Look for a small, colonial-era brick church almost entirely covered in lush green ivy with a classic pitched roof and a tall, old brick wall running alongside it-if you spot that, you’ve found Saint Paul’s!
Now, as you stand here, imagine Norfolk in 1739-horses clopping down dusty paths, townsfolk chattering, and this very church just being finished, ready to welcome its first congregation. Over nearly 300 years, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church has survived more plot twists than your favorite TV series! It started as a proud Church of England parish, but after the Revolutionary War and change swept Virginia, it swapped hands faster than a hot potato-first to a group of passionate Baptists, then finally back to the Episcopalians, who still call it home today.
But the real drama came with a bang-literally-on January 1, 1776. Norfolk was at war, and Lord Dunmore, a British loyalist, was sailing away after losing at the Battle of Great Bridge. He decided to fire one last parting shot...and a cannonball from his ship, the Liverpool, came screaming towards the town. Suffolk erupted in flames as patriots set loyalist homes alight, and nearly everything was burned to the ground-except this tiny church! Miraculously, Saint Paul’s was the only major building to escape real harm. But the legend doesn’t stop there: the cannonball itself smashed into the church wall. It disappeared for a while, but in the 1840s, workers digging in the yard dug it up-and thought, “Let’s put it back!” So yes, that old cannonball is still sitting there, plain as day.
Through the Civil War, Saint Paul’s became a chapel for Union soldiers, and during World War II, even Lord Louis Mountbatten couldn’t resist poking fun at the near-miss: “Damn near missed its target!” he quipped while visiting. Even General Douglas MacArthur’s final journey passed through these doors, with his funeral held right here before he was laid to rest nearby.
So take a moment to imagine all those voices, stories, and even cannonballs echoing through these walls-if those ivy-covered bricks could talk, I bet they’d have a few secrets to share.
