Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

1908

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In response to a devastating fire in Chelsea, Emmanuel Church rented one of the few houses left standing to provide care for the homeless.   The Emmanuel Relief Station offered food, clothing, and medical care for the wounded.  The church arranged for medical personnel, instruments, and supplies. The house was also used for the care of women during and after childbirth.

Religion and Medicine: The Moral Control of Nervous Disorders by Worcester, Samuel McComb and Isador A. Coriat, an early psychoanalyst, was published by Moffat, Yard.

Worcester published a series of six articles about the Emmanuel Movement in the Ladies Home Journal (Oct. 1908 – March 1909).

1907

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Ruth Baylies Schulze (1907-1986) by Alfred Jonniaux

Walter Cabot Baylies (1862-1936)

Walter Cabot Baylies became senior warden, a post he faithfully filled until 1935.  His wife Charlotte (Lottie) Upham, daughter of founding member George Upham, gave birth to their daughter Ruth.  They resided at 5 Commonwealth Ave., which now is the Boston Center for Adult Education.

See also:   Jim Cronin, “BCAE Mansion Built for Textile Merchant, The Boston Courant 13(11):1, Dec. 1, 2007.

1906

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Camp Lowell was established by the shores of Lake Annabessacook in Winthrop ME to provide a summer camp for the choir boys of Emmanuel and  Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill.  Boys from our mission Church of the Ascension also attended for two weeks in its first summer.  The camp, which had sleeping accomodations for 28 campers and 2 staff, was named in memory of Charles Lowell, late treasurer of Emmanuel.  Its trusttees were Charles H. Kip, John Lowell, and William Blodgett.

John Collins Bossidy famously toasted, “Boston, the land of the bean and the cod / where Lowells speak only to Cabots / and Cabots talk only to God.” It was (no doubt) belied by the fellowship of Emmanuel.  Walter Cabot Baylies purchased the lots of 11-13 Newbury St. for the creation of a parish house.  Offices for the rector and his secretary were created in the space now occupied by the Emmanuel Room and our kitchen.

Our Girls Choir

1905

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Tuberculosis Class, organized by Joseph H. Pratt MD and Lesley H. Spooner, MD., reached 308 patients in its first year.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel McComb (1864–1938) became Associate Rector. Raised in Belfast, Ireland, with a doctorate from Oxford University, he had taught church history at Queens University, Ontario, and served as a Presbyterian minister in England and New York City before his ordination in the Episcopal Church. He became a spokesman for the Emmanuel Movement during its active years.  See also 1909 and his many works available on Amazon and full text from Hathi Trust.


November 23.  Emmanuel Memorial House was dedicated.  Given by Harriet Pitts Weeks (Mrs. Silas Reed) Anthony in memory of her father Andrew Gray Weeks, whose widow gave its playground.  It was located at 11 Newcomb St. around the corner from 1906 Washington St., where our diocese maintained a mission in the South End, Church of the Ascension (now Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church).  Through the Emmanuel House Committee, Emmanuel parishioners helped with the kindergarten and summer play school for neighborhood children.  They also ran homemaking and other classes and a gymnasium for Ascension parishioners. Emmanuel Memorial House567

1903

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June 26.  Andrew Gray Weeks died. Having been born in Portland, Maine, in 1823 and confirmed by Dr. F. Dan Huntington, he served on our vestry (1879-82 & 1884) and as junior warden from 1885 until his death.  Having become a successful merchant, Andrew was generous to our church and those less fortunate.  In 1905 his sister Harriet (Mrs. Silas Reed) Anthony gave in his memory the playground for the Emmanuel Memorial House, which his widow Alice gave.  She also paid for a brass memorial plaque for their son Kenneth, who fell at Givenchy, France, in 1915. 

1902

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Vicar Arthur L. Bumpus reported that the Sunday School of our mission Church of the Ascension had on its books 500 children, of whom about 300 attended on a given Sunday. The Rev. Bumpus, who was born 1871 in Quincy MA, son of Judge Everett C. B.,  graduated Harvard College in 1891, and joined the Rev. Edward L. Atkinson at Ascension in 1899.  He eventually became rector of Trinity Church on Long Island NY, where his funeral was held in 1926.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Vinton (1852-1911), namesake and nephew of our second rector, became Bishop of Western Massachusetts.

1900

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26 Jan. Sarah Sprague Upham, wife of charter vestryman George Phinehas Upham, died. Her daughter Charlotte Upham Baylies funded a memorial statue of St. Barbara, which stands by the Krol Doors.

24 June.  A funeral service was held for our first sexton, James Haynes (30 Dec. 1836–21 June 1900).  Born in Wantage, England (birthplace of Alfred the Great, he would always note), James was a mason, who immigrated to the US in 1859 and found his vocation at our newly constructed church.

1 July.  Walter R. Spaulding, who had been organist & choirmaster since 1898, resigned to pursue duties as instructor at Harvard.  He was succeeded in September by Arthur Sewall Hyde.

1900

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Joseph Hersey Pratt, M.D. (1872-1956)

Dr. Joseph H. Pratt joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and served as secretary of Ascension Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew.  He reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish that members of its Sailors Committee visited about a dozen vessels per month to distribute literature and invite men to the mission church.  See also his later role in founding the Emmanuel Movement.

1897

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October 28. Rector Leighton Parks set up the Emmanuel Club to give young men of the parish a venue for fellowship.  Samuel Taylor was its first secretary.  They met several times a year for dinner with speakers or entertainment at the newly formed University Club at 270 Beacon Street.   Fitz-Henry Smith Jr. was secretary during its last year in 1911.  A member of the Harvard College Class of 1896, he went on to write these works about Boston:

  • The story of Boston light, with some account of the beacons in Boston harbor (1911).
  • The French at Boston during the Revolution : with particular reference to the French fleets and the fortifications in the harbor (1913).
  • Storms and shipwrecks in Boston and the record of the life savers of Hull (1918).

November.  The Rev. Henrietta Rue Goodwin began her service as deaconess at Emmanuel, which included distributing clothing, monitoring the Mothers’ Meeting, helping to fund choir vestments, and overseeing a Bible class and the Students’ Club.  Her reports in our Yearbooks (1897-1906), give her accounting of Special Funds for distribution of aid to the poor and her other activities, which included thousands of visits to the sick and needy.

Children of Anne & Benjamin Rotch (clockwise): Aimee, Edith, Arthur & Lawrence

Work of Emmanuel House in the South End was transferred to our mission there, Church of the Ascension.

Edith Rotch, the younger daughter of Anne Bigelow Lawrence & Benjamin S. Rotch died at the age of fifty.  She was memorialized by her sister Aimee R. Sargent in our Rotch reredos.