St. Thomas Episcopal Church (Beattyville, Kentucky)

St. Thomas Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal parish and church on Hill Street in Beattyville, Kentucky. The stone church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Hill St., Beattyville, Kentucky
Coordinates	37°34′30″N 83°42′35″W
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
NRHP reference No.	76000911[1]
Added to NRHP	April 21, 1976

Efforts to establish an Episcopal Church presence in the area began in the mid-19th century, after Benjamin B. Smith, Bishop of Kentucky, visited the area in 1840 while serving as Kentucky's Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1845, he raised $200 from St. Paul's in Boston, and St. Paul's mission was established in Proctor, across the Kentucky River, in 1870. The mission in turn established a chapel in Beattyville in 1879.[2] Smith's successor, Thomas Dudley, purchased land in 1887 to construct a church, but the cornerstone was not laid until 1896. Construction was thereafter led by local carpenter and stonemason Richard Nathaniel Lyons, Sr.[3] Dudley consecrated the new church of St. Thomas, Beattyvile, on November 15, 1903.