St.

Mark's Church was built approximately 1840 when we purchased the land here in Carbon County.

They completed the first church in 1848.

In the year of 1867, we decided to build a bigger church, which was completed on October 28, 1869.

The current church, it's done in the cruciform style and it's gothic in nature.

The church is still very active today and has a huge active role in the Jim Thorpe community.

We use the tours as a way to maintain our presence as a major player in the tourism industry.

Also, we do have a very small congregation that still attends every Sunday at the 9 .30 a.m.

service.

What makes this church so unique is the fact that we can trace our roots back to a time when Carbon County was just an infant county.

The altar, or the white sandstone reredos, is probably one of the most unique and most treasured pieces in the entire church.

When Asa Packer died, his wife contacted Queen Victoria and asked if we could replicate the altar wall located in St.

George's Chapel of Windsor Castle.

The Queen sent her own personal architects, artisans, and assistants.

It took approximately a year and a half to complete.

The window in back of the reerdos is a replacement window.

In the 1920s, there was blasting going on, and unfortunately, it blew out a window of St.

Mark.

Now, you're going to see the panels located in that window, and one of them is a Hebrew writing, and that says Yahweh.

The second panel has to do with the anchor, which is the Christian symbol of hope.

Some of the original material include a painting done by artist F.A.

Lamb in the year of 1900, which is located above our baptistry.

It's called Four Angels of Baptism.

It's oil on canvas, surrounded by morning glories, containing gold leaf and gold flake.

The story behind the Tiffany windows is very interesting.

The oldest Tiffany window here in the church is one called Abide in Us, or the Road to Emmaus.

What makes this window interesting is it's Gothic in nature and contains something called the imprintation technique.

We can actually see the face of Christ imprinted into the tablecloth.

The second window is more unique.

It is a 1901 window called Breath of My Love.

It's based on an oil painting located in the Asa Packer Mansion, which makes this window so unique is all the colors run naturally into each other.

We have a 14-foot rosé-style window.

What's unique about the window is the glass itself.

It contains blue glass, which is made of cobalt blue.

Cobalt blue glass is extremely expensive.

The window also contains red glass.

The more red glass in a window, the more expensive, because we have to meld gold in order to achieve red glass.

If you look at the green glass in the window, that is actually emerald.

The chapel downstairs came into being after the death of Asa Packer.

His daughter, Mary Packer Cummings, along with his wife, Sarah Packer, decided what they wanted to do was create a grandiose chapel in memory of their father.

They have a white marble altar encrusted with precious, semi-precious stones imported from Italy.

The other interesting part of the chapel is the rainbow prismatic-style Tiffany windows.

This church has been meeting place for many people over the years.

There are so many legends and stories that have passed through here that have contributed to the history of Jim Thorpe.

Many of our articles and artifacts are dedicated to major historical figures.

And what I'd like to see for the future is for St.

Mark's to remain a vibrant player in the community, and I'd like to see us continue being a vital player.