St. Paul’s Church, Greenville, has a vibrant, colorful history, with origins 
dating from the mid-18th century colonial period. The people of what became 
Pitt County received occasional services of the Church of England from the 
Rev. Alexander Stewart, rector of the Parish of St. Thomas, Bath, in Beaufort 
County, out of which Pitt County and St. Michael’s Parish were formed in 1760.
 

An assembly of freeholders elected the parish’s first vestry, and early 
services were held in the county courthouse. When the town of Martinsborough 
(which later became Greenville) was established on land owned by Richard and 
Susanna Coutanch Evans, plans were made for construction of public buildings, 
including a church. None of these early buildings still stands. During the 
Revolutionary and early federal periods, St. Michael’s had no regular worship 
services, but beginning in 1816, was visited by the Rev. Nathaniel Blount who 
also served congregations in Beaufort and Hyde Counties. Blount had taken 
part in efforts in the 1790s to form a Protestant Episcopal diocese. When the 
diocese finally became functional in 1817, it still did not have its own 
bishop, but received Episcopal visitations from the Rt. Rev. Richard Channing 
Moore, Bishop of Virginia. Bishop Moore preached several times in Greenville 
in 1819.
 
During 1825-1826, the Rev. Joseph Pierson of St. Peter’s Church, Washington, 
North Carolina, visited Greenville to initiate a Protestant Episcopal 
congregation and perform baptisms. The first visit to Greenville by a Bishop 
of North Carolina occurred in May 1825, when the Rt. Rev. John Stark 
Ravenscroft preached to the few Episcopalians and other area residents. Two 
church members represented the congregation at the 1827 diocesan convention. 
That year, the Greenville Episcopal group became known as St. James’s 
Congregation and continued for several years to be served by rectors of St. 
Peter’s, Washington, and missionaries from adjoining counties. On December 
1, 1846, the congregation was taken in charge by the Rev. Nicholas Collin 
Hughes, and reorganized as St. Paul’s Parish. It was formally admitted into 
the Diocese of North Carolina in May 1847.
 
The congregation received its first building in 1848 when a half-acre lot on 
Greenville’s Pitt Street was purchased for $50. Through the generosity of 
Nymphus A. Price, who made available the services of his two expert enslaved 
carpenters, a small and unpretentious wooden church was erected and an altar 
and rail, pulpit and lectern, and white painted pews were installed. 
Household chairs were used in the chancel; a communion service was acquired; 
a small cut glass fruit stand served for the font; oil lamps furnished the 
light; and a melodeon, lent by a parishioner, accompanied the singing of the 
hymns. The church was consecrated by Bishop Thomas Atkinson on October 31, 
1855. Services were provided in St. Paul’s by dedicated rectors of 
neighboring parishes, missionaries, and chaplains, sometimes themselves 
refugees from their own fields, during the war years, 1861-1865.
 
In 1866, Mr. Hughes returned to serve St. Paul’s until 1891, except for brief 
periods of illness when he was relieved by the Revs. Israel and Nathaniel 
Harding. The original church building was used until 1885, when it was sold 
to the Roman Catholics and moved to Second Street. This building has since 
been demolished. A new brick church was built and improvements were gradually 
added. When the Diocese of East Carolina was formed in 1883, St. Paul’s 
Parish was admitted, and the diocese’s first bishop, the Rt. Rev. Alfred A. 
Watson, consecrated the new church.
 
Slowly the parish and its activities grew. The first rectory, located at 
Third and Greene Streets, was built during the tenure (1912-1914) of Rev. 
Dallas Tucker. During the next few years, the church acquired a pipe organ 
and initiated a choir and altar guild. Memorial offerings provided new 
communion service, altar vases, an alms basin, and a processional cross. The 
need for a larger church was strongly felt, and for several years plans were 
formulated and discussed.
 

