All Saints Episcopal Church was organized in 1868. Fr. J. Rice Taylor was a pastor, missionary, and builder in Ohio and Michigan for over 40 years. He was a pastor of an Episcopal church in Allegan and came to Saugatuck in 1862. He was transferred to Holland to found a parish and after that, he was assigned to form a church in Saugatuck. He held his first services in the Saugatuck Congregational Church and then used a room in the Union School. Father J Rice Taylor eventually became the first rector, and his son went on to start what is now Chemical Bank. Col. Frank B. Stockbridge, a lumberman in Saugatuck, gave support with a pledge, while other support came from the diocese. Colonel Frank Stockbridge was also one of the builders of the Grand Hotel, a state senator, US senator, and an ambassador to the Netherlands.
Soon after, All Saints was recognized as a parish and was then incorporated in the diocese. The efforts to start to building the church grew tremendously. Fr. Taylor traveled all over Europe to raise funds. The Church was built in 1872. The location of the new church was on Hoffman and Grand. The church received the stain glass windows from Belgium. The architect of the whole structure was G.W. Lloyd. The architecture was based of off carpenter gothic style with a grey and red color scheme. The carpenter gothic style is based on the Arts and Crafts movement, developed by William Morris. The church included many of the early pioneers, many from Northern Europe and of English Ancestry. In the following years, the membership dwindled. There was a point where there wasn’t enough collection to hold services. The church became inactive during the school year, with only summer months having a high enough attendance to bring in enough funds to keep the stable. However in the 1920s, the church became a place of interest. It basically recovered enough money to boost it from the 25 year decline. They built a rectory and social hall in the next couple of years and was once again considered a ‘parish church.’ It had previously lost the title during the upsetting 25 years. In the 1940s, a parish house, and Jordan Hall was built. The church was (and still is) mostly family based, with some very large families. In 1958 to 1978, Verne C. Hohl was leading the church as a rector. The church was in its best years while Hohl was the pastor. It was pretty steady from then on. |