St. Stephen's and St. Mary's Episcopal Church

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (1889 – 2013), formerly at 318 Bouchelle Street, Morganton, is in the Diocese of Western North Carolina.

St. Stephen’s was established in 1889, with services upstairs in Philo Harbison’s building on West Union Street. Henry S. McDuffey, the black priest from Asheville, became minister-in-charge of monthly services. By 1893 the first church, a “new and tasteful” wooden building, was debt free and ready for consecration, thanks to Mr. McDuffey’s friends in the North. The church opened what became the only school in town for black children. The new church on Bouchelle Street was consecrated in 1949. In December 2013, a merger created the new St. Mary’s and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, now housed in the St. Mary’s building.