St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was chartered in 1831, and the first service was held on Christmas Eve, 1832. In 1857 the congregation moved to a new and larger sanctuary which one reporter declared was “the handsomest church…out of the city of Philadelphia.”
The building was designed by Richard Upjohn (1802-1878), the foremost American ecclesiastical architect of the mid-19th century. Originally from England, Upjohn was responsible for launching the popularity of the Gothic Revival style in the US; his most famous and influential commission was the rebuilding of Trinity Church in NYC (1846). He was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, and its first president (1857-1876).
Upjohn designed St. Paul’s brick building in what is sometimes called the “country Gothic” style, with a tower and spire in the northeastern corner. It has a simple nave, without aisles, containing two ranges of open pews seating about 300 people. The woodwork is of solid oak, fashioned by William Boyd of Montrose, a local builder. Boyd was one of the contractors for the Susquehanna County Court House in Montrose. Suspended from low buttresses in the exposed ceiling woodwork are single globe chandeliers.
The ceiling is lofty, broken into panels by beams and moldings; the side walls are plain and contain stained glass widows with richly colored borders. A brilliant rose window, which is visible from Church Street, is over the main entrance.
The chancel is opridal, or semi-octagonal, and is lighted by three Tiffany windows behind the altar. The center window portrays Jesus with his right hand raised to bestow a blessing. The widow to the right is of the Archangel Raphael, and the one to the left is of St. Paul, the patron of the parish. Several other widows in the church are noteworthy, especially the window closest to the pulpit, which is a very personalized memorial to Reuel Warriner, a brother of the donor of the parish house.
The organ, located on the left wall of the chancel, is the second instrument in this building. Installed in 1912 and dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Edward A. Warriner, it contained 864 “speaking” pipes and was water-powered. Electrified in 1927, it has occasionally been expanded and modified, with chimes and trumpets added in recent years.
The church is flanked on one side by a parish house, dedicated in 1927, which compliments the architecture of the church. On the other side is St. Paul’s Memorial Garden, containing the “Miss Mary Garden”, recipient of a special award by the Garden Federation of Pennsylvania in 1976. The Parish House and the Memorial Garden give space and symmetry to the outstanding Upjohn church.