Saint+Paul's+History

**Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Cedar Avenue and Mill Street, Owatonna**. Incorporated 1860. Built 1867, 1884…….. and 2008

It was probably June 1858 that the first group of Episcopalians gathered for worship in Owatonna, when Owatonna was a village of about 300 people. They met in an office on the corner of Cedar and Main. In 1860 there were about a dozen confirmed members. At the time, most of the Christians in town were sharing a wing of Deacon Stoughton’s as their place of worship, taking turns on Sundays. Then the frame schoolhouse was used. Shortly thereafter a hall, called Morford Hall, was built near where First Baptist church now stands, and that became the site of common worship.

In August 1860, the Episcopalians organized as a parish and filed articles of incorporation. In summer of 1867 the congregation erected a small chapel holding about 125 people, costing about $1500, half of it raised in Owatonna. It was used for the first time in July that year, though it still had no doors, windows or seats.

In 1884 the chapel, by now called the Guild Hall, was superceded by a church, built right next door. Remarkable for the warmth of the light which shines through the beautiful, unusual and (one presumes) locally made stained glass, it is today as it originally was – a captivating example of a prairie church, still on its original site in downtown Owatonna, though now it is dwarfed by the Qwest building on two sides.

Saint Paul’s is also the oldest church in continuous use in Owatonna, but now the Guild Hall has been turned 90 degrees and joined to the 1884 building. There are meeting rooms, a kitchen, an undercroft, accessible entrances, an elevator, and a thriving trans-generational congregation. Air conditioning, and a new organ, built lovingly to scale for the small sanctuary – all these things have marked the last thirty or so years. And in the Spring of 2008 we completed a new entrance – high, vaulted, open and light. We hope you will find it in keeping with the faithful history of this place, and as much of an invitation to know, love and worship God as we do. Thank you for coming!