Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church is one of the most outstanding Gothic Revival structures in the region. It is magnificently sited on a high elevation overlooking the city and was designed by Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram. The first service was held in the structure in 1929.
Cram has been called “America’s leading exponent of the Gothic Revival,” and he is also well-known for his work at Saint John the Divine in New York City and the rebuilding of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Jacobs and Young, contractors for Saint Paul’s, also had built Saint John the Divine, and the intricate interior wood work of Saint Paul’s was crafted by the Smith and Rummery Company of Portland, Maine.
The son of a Unitarian clergyman, Cram was born at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, in 1863. He formed a partnership at age 24 with Charles Wentworth to practice architecture in Boston, and in 1891 Bertram Goodhue became a third partner in the firm. After Wentworth’s death, Frank Ferguson became a partner and the name changed to Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson. The firm operated under that name until 1910 when Goodhue withdrew to establish his own office in New York and hereafter it operated as Cram and Ferguson. Ralph Adams Cram died in 1942.