Church will allow rare tours of an architectural gem, Our Lady of Catholic Church, built by the Price and Bryan families.
The public will get a rare chance Friday and Saturday to tour perhaps the last grand church in Greensboro built in the style of a European cathedral, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church.
Jim McCullough, the director of religious education and OLG's historian, will lead the tours of the 52-year-old church, which looks as though it has been standing along West Market Street for centuries.
The tours will be part of OLG's annual fall festival.
The church was completed in July 1952, with money donated by those related Price and Bryan families to honor Ethel Clay Price, the devoutly Catholic wife of Julian Price.
Starting when he became president in 1919, Julian Price built what is today Jefferson-Pilot Corp. into a major life insurance company.
He was a Baptist, although it's not clear if he attended church. If he did, he would have no doubt riled the congregation with his refusal to remove his fedora. He never took it off in public, indoors or out.
It's a coincidence that the church tours come during the week of the announced merger of Lincoln National, a large life insurance company in Philadelphia, and Julian Price's old company. The merger will likely mean the end of the Jefferson and Pilot corporate names in Greensboro.
The Price and Bryan family's wealth, which made OLG possible, came from Jefferson-Pilot stock and other investments by Julian Price, his children and his son-in-law, Joseph Bryan.
Julian Price donated $400,000 for the church in 1946. He also chose the design among various plans submitted to him by the Catholic hierarchy.
He chose the same design as a Catholic church in Brooklyn, Our Lady of Refuge. Henry Murphy, the architect of the Brooklyn church, was hired to do OLG, which is smaller.
But before construction began, Julian Price in an auto accident in 1946, when he was in his late 70s. Various delays kept work on the church from starting until 1950.
By then, costs has risen. Kathleen Price Bryan, the daughter of Julian Price and wife of Joseph Bryan, and Martha Price, wife of Ralph Price Sr., the son of Julian Price, donated $300,000 to cover the added cost.
After the church opened, Kathleen Price Bryan continued to give money to beautify the interior, including a marble altar. The church still benefits from Price-Bryan money through the Josesph M. Bryan Sr. Endowment Fund.
During construction, the church drew on artisans from all over, but the stone, "Salisbury Pink" granite, was quarried in nearby Rowan County.
According to the church's web site, 300,000 pieces of cut stain glass were imported from Belgium. The design of the windows with the stained glass is modeled on a cathedral in Quebec.
OLG is a testament to how far Catholics have progressed in Greensboro. Catholic numbers were small when the first church, St. Anges, which opened in 1877 on Forbis Street (now North Church), about where the public library now stands.
The city now numbers five Catholic churches. Besides Benedict's and OLG, they are St. Mary's on East Lee Street, St. Pius X on North Elm Street and St. Paul's the Apostle on Horsepen Creek Road.
St. Agnes moved to North Elm Street in 1899 to a new building and changed its name to St. Benedict's. Mass is still held there more than 100 years later.