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
 
In 1930, under the leadership of Rev. William A. Lillycrop, the East Fourth 
Street building, which is now the chapel, and the first parish house were 
completed. Comfortable quarters for the Church School and proper facilities 
for the Women of the Church were provided. A fellowship center, Friendly Hall,
was furnished by the diocese to expand the work among the students of East 
Carolina College. In 1958, additions were built onto the church’s Third 
Street side, including classrooms, an assembly hall and kitchen facilities. 
With the expansion of East Carolina Teachers College into East Carolina 
College, then eventually to East Carolina University, the program carried on 
by the rector and parish workers through the Canterbury Club developed into a 
campus ministry with a college chaplain beginning in 1954. St. Luke’s Church, 
Winterville, begun in 1902, was a parochial shrine of St. Paul’s from 1954 
until its deconsecration in 1960. A mission congregation for Greenville’s 
African-American community, St. Andrew’s, was formed about 1910, and merged 
in 1970 with St. Paul’s. The St. Andrew’s building was later used for a St. 
Paul’s project, the Bonner’s Lane Day Care Center, which served children in 
west Greenville for a number of years.
 
Various plans for the enlargement of St. Paul’s worship space or removal to a 
new site to meet the needs of a growing congregation resulted in a decision 
by the vestry and congregation to refurbish the existing plant and form a new 
mission congregation, appropriately named St. Timothy’s, which was organized 
in December 1977. During the quarter of a century after 1980, St. Paul’s 
Episcopal Church in Greenville has evolved from a pastoral-sized church to an 
energetic program-sized church. The parish renovated its old buildings and 
built a spacious new worship space. However, parishioners have maintained 
their commitment to traditional worship and ministry.
 
Expansion plans were already in progress during the latter years of the 
rectorship of Rev. Lawrence Patrick Houston (1968-1992), and St. Paul’s new 
400-seat church building was completed during the Rev. C. Thomas Midyette’s 
tenure (1994-2004) with its first service held on Christmas Eve 1999. The 
building features cathedral seating and was designed to accommodate a large 
organ made by C.B. Fisk of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and scheduled for 
installation during 2005. Substantial contributions to both projects were 
provided by charitable foundations established by church members James J. and 
Mamie Richardson Perkins and Mildred Sheffield Wells. In developing plans for 
the church, Fr. Midyette and the vestry provided an inspiring but flexible 
worship space that is regularly used by faculty and student performers of the 
East Carolina University School of Music as well as by community musicians. 
In addition to musical events, it was envisioned that the space could be used 
for art showings for visual arts. Although much of the church’s energy has 
been directed inward, members serve in many outreach ministries. Considerable 
financial support for local projects as well as service to the church is 
provided by St. Paul’s two Episcopal Churchwomen chapters—St. Lydia’s and the 
combined Sts. Martha, Mary, and Anne’s.
 
Noteworthy events have recently interrupted the rhythm and pattern of worship.
Late in 1989, continued acts of vandalism in the church forced the vestry to 
end its longstanding policy of leaving the worship space open 24 hours a day. 
In 1999 Greenville and Pitt County were devastated by flooding caused by 
Hurricane Floyd, and many parish members devoted time, talent, and financial 
resources to the recovery effort. St. Paul’s choir accepted an invitation to 
sing in Gloucester England in the summer of 2000. On February 2001, the Most 
Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church presided 
over a Festival Eucharist bringing together the whole diocese.
 
The Rev. Robert A. Hudak began his tenure at St. Paul’s in November 2005.
Under his leadership, St. Paul’s has been doing significant organizational 
work and has begun to welcome even more members into our midst. Associate 
rectors who have served St. Paul’s since 1959 include: the Rev. Richard N. 
Ottaway (1959-1964), the Rev. Joseph W. Arps (1973-1975), the Rev. John Price 
(1976-1979), the Rev. Dana Pecheles (1979-1983), the Rev. Middleton L. Wooten 
(1984-1992), the Rev. Thomas G. Cure (1994-1999), the Rev. Charles T. Dupree 
(1999-2004), and the Rev. Ann Bonner-Stewart (2006-2009). College chaplains 
included Fr. Houston (1964-1969), the Rev. William Hadden (1969-1985), Fr. 
Cure, and Fr. Dupree. The Rev. Patricia Thomas assisted St. Paul’s from 
2002-2004.






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