Press Information

St. Anna’s Building a Dream

5/1/2011

In 1846 two remarkable things happened. Ms. Eliza Ducros Marsoudet, a Creole woman, built a house and retained the property separately from her husband. The house was built by master builders Nicholas Duru and Jacques St. Martin, who built the center hall “English Cottage” for the sum of $5,800 at what is now 1519 Esplanade Avenue. In that same year The Rev. Francis Lister Hawks of Christ Church commissioned The Rev. Mr. Charles W. Whitall to establish St. Peter’s Seaman’s Bethel Mission located at #5 Esplanade Ave. at the riverfront. In 1846 the Mission baptized 199 individuals, conducted 109 marriages and 215 burials, started a school, and founded a seaman’s hostel. One wonders if Ms. Marsoudet and The Rev. Whithall knew each other even in passing because in 2011 St. Anna’s Episcopal Church (sic St. Peter’s Mission) entered into a lease purchase agreement for the Marsoudet House.
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