It all began with a soup kitchen.
In the summer of 1982, two volunteers from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Glyndon, Helen Martien and Reverend Philip Roulette, approached Reverend Edwin Stube of St. Paul the Apostle Church on Washington Boulevard with their vision for a soup kitchen in one of the most under-served communities in Baltimore City and the nation: Washington Village, also known to locals as Pigtown. In September of the same year, Paul’s Place began serving soup and sandwiches twice a week.
Word spread quickly.
Word spread quickly about the new soup kitchen, and soon, volunteer cooks from organizations of all denominations began preparing casseroles off-site to serve at Paul’s Place. A Hot Lunch program quickly developed at Paul’s Place where they also launched a summer camp for children in the community and other programs to address the needs of neighbors.
By the end of its fifth year of service to the community, Paul’s Place had established a Nurses’ Clinic providing basic health screenings to homeless and uninsured community members. They also began distributing clothing and bags of food to people in the neighborhood. Paul’s Place continued to add programs and serve more people in need until the mid-1990s when Paul’s Place became homeless.
Paul’s Place GETS a new home.
For two years, Paul’s Place distributed bag lunches from a storefront on Washington Boulevard while its volunteer leaders raised the funds needed to purchase and renovate a new home on Ward Street.
In 1996, Paul’s Place opened its new Outreach Center at 1118 Ward Street and resumed the Hot Lunch program and its other programs. Three years later, a new wing of the Outreach Center opened and Paul’s Place began a strategic planning and community asset mapping process to determine Paul’s Place’s niche in the community and the direction of future programming.
Paul’s Place today.
With nearly 40 years of service to the community, Paul’s Place now offers more than two dozen services and programs to low-income individuals and families in the Washington Village/Pigtown community. As we look to the future, Paul’s Place will continue to expand programming and partner with other organizations in our community to improve the quality of life in Washington Village/Pigtown.