St. Philip’s Episcopal Church is designed in the late Gothic style. The cornerstone was laid in 1908, and the church was completed in 1912, replacing a wooden chapel built in 1881.
The church interior measures 87 feet long east to west and 50 feet at its maximum width north to south and has an inside area of 3,986 feet. The roof crest is 30 feet above the nave floor and the nave aisle roof is 22 feet above the floor.
The stone walls are two feet thick, are built of two parallel layers of blocks about nine feet wide with a fill of concrete and sit on stone foundation walls three feet thick. They are composed of random dimension Burlington limestone from the Spiva quarry of the south bank of Shoal Creek in Joplin. In addition, there are solid stone buttresses beyond the walls whose foundations are three feet deep and one and a half feet wide.
The limestone contains fairly large fossil shells and structures called styolites. These are odd formations which give rise to a series of short parallel lines at right angles to the bedding connected together. It also contains oolites - collections of small round grains that look like fish roe.
The Nave is the area where the congregation sits and is 63 feet long and 42 feet wide. “Nave” is a Medieval Latin word meaning “ship”. The aisles on either side are separated by a colonnade of two free-standing columns supporting two pointed arches. The colonnade columns are three feet across, made of stone pillars within covered by a hexagonal casing of oak sheets without. The casings are topped with wooden capitals carved with late Gothic foliage decoration. The west end of the nave expands into the north and south transepts which form the arms of a cross.
At the front of the nave is a partition called the chancel rail which separates the nave from the choir and altar (chancel). In front of the chancel rail to the left (south) is the golden bronze eagle lectern from which the Old Testament and Epistle scriptures are read. This was given by the Joplin Masonic Temple.
On the right (north) side is the pulpit. Like all of the woodwork and paneling in the original 1912 church it is made of quarter sawn oak. The pulpit is carved with symbolic figures of the Evangelists based on Ezekiel 10. On the left is a winged man representing St. Matthew because of his detailed account of the Incarnation of Christ. Next is a winged figure with a lion’s head representing St. Mark because St. Mark dwells on the royal dignity of Christ. On the right side is a winged figure with a calf’s head representing St. Luke because of St. Luke’s emphasis on the sacrificial aspects of Christ’s Atonement. Next is a winged figure with an eagle’s head representing St. John because St. John soared upward in his contemplation of the divine nature of Christ.
The chancel is also separated from the nave by the rood beam; a heavy beam about 12 feet above the floor extending from wall to wall. “Rood” is an Angle-Saxon word for “cross”. The rood beam often supports a group sculpture referred to as “The Rood” of Christ crucified with the Virgin Mary on one side and St. John the Apostle on the other. The present sculptures on the rood beam at St. Philip's were carved by Whipple Exeter, England, of English quarter sawn oak.
To the right or north of the pulpit is a small chapel known as the Children’s or St. Mary’s Chapel. It was created and decorated in 1932.
At the front of the chancel, behind the altar is a wooden reredos, carved with late Gothic tracery. In front of the altar hangs the sanctuary lamp with flanking decorative lamps. The sanctuary lamp is lighted at all times except Maundy Thursday through Holy Saturday of Holy Week. The lamp signifies the presence of Jesus in the reserved sacrament in the gold tabernacle behind the altar.