This Sunday St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will celebrate 150 years at the intersection of 3rd St. and South Saginaw St. making this the perfect time to look back over a brief visual history of the church.
The earliest known photo, this could be from the 1860s and shows the original church two blocks north of the eventual location. This, the only known photo of the ‘Old Church’ was taken roughly from the corner of Kearsley and S. Saginaw looking south. The buildings on the left eventually gave way to Kresge’s, Smith Bridgmans, and the rest of the stores that were demolished to make way for the flat lot. The church was in the next block down, about where Blackstone’s stands today. The congregation moved out in August of 1873. F. W. Judd bought the property in 1875 and started construction on the Judd Block on May 1, 1875.
This is the first known photo of the new church, which began holding services on August 24th, 1873. The fence was built in 1875, dating this photo to around or after that time.
Charles Norton Beecher and his wife, Sarah, owned the entire east side of the 700 block. When St. Paul’s purchased the corner lot in 1871, the church moved the house to the south edge of the property (as shown) to make way for the new church building at the intersection. St. Paul’s rector had been living in a house near 2nd and Beach at the time. Once the trade/purchase was complete, this house became St. Paul’s rectory, and Mrs. Beecher moved into the former parsonage.
This provides a good exercise in using clues to determine dates of photos. In this one shot we can determine the following:
· The Paterson Building, on the left, is the original built in 1869. It was heavily damaged by fire and in 1931 rebuilt in the Art Deco style as it appears today.
· The canopy is for the King Clothing Company, which was located in the Paterson Block in the 1910s. A more thorough search of Polk’s Directories would give a specific range.
· The streets are clearly brick, and Saginaw St. was first laid in brick in 1900.
· The original arches were put up in 1899 and were removed in 1919.
· In the background is the Paterson carriage factory located at Harrison and 3rd St. and built in 1905.
· The car appears to be a Buick from around 1912.
· Trolley tracks and overhead wires are visible in the photo. The trolleys began operation in 1903 and ran until 1956.
· Finally, the photo has distinctive writing and a number faintly visible on the right, meaning it could be from a collection at an archive. Some research could find a specific date.
Taking all this into consideration, our best guess is that this photo dates to 1912–1915. What do you think?
On September 18, 1916, the Flint Journal reported that the Reverend J. Bradford Pengelly put out a call to construct a new parish house and quickly raised the $70,000 required — boosted by a $40,000 donation from C. S. Mott!
Do those initials look familiar? This small bulletin insert from 1939 was written by A. B. C. Hardy, Flint’s first automobile manufacturer, telling the story of the iron Cross atop the 135’ bell tower and steeple. One of Flint’s carriage and auto pioneers, Hardy retired as Vice President of General Motors in 1925, but continued his involvement with the church until his death in 1946.
In 1940 the original Cross on St. Paul’s fell and necessitated a repair job. The Perry Root Company took on the task, using a shaky looking series of ladders and scaffolding to reach the top. Neighbor William Paterson of the Paterson Carriage Company had built the original Cross himself in 1873; before his business career he had been a hammer-wielding blacksmith himself.
In about 1950 the church’s next-door neighbor was the Roxy Café. The Roxy did not specialize; they offered a dairy bar and grill, waffles, steaks, chops, chicken in a basket, and of course, Hires Root Beer. When the Roxy’s building was purchased and demolished to make way for the new parish hall in 1953, the Roxy Dairy Bar moved over to Lewis St.
To the right is Barth Hall, named after Charles F. Barth. The new dining hall was built in an era when coal-fired factories operated all around the city. Over time, as industry switched to electricity and natural gas, there was far less smoke in the air to darken buildings.
St. Paul’s and its members have played key roles in Flint’s history since the parish was first organized in 1840, 15 years before the city was even incorporated! 150 years at the current location is something to be celebrated, and we hope you will join the community on Sunday to tour the church, learn more about its history, and enjoy the community social on the largest front yard in downtown Flint!
Facebook event and more information:
Parish Reunion and Community Social
For more information about historic St. Paul’s and some folks mentioned in this story check out the links below:
Friends of Historic St. Paul’s Facebook group
