History
For more than 150 years, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has been serving the greater Flint community at the intersection of civic and spiritual life.
Established in 1817, the village that eventually became Flint was a thriving settlement where logging flourished. In 1839, the Reverend Daniel Brown came to Flint to shepherd a congregation of worshippers in a small wooden tabernacle, the first Episcopal Church.
In 1872, our current building on Saginaw Street was built in the heart of downtown Flint by renowned gothic church architect Gordon Lloyd. Stones for the new building were brought on sledges drawn over the ice of the Flint River. As Flint blossomed, so did the congregation. Many of Flint’s early influencers were included in St. Paul’s faith community.
In 1913, the Rev. J. Bradford Pengelly was called as the ninth rector of St. Paul’s. He came to Flint from Chicago, where he had served at St. Edmund’s Mission. The Flint Journal described him as:
“a man of the present and future, rather than of the past… interested in all
current civic movements… looking to the betterment of civic life.”
In 1916, civic and industrials leaders, Charles Stewart Mott and J. Dallas Dort laid the cornerstone for the Parish Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. That moment represented far more than the construction of a building. It reflected a shared vision for a church that would serve both God and the people of Flint—a place where faith inspired compassion, civic leadership, and a commitment to the common good.
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Robert and Mary McFarlan Whaley were early members and benefactors whose generosity strengthened the life and mission of St. Paul’s. The ‘Five Sisters’ chapel in the church was a gift by the Whaleys in 1916.
The Tabernacle
After two years of worshiping in borrowed or rented space, the parish engaged in its first ‘capital campaign’, when the Reverend Daniel E. Brown was dispatched to solicit funds from the churches back east. His successful effort resulted in the decision to build their first permanent house of worship. That building stood near the site of today’s Blackstone’s Smokehouse.
