Constructed in 1900, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church was designed by self-taught architect Josephine Wright Chapman, credited as one of the most important female architects at the start of the 20th century. Her work paved the way for future generations of women to establish themselves in the building professions.

Born in 1867 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Chapman began her architectural career as an apprentice with Clarence Blackall and his firm Blackall, Clapp, and Whittemore in Boston. While there, the firm designed the first steel-frame building to be constructed in the city, the Carter Building.

Upon opening her own architectural firm in 1897, Harvard University commissioned Chapman to design the Craigie Arms private dormitory. Simultaneously, the firm began several commercial projects around Leominster, Massachusetts including the Episcopal Church of St. Mark.

The stone and wood frame Tudor Gothic church building and rectory were financed by wealthy patron Minerva C. Crocker of Fitchburg, widow of paper manufacturer and US Congressman, Alvah Crocker. Contractors were F. M. Leavitt and Company, stonework, and Albert E. Lyon, Wood construction. The granite stone used to build the church came from nearby Monoosnock Mountain in Fitchburg. Both Chapman and Crocker attended the church’s consecration in 1901.

Described as a modest church in the 1983 entry in the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Database, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church remains a well-respected and active community parish having contributed to the Leominster community for well over 120 years.