As the oldest church in Carlsbad, St. Michael's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church has held services on Carlsbad Boulevard in the Village district since 1894, when English settler families built the original Gothic chapel. The parish hosts the annual Carlsbad Music Festival on its campus green, an artist-led nonprofit showcase that pairs with the broader music heritage preserved at Museum of Making Music on Armada Drive. The 1959 rose-beige concrete-block sanctuary was designed by Albert Frey of Frey and Chambers, the Palm Springs firm credited with pioneering desert-modernist architecture, and built with zero square corners to optimize acoustics under exposed Douglas-fir ceiling beams. Anglo-Catholic liturgy includes weekday and weekend Mass, Evensong, and the full sacramental calendar, with altar florals for weddings, funerals, and feast days sourced through Carlsbad's floral network, including Ohana Creations Floral Designs & Events. The triangular bell tower houses two bells: a California Mission bell inscribed with Junípero Serra used from 1931 to 1956 and a larger bell cast in 1887 by Meneely and Company of New York, while the sanctuary contains a 21-rank Casavant pipe organ installed in 1972.