Copyright © 2013 StarNewsOnline.com
Reprinted with permission

Ben.Steelman@StarNewsOnline.com

St. Andrew's On-the-Sound Episcopal Church, 101 Airlie Road in Wilmington, is pushing ahead with an ambitious expansion program.

The church has submitted site design plans to the city of Wilmington to build a new, 7,000-square-foot parish hall building. These plans went before the city's technical review committee earlier this month.

St. Andrew's has meanwhile collected pledges of nearly $1.4 million toward a three-year capital campaign, with more than $600,000 in receipts to date.

According to St. Andrew's rector, the Rev. Richard G. Elliott, the move was prompted by growth in the parish.

"Basically, we're in a church facility that was designed for fewer than 100 worshippers," Elliott said.

The parish currently has more than 800 members on its rolls, while Sunday attendance averaged more than 325 worshippers last year.

Plans call for the demolition of Aman House, the parish's original rectory. In its place will go a new parish hall, which is being designed by the firm John Sawyer Architects. The old parish hall would be converted to office space.

Longer-range plans foresee a remodeling and expansion of the Sunday school building and a refurbishing of the worship space, including rewiring, the installation of air conditioning and the addition of bathroom facilities.

Elliott said St. Andrew's had gone through a five-year planning process before launching the building drive.

Built in 1923 at the intersection of two roads to Wrightsville Beach, St. Andrew's was dedicated as a mission church in 1924 and consecrated as a parish in 1951. Designed by Wilmington architect Leslie Boney in the Spanish Colonial Mission Style, it was once featured in National Geographic magazine as one of the nation's most beautiful rural churches.

Ben Steelman: 343-2208