In 1883, Reverend Minor Jones, and itinerant preacher, rode his horse into Tryon City, named for former Governor William Tryon of North Carolina. Gov. Tryon was honored for negotiating a treaty with the Cherokee tribe who hunted and farmed this land until 1838. The village the Cherokee called Xuala; we now call Tryon.
By 1884, the desirable climate and beautiful scenery had attracted two stores, a blacksmith shop, about a dozen houses, and a factory for making broom handles. A small, frame chapel was built at the present site of Holy Cross for a cost of $200. In 1888, a log chapel and school for African Americans was built nearby. Holy Cross member, Edmund Embury, funded the building and parishioner Mabel Plaisted, wife of the governor of Maine, was the first teacher. The Rectory was built in 1910 and the Parish Hall, a separate, frame structure in 1923. The hall hosted local theater, high school dances, Boy Scout events, and during World War II, was a Red Cross Center for dances for soldiers posted at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The 20s, 30s and 40s brought growth in numbers and participation to Holy Cross. Rectors were known for ministering to more than one parish, starting the Tryon Chamber of Commerce, and making the parish available to the community for the formation of girl and boy-scout troops, and an American Red Cross center. One rector, Mr. Burnett, 1922-36, provided a tennis court and ballfield on site. He covered the church windows and screens during the week to protect them from wayward tennis and baseballs and removed the screens before Sunday services.
Cows and goats and magazines, oh my! Three rectors’ wives were enterprising. Mrs. Ferris, ahead of her time with her ideas on health, kept a goat herd for milk. Mrs. Burnett, mother of two boys, organist and choir director, raised cows and insisted that her sons milk the cows and sell the milk. Mrs. Capers sold magazines from door to door to augment her income. Imagine saying “no” to your priest’s wife! In 1944, an Englishman, Dr. R. Laslett Smith was hired as choir director and organist. He added a boys’ choir and found that paying the boys 25 cents each to attend practice and sing on Sunday was an incentive to draw boys from all over Polk County. Our charming chapel was built in 1912 and was cut in half in 1952 to make room for our current main sanctuary. Its beautiful stonework was cut and fitted on site by Cherokee tribesmen who camped on the grounds while working. The classroom/office/parish hall building was added in 1967. The previous parish hall had to be leveled, and in the process two skeletons were discovered.
Beginning in 2019, Holy Cross undertook the Together Campaign to update and enhance the buildings and grounds. Across all areas of the church, the goals of improved accessibility, functionality, and better aesthetics were key to the renovations. In the chapel and church, the emphasis focused on better, more sensitive, and more efficient lighting in addition to creating worship spaces that were coherently focused on the altar in each space. As you now move through our whole church campus, you will notice that there is an aesthetic coherence that ties the whole space together with color, texture, and lighting.
With thanks for Holy Cross history to parishioners and Tryon natives Ambrose Mills, Boyd Correll and Mollie Douglas Turner. And for Tryon history to Judith Bainbridge of The Greenville News.
