St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Our buildings are on half a city block approaching the Highlands section of Holyoke, a mill town in Western MA that is experiencing a renaissance.  Our physical plant is very large, with a sanctuary seating 360, built in 1904 and featuring beautiful period windows and a recently restored 1969 Casavant organ.  The church is connected to a large auditorium building where we have meetings and meals and which we make available to the community for large parties,meetings and municipal and general elections.  The auditorium section of the building also houses a preschool/daycare center that is run by the YMCA for use by community and parish children.  In between the church and the auditorum is a section filled with offices, choir room and storage spaces.  There is also a rectory here on the property, an 11 room Tudor home built in 1910.  A parking lot behind the church and auditorium serves our staff and visitors.  Holyoke is a city of workers, many of whom are public servants.  Our city was originally a farming area, then transformed in the 1850s by the dam which harnessed the water power of the Connecticut River to drive the many paper and textile mills that sprang up here.  Waves  of immigrants worked in the mills, the Irish, Polish, Germans.  African Americans also came to Holyoke, often through their connections to nearby Westover Air Force Base. Several generations ago Puerto Rican citizens seeking work in the tobacco fields nearby came to our area and now the city is almost 50 % Latino.  The worship at St. Paul's  is broad church in style, using several musical styles along with the Hymnal 1982.