Photo from a postcard of St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church (circa 1912)
History
For more than 130 years, people have been drawn to the church at the corner of W. Duffy and Barnard streets in the historic Victorian neighborhood of Savannah, Ga. The very first worshipers belonged to the Episcopal faith of St. John’s Parish, whose Church Aid Association secured the property at Barnard and W. Duffy streets, completing the building in 1889. The new church, one of two in Savannah designed by renowned architect Alfred S. Eichberg, became the home from which St. Matthew’s Chapel was admitted into the Diocese of Georgia as St. Paul’s Church in 1892. The congregation eventually outgrew the space, and the worship center then transitioned to St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church who called it home from 1907 to 1943.
The Greek Orthodox congregation added another entrance, allowing for men and women to enter separately. Garvin’s Temple Baptist Church was the next congregation to occupy the historic church, adding their touch with memorial stained glass windows dedicated to departed loved ones (with many of those original stained-glass windows still a part of the new lofts!). The saga of the picturesque church began with an Episcopal congregation in 1889 and has come full circle as a condo conversion project that transformed the interior into a state-of-the-art living space while maintaining key architectural features from the original church. Careful work on the exterior has restored the structure to its original glory.
