The story of St. Paul’s, the Rev. David S. Alkins wrote in 1964, “is not the result of any one leader, but a composite of the love and service of several, each different from the other yet each making his own great and unique contribution in his own time. So we remember them because we are grateful to them, and our remembrance of them reminds us that in one sense and to an enormous degree all of us live on an inherited income.”
Looking back
1534
The Act of Supremacy acknowledges King Henry VIII as supreme governor of the Church of England. All ties with Rome are severed.
1549
In London, Edward Whitchurche prints the first Book of Common Prayer.
1579
In what is now San Francisco Harbor, the first Anglican service on the Pacific coast is held by the Rev. Francis Fletcher, chaplain of the Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drake’s galleon.
1789
The Episcopal Church is formally separated from the Church of England, becoming the first Anglican Province outside the British Isles. The first American Book of Common Prayer is published.
1820
The Church of England starts a mission at the Red River, now Winnipeg. The first person to use the English Book of Common Prayer for public worship in the Northwest is Spokane Gary, a Native American.
1847
The American Book of Common Prayer is used for the first time in the Northwest by the Rev. St. Michael Fackler in Oregon City. Departing from Lexington, Mo., Fackler earned his way herding sheep along the Oregon Trail. His sheep are the first ones in Oregon.
1859
The first Episcopal services at Fort Walla Walla are conducted by the Rev. John D. McCarty, D.D.
1864
The congregation of St. Paul’s is founded under the Rev. St. Michael Fackler, Missionary Priest, and the Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Scott, Missionary Bishop of Oregon and Washington Territory. Sporadic services are held in Walla Walla.
1871
The Rev. Lemuel H. Wells becomes the first Rector of the parish. He arrives to find six communicants in a community of 3,000 people. Services are held in a recreation hall on the second floor of a building which houses a saloon and Stahl’s brewery on the ground floor. Weekly rent for the hall is $1.
1873
The first church, a wooden structure with a spire 103 feet tall, is built at the corner of Third Avenue and Poplar Street. (Though the building is razed in 1923, some of the original stained glass survives in our present church.)
1892
The Rt. Rev. Lemuel H. Wells is consecrated first Missionary Bishop of Spokane. He was Rector of St. Paul’s from 1871 to 1878 and from 1879 to 1882.
1895
The first organ is built. Under the direction of William L. Stirling, a vested choir is formed.
1899
The Rev. Andreas Bard, Litt.D., is appointed Rector. Born the son of a Lutheran minister in Schwerin, Germany, Bard was renowned as a writer and public speaker. As people thronged to the church to hear his sermons, need for a new building became apparent.
1902
The cornerstone is laid for the present church building at the corner of Birch and Catherine streets. It is patterned after a church Bishop Wells had seen in Bavaria.
1906
The new church is consecrated.
1907
The east end of the new church is ruined by a fire that also destroys the organ, which has been transplanted from the old church.
1911
The second organ is installed.
1930s
During the Great Depression, interest in the church is at an all-time low, money is scarce and the buildings are in a state of decay. A flood works havoc in 1931, flooding both the church and the parish hall and depositing mud and debris in a thick layer. The organ is all but ruined, the grounds are torn up and the basements are filled with rubbish. But spiritual interest awakened, and the church rose again to resume its role of community leadership. Members of St. Catherine’s Society raise nearly $18,000 toward expenses of the church.
1948
The Rev. William A. Gilbert, Rector of St. Paul’s, secures the help of Erle Stanley Gardner, detective writer and creator of Perry Mason, in gaining the freedom of Clarence Boggie, who had served 16 years at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary for a murder he couldn’t have committed. Consequently, Father Gilbert’s picture appears in the pulp magazine Argosy (since defunct).
1955
The parish hall is built. It is renamed Campbell Hall in 2003 in honor of the Rev. Ernest F. Campbell on the 50th anniversary of his ordination.
1964
During St. Paul’s centennial year, a new Casavant organ is installed under the rectorship of the Rev. David S. Alkins, Mus.D.
In 1964, the Rev. David S. Alkins wrote on the occasion of the centenary of the parish: “St. Paul’s … has had its ups and downs, financially and spiritually. It has known its times of happy fulfillment in the Lord and its times of financial hardship and spiritual lethargy, when its very existence from day to day depended on a faithful few. But, all in all, God has been good to St. Paul’s and has blessed it with great leadership from both clergy and laity down through these many years. Without such leadership, St. Paul’s might not have been able to survive the upheavals of the past and the challenges that were met from time to time.”
St. Paul’s is the oldest Episcopal congregation in the state of Washington east of the Cascades. The mother parish of the Diocese of Spokane, it is a good deal older than Washington’s statehood, and for a century and a half it has proved to be a great source of strength and inspiration. It has truly made its mark in the life of the Pacific Northwest.
Its history is one of service and trust, of bold confidence in God’s guidance and of outreach to the community.
For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia!
– The Hymnal 1982, no. 287
