The History of St. Paul’s

The History of St. Paul’s

On May 30, 1836, The Domestic Committee of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society resolved that Columbus and Vicksburg, Mississippi, be made Missionary stations and that as soon as possible a missionary be procured for them. Bishop Otey of Tennessee sent the Rev. Mathias Forbes (then in Deacons orders) from Tuscumbia, Alabama, and he arrived in August 1836. On the first day of January 1837 the church was organized by adopting articles of association and being named St Paul’s Church. Construction began on a wood frame church which was consecrated on April 22, 1838, by Bishop Kemper, Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, who had traveled to Columbus by steamboat. A significant part of the cost of the building was raised by the Ladies Society. The bell for the church was purchased in 1845 and is in the present church.

Between 1848 and 1851 the Rev. Mess. Edward Fontaine, Nathanial P. Knapp, and Joseph H. Ingraham were successively in temporary charge of St Paul’s Parish. Fontaine was the great-grandson of Patrick Henry. Ingraham was the author of the novel the Pillar of Fire, which was used in writing the script of the 1956 motion picture The Ten Commandments and J H Ingraham is listed in the credits as writer.

Building a Church Home

In 1854, the Vestry bought the present property and construction of the current sanctuary was completed in March 1859. The new building was consecrated on December 18, 1860, by Bishop William Mercer Green, and the sermon was preached by the Rev. A.P. Barnard, President of the University of Mississippi. With the burning of Jackson during the Civil War, Bishop Green temporarily moved the seat of the Diocese to St Paul’s in 1864.

Essential members of the parish since its establishment, St. Paul’s women were given the right to vote for vestrymen and wardens in 1872. In 1875 a new rectory, now the state visitor’s center on Main Street, was built adjacent to the church, where the chapel is now.

In 1896, a Tiffany window depicting the Risen Christ was installed, and in 1899 a Parish Hall was built and dedicated as a memorial to Mrs. Harriet I. Ward. This building was demolished in 1955 when the present Parish Hall was built. The stained-glass windows with Mrs. Ward’s name were relocated to the sacristy.

Tennessee Williams

In 1905 Walter Dakin became Rector. His grandson, Thomas Lanier Williams, later known as the playwright Tennessee Williams, was born in Columbus in 1911 and lived in the rectory until Rev. Dakin moved from Columbus in 1913.

The 1920s saw several changes in and around the church including new chandeliers, street paving, sidewalk extension, and repairs to the church and rectory. Duncan M. Gray, Sr., took over as Rector in 1929 and became the first to have an automobile fund. Under Rev. Gray, St. Paul’s celebrated its centennial Dec. 3-5, 1937. Duncan Gray, Sr., became Bishop of Mississippi in 1943.

Throughout the mid-twentieth century, St. Paul’s continued as a vibrant congregation in the community – sponsoring a Sunday radio program, distributing prayer books to listeners, contributing to an African American mission in Columbus, and ensuring Holy Communion was available in nearby Macon. The era also saw improvements in parish facilities – an Aeolian Skinner Organ, air-conditioning, a new parish hall, and a chapel were all added.

Bishop Allin’s Challenge to the Parish

During the 1960s and 1970s Bishop John Maury Allin preached here on the inappropriateness of having St. Stephen’s Mission for African American Episcopalians, closed the mission, and moved its membership to St. Paul’s. During this same period, St. Paul’s contributed to the establishment of the Church of the Good Shepherd as a mission in east Columbus.

The 1980s and 1990s were a time of long-range planning under leadership of Rector William Murray Bullock. This led to the addition of the Pauline Long Dunn Education Building to house much of the Sunday School and the new St. Paul’s Episcopal School. The rectory (now called the Tennessee Williams Home) was moved to its present location as a Mississippi Visitor’s Center on Main Street.

During the first two decades of this century, the parish completed its How Firm a Foundation Campaign and its Tower Fund Campaign - renovating the church’s interior and exterior, replacing its air-handling systems, and restoring the 12 stained-glass windows in the church and seven more in the Memorial Chapel.

The Very Rev. Anne Harris served as Priest-in-Charge in 2011, and was later called as Rector from 2013-2019, becoming the first female Rector of our congregation. The Rev. Jason Selby was served as Rector from 2019-2022, wherein he pastored the parish through the Covid pandemic and the lightening strike with destroyed our church organ, later seeing to the fundraising and repair of the damage.

In 2023, St. Paul’s called the Rev. Andrew McLarty to be its thirty-third Rector.