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Town Center Plan
January 2007
Appendix 2
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.
13. Morrisville Christian Church
16
Photo by Ben Hitchings, Town of Morrisville