Saint Paul United Methodist Church - 501 Grant Street
Each year, the Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes begins at St. Paul United Methodist Church, a magnificent old church home to a vibrant and growing congregation. Built in 1906 out of local granite, the church was designed in the Neo-Romanesque style and includes intricate stained glass windows depicting the Resurrection and other biblical stories.
Interior details include cove ceilings, decorative columns and capitals, paneled woodwork and original heart-of-pine floors. The large pipe organ, still in use today after being refurbished in the early 1990s, was acquired from the Piedmont Cotton States Exhibition in 1887.
In the late 1920s, the three-story brick education building was added for Sunday school classes and group meals. In 1985, a predawn fire razed this building, but the congregation and community rallied together to rebuild it by 1987.
In the early 1990s, the sanctuary needed renovation, which was made apparent by plaster falling on the heads of the congregation! Repairs began in the spring of 1991 and included a new roof; refurbished walls, floors and pews; and reworked areas of the sanctuary to fit the church’s need for meeting areas. The lettering frieze around the ceiling perimeter was selected by the congregation and hand painted by church members. By April 1994, the work was complete and the congregation resumed worship on Palm Sunday.
In 2003, the sanctuary was cool all summer for the first time, thanks to a check from Paramount Pictures that paid for a new air conditioning system in return for using the church in the movie "The Fighting Temptations" starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Last year the church completed the restoration of the “Resurrection” stained glass window. Ongoing restoration projects continue as members of the congregation preserve the beauty and history of St. Paul United Methodist Church.
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