St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall
About this property
St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a parish church in the Diocese of Iowa. The church is located in Durant, Iowa, United States. The church building and parish hall have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. The Rt. Rev. Henry Washington Lee, the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, led the first services in Durant in the Rock Island Railroad depot in 1856. Freight boxes containing champagne were used for the pulpit, altar, and pews. A meeting was held after the service to organize the parish. The name St. Paul was chosen because many of the members had belonged to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut before moving to Iowa. The church in Connecticut contributed $75 that began the building fund for the church. Thomas C. Durant, the town's founder, donated land for the first church. It was located on the north side of town and was dedicated by Bishop Lee in October 1856. That same year a "seminary" for girls, or junior/senior high school, was established. In the early 1870s, the seminary curriculum was expanded to include boys and a library was built. The co-educational boarding and day school was renamed the Boardman School, after its primary benefactor. The school continued into the 1890s when Durant's public high school was established. The size of the congregation fluctuated with the local population in these same years. Because of the large number of German immigrants in Durant, services were held in the German language by 1879. By 1895 the congregation had outgrown its first building. On May 28 the original church was sold and the present building was purchased from the Congregationalists, who had built it in 1856. The bell, stained glass windows, and the furniture from the old church were moved to the new church. The chancel was added in 1895 to accommodate Episcopal worship. The parish hall was constructed next to the church by members of the congregation the same year. It has served as Sunday School building, vicar's office, town library, and town community center. It is thought the church's tower is from this same time period. Samuel A. Dutton was instrumental in St. Paul's acquiring the church. He joined the parish after settling here from New Milford, Connecticut. Dutton was very involved in parish life through the 1870s when he was dropped from the parish roles. He joined the Congregationalist Church where he became the Sunday school superintendent and he was one of three trustees when St. Paul's acquired the church building. Dutton re-joined St. Paul's at that point and remained until around 1916 when he established a private interdenominational Sunday school in town. A large part of St. Paul's congregation left with him.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall listed on the National Register?
St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 3, 1985.
What type of historic resource is St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall?
St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall?
The period of significance for St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall is recorded as the industrial era.
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