History of St. Thomas Church

The Right Reverend Benjamin Bosworth Smith, Bishop of Kentucky, began the process that would lead to an Episcopal Church presence in the Eastern Kentucky Mountains at the Three Forks area. In 1840, while serving in the role of Superintendent of Public Instruction in the Commonwealth, he visited the Three Forks area. In 1845, in Boston, he garnered $200 for the establishment of a mission to Eastern Kentucky from the ladies of St. Paul's Boston.

In 1870, the Reverend Walter Tearn moved to the Three Forks area and established St. Paul's mission in Proctor.  Bishop Dudley visited in 1875, and in 1876 the mission established a school. In 1879, the mission established a chapel in Beattyville, which was located just across the Kentucky River.

In 1882 the mission established the Beattyville Episcopal School, and completed an Episcopal High School in 1889. In 1900 it formed an Industrial School in Proctor.

In 1887 Bishop Dudley purchased an acre of land, and in 1884 it was mortgaged to the American Church Building Fund to build a new stone church. The cornerstone was laid in 1896; local carpenter and stonemason, Richard Nathaniel Lyons, Sr., completed the new church. On November 15, 1903, the Bishop consecrated it as St. Thomas, Beattyville.

The Diocese of Lexington created a boys' camp on land in Lee County in 1946. It also provided a conference center for the diocese. Bishop Moody decided to build a cathedral there, and in 1963 the Cathedral Domain -- the Cathedral of St. George the Martyr -- was consecrated. It was designed after the oldest known wooden church built in Northern Europe and is on the National Registry. In 1989 the Diocese consecrated Christ's Church in Lexington as the sacramental cathedral. The Cathedral Domain continues as an alternate cathedral; the Lexington Diocese is one of only three dioceses to have two cathedrals.

St. Thomas continues today to serve the people of Beattyville and Lee County with worship and community activities. Its membership contains several descendants of St Paul's and the early St. Thomas Church. The  Kentucky Heritage Commission recommended St. Thomas's nomination to the National Register of Historic Places under the auspices of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, on June 30, 1974. Governor Ford designated it a Kentucky Historical Landmark.