St. Paul’s Syracuse, the Downtown Episcopal Church, will host a September 13, 2026, 11:45 a.m. presentation on the Erie Canal at the church with the big red doors located at 220 E. Fayette St. The event is the second in a series of history presentations marking the church’s founding 200 years ago.

Derrick Pratt, director of education at the Erie Canal Museum, will present “The Erie Canal: The Ditch That Changed America.” Pratt’s crash course on the Erie Canal promises to answer such questions as: Why was the Erie Canal built? How was it built? How was it used once it was built? How did it influence the establishment of several churches, including St. Paul’s? and Where is it now?

The Rev. Philip Major, rector of St. Paul’s, notes that St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was established in 1826 on Onondaga Hill, 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“It didn’t take long for the fledgling church to move closer to the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825,” he said, “and become part of the recently incorporated Syracuse community, where people, goods and ideas circulated freely as a result of the canal route.”