About St. Paul's
St. Paul's Memorial United Methodist Church began life on May 12, 1872 as a group of committed Methodist Christians meeting in a school house on Laurel street. This venture was called the Laurel Street Mission. Among this group of very didicated individuals were Clem and Ann Studebaker. By 1882 they had outgrown the school and built their own church named Milburn Memorial Chapel, named in memory of Ann Studebaker's father who too had been a dedicated member of the original mission.
By 1900 this dedicated band of Methodists had outgrown the chapel and needed a new place to worship. The corner stone of a new church was laid Sunday afternoon at three o'clock, May 12, 1901. Clem Studebaker himself held the trowel and laid the stone. Shortly afterwards he and his wife departed for Europe in the hope of effecting an improvement in the health of Mr. Studebaker. It was while visiting the Mayer & Company Glass Works in Munich that they saw an art glass representation of Saint Paul preaching on Mar's Hill in Athens. The beauty of this glass work so impressed Mr. and Mrs. Studebaker that they wrote home and offered to have this window installed in the new church and suggested the church's name be changed to St. Paul's Memorial Church.
St. Paul's began life as, and continues to be, a part of God's mission to help people come into a relationship with God and with one another through Jesus Christ. I invite you to come and join us and become a part of what God is doing not only here in South Bend, but in the world. Pastor Tom Thews
