loved ones. Treat them with the same courtesy you’d show someone’s home.

Here are a few guidelines I share with every group:

1. Avoid touring during scheduled services, weddings or funerals.
2. Stay on public sidewalks and keep voices low near entrances.
3. If a door is open and someone is inside, ask politely whether visitors are welcome.
4. Many churches welcome visitors on weekday mornings. Call the church office to ask.
5. Photograph exteriors freely, but ask before taking pictures inside.

Some of my best tour memories came from following those rules. On one Saturday, the custodian at the Gothic Revival church, a friendly man named Mr. Willis Grady, saw our group admiring the doors and invited us in to see the stained glass with the afternoon sun shining through. It was breathtaking, and it happened because we were polite enough to wait for an invitation.

Make your own tour

Every American town with a few old churches can support a tour like this one. Start by making a list of the oldest congregations in town. Your local historical society or library may have a booklet or map. Walk past each one, note its style and look for a cornerstone with a date. Then plan a loop that connects them, with a stop for coffee in the middle.

You’ll be surprised how much the steeples tell you about your town’s history: who settled it, when the town prospered, which congregations had money and which made do with what they had. Each building is a chapter, and together they tell a story about faith, ambition and community.

Key takeaway: Learn a few simple style clues, walk slowly, look up and always treat active churches as the living places they are.

Looking up

I always end the tour the same way. I ask everyone to stand on the steps of the last church and look back across town. On a clear day, you can see four of the six steeples rising above the trees. Then I ask them to imagine the town a hundred years ago, before anything else was that tall, when those steeples were the first thing anyone saw. Most people go quiet for a moment. It’s a lovely way to end a walk, and a good reminder that the people who built those spires were thinking about all of us who would come after.