Morrisville Town Center Plan - 2007

Appendix 2

13. Morrisville Christian Church

222 Church Street One religious leader who impacted Morrisville was James O’Kelly. O’Kelly rode the Methodist circuit in Virginia and North Carolina before the Revolution. After America had achieved its independence, O’Kelly dissatisfied with the role of bishops in the church broke with the Methodists. He formed his own denomination and established his first church in eastern Chatham County in 1794. O’Kelly’s followers would merge with other sects and become the United Church of Christ in 1931. The congregation in Morrisville was organized in the 1860s and counted among its members descendents of O’Kelly. They built this Gothic Revival style church around 1900. It features an impressive corner tower entrance to the sanctuary. The tower’s second stage has a

distinctive circular louvered ventilator in each face and is capped by a cross-gabled belfry. The congregation continued to meet in this church until the early 1970s. Afterwards, the structure was used for a time as the Town Hall.

Photo by Ben Hitchings, Town of Morrisville

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69 │ Town Center Plan

January 2007