Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

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.

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.

1895

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The Rev. James Yeames, Superintendent of the newly-established Emmanuel House, reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish that two rooms and a hallway were combined to create a meeting space for about a hundred people on the first floor.  Its treasurer Walter Baylies reported that $1778 covered the expenses for its first year.

June 16.  The first service of Evening Prayer with hymns was held there and weekly thereafter.  Throughout the next two months, a Summer Play School was held by the Episcopal City Mission for about a hundred boys & girls.

September. A Boys Club of about sixty members began meeting on Tuesday evenings.  A Children’s House was held on Fridays at 6:30.

 

1893

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Anne Bigelow Lawrence Rotch. Portrait by Chester Harding in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Anne Bigelow Lawrence Rotch died. The daughter of Katherine Bigelow and Abbott Lawrence, Annie had married Benjamin S. Rotch in 1846 . Their daughter Aimee (Mrs. Winthrop Henry) Sargent gave our sanctuary’s Rotch reredos in memory of her, her husband, and two of their children, Arthur & Edith. They are buried in a family plot (#3004) on Bellwort Path, Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

 

Another son, Abbott Lawrence Rotch (1861-1912) married Margaret Randolph Anderson (1866-1912).  A meterologist and astronomer, he served as our junior warden (1904-1906).

Jr. Warden Abbott Lawrence Rotch. Credit: Wikicommons

John Singer Sargent. 1903 portrait of Margaret R.A. (Mrs. Abbott Lawrence) Rotch.
Thanks to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1892

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Rector Leighton Parks reported in the Year-Book of Emmanuel Parish that the number of communicants had grown during his tenure of fourteen years from 210 to 500. He expected the Sunday school, which had 75 children when he arrived, to reach 300 children by the year’s end.  Expressing concern for expansion of the church’s facilities to accommodate this growth, he had asked the Vestry to investigate buying land west of the City for a new church.

Our mission Church of the Ascension’s yellow-brick Gothic Revival building was completed at 1906 Washington St.  Parishioner Francis Richmond Allen would direct in 1901 structural improvements and an enlargement of its parish house. On the National Register of Historic Places, it now houses the Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Rev Carlton Putnam Mills served as Minister in Charge.

Church of the Ascension, 1906 Washington St., South End, is now the Grant AME Church.