The Rectory
 

In addition to housing parish clergy and their families, St. Paul's rectory was also the home of the first boys to board at the parish school in the 1880s.  At various times, it has been rented to tenants as a private dwelling and has housed the Sunday School and the Thrift Shop.  Today, the parish office is there.  The living room, dining room, and back porch are used for the hospitality hour following Sunday service and for other gatherings for parish fellowship and education.  On the second floor, a room is furnished as a chapel for weekday use in the winter months and an adjacent room houses the parish library.

The winter chapel in the rectory, known as the Oratory of the Upper Room. Additional seating is available in the adjoining Library.

The Houghton Memorial Library has a modest, but growing selection of educational and devotional books, as well as some religious-themed fiction.

       

A new wheelchair ramp provides access to the main floor of the rectory, via the back porch.

 

For many years, a simple wooden cross has stood in a rock garden in a narrow space between the rectory and the church building.  With the help of a tractor to uproot and move the rocks, in October 2004 a parish work party moved the garden and cross to a new location behind the rectory and in view of Burton Hall.  A fresh coat of paint will be complemented by new planting in the spring.