Salem was Oregon’s legal territorial capital when the Reverend William Richmond, first official Episcopal missionary, arrived in Portland in 1851. Together, Father Richmond and Father St. Michael Fackler, the pioneer Episcopal clergyman in Oregon, began to organize the earliest churches of their denomination in the settlements of the Willamette Valley. After founding Trinity Church in Portland, Saint Paul’s in Oregon City, churches at Champoeg and Lafayette, and St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukie, the Episcopal priests established the next series of early churches that included St. Paul’s, Salem, in 1853. Reverend Fackler became first Rector of St. Paul’s.

As early as 1849, Father Fackler had been offered the use of two lots for a church by William H. Willson, former Methodist missionary who platted the Salem townsite. In 1854, The Right Reverend Thomas Fielding Scott, newly consecrated as Missionary Bishop of the Territory of Oregon and Washington, arrived and, on May 14 in the old Union schoolhouse, officiated at the first service conducted by an Episcopal Bishop in Salem. Later in the year, an Episcopal church was erected on lots at the southwest corner of the intersection of Church and Chemeketa Streets given by Dr. Willson.

The first St. Paul’s church was a rectangular gable-roofed building of frame construction in the Gothic Revival style. It had a square belfry tower and pointed-arch windows. For seventy years, it served the needs of the congregation as a church. After it was re-situated on the site at Church and Chemeketa to make room for a new church, the original building served thirty years more, fulfilling the function of a parish hall. At the opening of the automobile era, as Salem’s population expanded, construction of a modern Episcopal church was entrusted to Archdeacon Henry Duncan Chambers, who became Rector of St. Paul’s and saw the new building to completion in 1923. Second St. Paul’s was a stucco-clad building of hollow clay tile construction having parapet gables in the style of late Tudor architecture. In the tradition of English parish churches, it had a cross-shaped plan with transepts, and the entrance was on the side.

The longest rectorate at St. Paul’s was that of The Reverend George H. Swift, who led the parish thirty-two and a half years, from 1929 to 1961. Father Swift was a well-known figure in the community through the Great Depression, Second World War, and post war years. He was active in civic affairs. Beginning in 1943, his sermon themes were the basis of a regular Saturday evening column for the Capital Journal entitled "The Fireside Pulpit." After the war, the city experienced another surge of population growth. The Wardens and Vestry of St. Paul’s explored varied options for building a larger church on property having room for additional development as years went by. The decision was made to leave the site at Church and Chemeketa. From 1953 onward, the oak-shaded parcel opposite Bush’s Pasture Park at Liberty and Myers Streets would be home to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. From 1891 to 1936, the site had been occupied by Lincoln Elementary School.

The present church, Third St. Paul’s, was erected from the design of James L. Payne, a leading Salem architect, and was first used for Christmas Eve service, December 24, 1953. The new church was contemporary in design and, in harmony with its setting, it was constructed of wood. It took the form of a long basilica having grids of multi-colored clerestory windows. Its steep gable roof was supported by 30-foot-high glue-laminated arches of Douglas fir. In the Gothic spirit, a flèche, or small spire on the roof ridge marked the approximate location of the altar. With its basement parish hall and kitchen, and with its perpendicular classroom and office wing, the third church was able to accommodate the ever-increasing number of church and social activities of a growing congregation. Under the rectorate of The Reverend Willis H. Steinberg, 1974-1990, St. Paul’s was enlarged with a fellowship hall, gymnasium, and chapel that formed a quadrangle with open courtyard adjacent to the nave on the south.

In addition to its programs for worship, Christian education, and pastoral care, the Parish of St. Paul’s supports a variety of community services, including American Red Cross blood drives, local food drives, a hospital hospitality house, and scout troops. It participates in the interfaith hospitality network for families temporarily without shelter. "Helping Hands," a program to provide clothing, bedding and household items to families in need, originated at St. Paul’s in 1967 and today is operated at an independent location with donors and volunteers provided by other Salem churches as well as auxiliaries of St. Paul’s.

The church’s music program was enhanced when a mechanical tracker-action pipe organ, custom built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, was installed in 1975 to replace an instrument that had once furnished musical accompaniment in the Elsinore Theater. To give the community occasion for appreciating the music of the outstanding new organ, the music director introduced a series of evensong concerts open to the public. Today, under auspices of the St. Paul’s Music Guild, Sunday Evensong Concerts featuring choirs and guest artists from around the country and abroad are presented monthly except during summer. The Music Guild, organized in 1999, is unique among the auxiliaries of St. Paul’s in having membership support from the community at large as well as parishioners.

Visitors to St. Paul’s worship services are always welcome. The church is located at 1444 Liberty Street SE, Salem OR 97302. The parish office telephone number is 503-362-3661.

Bibliography:
The above historical information is based on St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Salem, Diocese of Oregon: A Chronicle of Parish Life 1853-2003, prepared by the History Committee for the Parish of St. Paul’s in celebration of 150 years of the Episcopal Church in the capital city, The Reverend William J. Cavanaugh, Rector, Bromleigh Lamb, Chairman, Dorothy Eshleman, Richard Van Orman, and Elisabeth Walton Potter, editorial adviser. The book is in collections of the Salem Public Library.