Physical therapy clinic, art school move in to St. Paul’s

What was previously St. Paul’s Catholic Church is turning into a place for therapy. Physical therapy, actually.

High Desert Physical Therapy is renovating the church building and will start treating patients on Aug. 5.

The lot, located at 820 W. Chubbuck Road, has been vacant for years, but owner Jared Pugmire says it has just the right amount of space for a new office.

“We hit a gold mine with this one, I feel like. I mean it needs a lot of TLC. There’s a lot of things that have been left alone for a long time. But as far as the space goes, it’s just beautiful,” said Pugmire’s wife, Emily, who’s a professional artist.

She plans to use the extra space as an art studio where she’ll teach classes for kids and adults of all ages.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunities here,” Emily said.

Her art school will have a separate entrance and its own wing in the building.

The church had been vacant for about 10 years, after St. Paul’s Catholic Church merged with the other Catholic churches in town, forming the Holy Spirit Catholic Community.

Now, the extra space for the physical therapy office will be used for better parking and new exercises.

They say they are excited to work closely together and take on new adventures.

“It’s kind of fun to give new life to an old building. I grew up restoring cars so it’s kind of a similar thing with helping people get better, you know, make a building better. So it was just kind of fun to play with that,” Jared said.

Jared also plans to begin new monthly workshops for his clinic, where people can learn about their injuries what physical therapy can do to help.

The Pugmire’s will host an open house on Aug. 15 for people to see the renovations.