Each year, the Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes begins at St. Paul United Methodist Church, a magnificent old church home to a vibrant and growing congregation.

Built in 1906 out of local granite, the church was designed in the Neo-Romanesque style and includes intricate stained glass windows depicting the Resurrection and other biblical stories.

Interior details include cove ceilings, decorative columns and capitals, paneled woodwork and original heart-of-pine floors. The large pipe organ, still in use today after being refurbished in the early 1990s, was acquired from the Piedmont Cotton States Exhibition in 1887.

In the late 1920s, the three-story brick education building was added for Sunday school classes and group meals. In 1985, a predawn fire razed this building, but the congregation and community rallied together to rebuild it by 1987.

In the early 1990s, the sanctuary needed renovation, which was made apparent by plaster falling on the heads of the congregation! Repairs began in the spring of 1991 and included a new roof; refurbished walls, floors and pews; and reworked areas of the sanctuary to fit the church’s need for meeting areas. The lettering frieze around the ceiling perimeter was selected by the congregation and hand painted by church members. By April 1994, the work was complete and the congregation resumed worship on Palm Sunday.

In 2003, the sanctuary was cool all summer for the first time, thanks to a check from Paramount Pictures that paid for a new air conditioning system in return for using the church in the movie "The Fighting Temptations" starring Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. Additional filming projects since then include the Tyler Perry Film “The Family Who Preys” featuring Academy Award winner Kathy Bates.

The church completed the restoration of the “Resurrection” stained glass window in 2004. In 2010, St. Paul launched its Covenant Campaign, a fundraising effort to both repair its beautiful, 100-year old sanctuary and serve the greater Atlanta community. In addition to the capital funds raised, the Covenant Campaign is creating a dedicated mission fund called “The Good Neighbor Fund” to insure individuals and families have a safe, habitable living space. Each dollar raised will be split 50-50 between these two funds. With money raised so far, St. Paul helped a handful of Grant Park neighbors repair their homes, and at the same time, repaired its own roof.

Funded by a donation given to St. Paul upon the death of Ben Huiet III, the church gave Huiet Hall a much needed “face-lift” with new windows, tables and chairs, a good floor cleaning and repairs to the kitchen. Other restoration projects in recent years include refurbishing the original furniture and fireplace in the Sacristy as well as the archival of historic photos, bibles, hymn books and other old documents. Several of the archived photos can be found throughout the church.

With the Covenant Campaign in full swing, the congregation is hoping to re-point the granite mortar that holds up the 100-year old building, as well as repair the plaster and original wood paneling in the Sanctuary that has been damaged from years of water intrusion. To help with this two-fold effort, St. Paul would thankfully accept your tax-deductible check (please put “Covenant Campaign” in the memo).