St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a parish of the Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The current interim rector is the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Lee. The two most recent rectors include the Rev. Jeanne Leinbach (the first woman to serve as rector at St. Paul's) and the Rev. Alan M. Gates (elected as Bishop of Massachusetts). The Rev. Patricia Rose, the Rev. Rose Anne Lonsway, and the Rev. Gabriel Lawrence serve as assistant rectors. St. Paul's is a leading church and has the largest congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.[2]
St. Paul's was first established in the city of Cleveland, Ohio on October 26, 1846. The congregation did not have its own building until 1851, as a frame building completed in 1849 burned completely. A small brick church in the Gothic Revival style was completed for the parish at Euclid and Sheriff (East 4th) Streets by 1858. St. Paul's congregation outgrew the church, however, as well as a subsequent building at East 40th Street (later sold to the Roman Catholic Church, and renamed the Church of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle in 1930). The first service at St. Paul's, Cleveland Heights, was on April 25, 1928. The church was designed by J. Byers Hayes of Walker & Weeks in the English Gothic style. The present nave was dedicated in 1951. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there in May 1963 (months before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom).
The current nave houses three pipe organs. The most notable of these three organs is a 1952 instrument built by local builder Walter Holtkamp. In the late 1980s, the church installed an instrument by the Austrian builder Gerhard Hradetzky. Hradetky's instrument is installed in the rear gallery of the sanctuary. The final, and most recent organ the church has taken possession of is an organ positive by Vladimir Slajch. The current organist and choirmaster of St. Paul's is Kevin Jones, who succeeded Karel Paukert.
The Holtkamp organ is considered the "definitive" example for its builder.[6]
