Pen & Ink Sketch by L. Blackwell 1986
 

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Bergen County Historical Society Plaque

As recorded on the blue plaque alongside, and according to the Bergen County Historical Society, St. Paul's Episcopal Church was organized in 1865, (and) the congregation first met in homes and in the armory on Van Brunt Street.  The original church was built in 1866. The present chapel was erected in 1895 as a parish hall. Today's Gothic church structure, built in 1899, has the rose limestone of the original building in its foundation.  The stained glass windows are from the Tiffany La Farge, and Lamb Studios.

In Adaline W. Sterling's "The Book of Englewood", published by authority of The Mayor and Council of the City of Englewood, N.J. (1922), the following excerpts flesh out the early history of St. Paul's:

"The Rev. O. W. Whitaker...inspired the incorporation, in 1865, of a church under the style of 'The Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Paul's Church'.  The congregation of some thirty persons, who had held services under the ministrations of a lay reader, could supply wardens and vestrymen, but it had neither rector nor church...  In October of this same year, Mr. Whitaker was induced... to accept the rectorship of the new parish. The church, a modest building of brown sandstone, built from plans drawn by Adriance Van Brunt, occupied the site on Engle Street where the second St. Paul's Church now stands... The first child baptized in the church was Thornton Floyd Turner, who was destined to grow in grace and knowledge so that in manhood he was the architect of the Parish House and the present St. Paul's Church...

"The news...of the death in Rome, on February 20, 1884, of The Rev. John William Payne, spurred the Ladies' Guild to undertake the placing in St. Paul's of a memorial to a rector so universally loved.  The work of the Guild...included a thorough renovation of the church itself, the removal of the organ and choir stalls to the north transept, new carpets and new coverings for the cushions in the pews, leading up to the memorial window, which filled the space back of the altar.  The church was reopened and the window unveiled on Easter morning, April 26, 1884...

"On Whitsunday, June 3rd, 1900, the doors of the new St. Paul's were opened to welcome the congregation to the first service in the beautiful and stately church, the successor, after thirty-five years, of the modest building whose stones are built in to the encircling walls of the new edifice.  The rector, The Rev. George Frederic Flichtner, was the preacher and his sermon breathed the spirit of Pentecost.... The church, of Tudor-Gothic architecture in the form of a modified Latin cross, was designed by Thornton Floyd Turner."