St. Anna's History
St. Anna's Church was originally established, under the direction of The Rev. Francis Lister Hawks, Christ Church rector, by the Rev. Mr. Charles W. Whitall as St. Peter's Seaman's Bethel and began April 19, 1846. Mr. Whitall was ordained to the priesthood on November 2, 1846 by The Right Rev. Leonidas Polk first Bishop of Louisiana.From her inception St. Peter's, later named St. Anna's, was a high church congregation with social justice as an expression of spirituality. St. Anna's was the first "free church" in New Orleans (not charging pew fees) with open seating for all, some seats being reserved for seamen.
Because there was no other church in the area for English-speaking people and because the church school was very popular, there was pressure to organize St. Peter's into a parish. A site was purchased in 1849 and a chapel was completed. This arrangement as a mission church remained until St. Anna's was granted parish status in 1869.
In 1857 after a series of rectors, The Rev. Amos D. McCoy became St. Peter's rector. McCoy and Deacon John Francis Girault established an orphanage during the yellow fever epidemic of 1860 which remained in operation until 1940. During the Civil War McCoy refused to say prayers for the President of the United States; New Orleans was occupied by Federal Troops under the direction of Gen. Butler. The congregation was, under Federal mandate, disbanded and McCoy arrested. In 1863 he was banished by military order from New Orleans. A lay reader took his place being appointed by a Union-vestry. When Gen. Polk was killed in battle in 1864, Deacon Anthony Vallas agreed to say the prayer for the U. S. President and St. Peter's resumed services in the summer of 1864.
In 1867, Deacon Girault became rector of St. Peter's. The last service of St. Peter's on Esplanade and the river front was October, 1869. The chapel and property were sold and two lots further down Esplanade Ave. were purchased. Dr. Newton Mercer gave $10,000 for the building of a frame church on that site. The new church was named St. Anna's after the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the deceased daughter of Dr. Mercer. In 1876 the frame church was burned and on September 2, 1877 a brick church was completed. St. Anna's is considered an Anglo-Catholic church and has followed this tradition for many years. In 1890, the rules of order were changed requiring the clergy to march in vestments in procession into the church. The placing of lighted candles on the altar at St. Anna's brought forth a denunciatory letter from parishioners of the strongly evangelical St. James Parish of Alexandria, Louisiana in 1895. In this same vein a later Bishop brought an ax into the church and destroyed the confessionals then in place; this occurred in the 1940's.
St. Anna's endured many difficult years after the 1890's. The church was ravaged by tornado in 1915. A disaffected Rector sued the congregation for $18,000 in 1923 forcing it back into mission status. The Rev. Arthur Price nursed the mission back to health and in 1947 St. Anna's once again was in parish status.
In 1948 city engineers ordered the old church dismantled due to termite damage, water damage, and disrepair. In 1951 the new rector The Rev. Louis Parker set up temporary quarters nearby and by 1952 the current church was completed. The current church was dedicated by The Rt. Rev. Girault Jones, a nephew of St. Anna's long time Deacon and Rector Francis Girault.The current church retains the original pews of the 1846 church along many of the memorial plaques of earlier churches. She boasts fine stained glass windows and other original works of sacred art such as the Christus Rex done by acclaimed artist Gene Seidenburg. The life of the congregation is now growing and attempts are underway to obtain preservation grants for the restoration of the old parish house which was built in 1888. The life of the parish remains vibrant with an awareness of the needs of her members and visitors alike. This is "The Neighborhood Church."
