Work has begun on a 3.5-acre property in Oakwood that will be the new location of the Episcopal Church Archives. The site formerly served as the home of St. Gabriel Episcopal Church.
Renovations began Monday on the former St. Gabriel’s building and an expansion project that will turn the site into the first permanent home for The Episcopal Church Archives since 2021. The $4.5 million project is expected to be completed by next spring.
The Episcopal Church Archives preserves documents and artifacts detailing centuries’ worth of church history. For the past five years, the archives have occupied a temporary warehouse in Austin, Texas. The church previously had leased space from the Seminary of the Southwest for 60 years.
The new facility will include offices, a reading room and 75% more storage space than the current facility.
The project is the culmination of a 20-year effort to find a new home for the archives. Its collections include letters, diaries, photographs, motion pictures, plans, maps, certificates of ordination, journals of every diocese, various periodicals and magazines, church newspapers, paintings and parish histories.
The Oakwood property had been vacant since St. Gabriel’s Church ceased operations in October 2023.