Timeline of History at Emmanuel

We’re interested to learn of significant dates and events involving Emmanuelites past and present. Please email archivist@emmanuelboston.org about the details of your Emmanuel timeline.

See also

Select one of these years to jump to a decade in this chronology and then Previous or Next to move up or down by years:

1860 | 1875 | 1885 | 1895 | 1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 |

1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995 | 2005 | 2015 | 2020 | History.

1890

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Feb. 8.  Under the direction of the Rev. Walter E. Smith, Chapel of the Ascension moved to its new home at 1906 Washington St..  At that time its Sunday School had 15 teachers and 200 registered students, and there were 175 congregants. The church was consecrated by Bishop H. Paddock as Church of the Ascension.  Our founding rector F.D. Huntington, by then Bishop of Central New York, returned to preach the inaugural sermon. He praised Emmanuel for funding the building and developing the programs of this mission :  “A true parish is one which is always working for others.  The missionary spirit may be called the first distinguishing mark of this congregation.”   —Emmanuel Church: The First 100 Years, p. 21.

 

1889

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A generous bequest from David Sears (1787-1871) via his son, parishioner Knyvet Winthrop Sears (1832-1891) funded the purchase of land on Washington St. for a replacement of a storefront location for our  mission Chapel of the Ascension.  The chapel would be consecrated as our mission church in 1890, and its new home would be completed at 1906 Washington St. (at the corner of  Newcomb St.)  in 1892. Parishioner Arthur Rotch was engaged as architect. His firm Rotch & Tilden also built Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan MA, and Church of St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, Bar Harbor ME.

Painting by Gilbert Stuart of David Sears, Jr. (credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, WikiCommons). Benefactor of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston; Christ Chruch, Longwood, Brookline & Emmanuel Church

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Knyvet Winthrop Sears, Harvard U. Archives. KWS, Class of 1852

1888

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  • 17 November.  Walter Cabot Baylies, Harvard Class of 1884, who became senior warden in 1907, married Charlotte (Lottie) Upham of 122 Beacon St., daughter of Emmanuel founder George Phineas and Sarah Sprague Upham. The Rev. Dr. Leighton Parks presided at what the Boston Globe called a “brilliant Saturday wedding”, which filled the church with a “large and distinctly fashionable audience.”

1887

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Dr. Richard Manning Hodges and his wife Frances Gardner White (first cousin of parishioner John Lowell (Jack) Gardner, Jr.) moved into their house @ 408 Beacon St., which was designed by parishioner Francis Richmond Allen.  Dr. Hodges, who had served on our vestry 1874-75, published in 1891 his account of the first use of ether for surgical anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The door from our sanctuary to the sacristy is dedicated to his memory.

1886

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Our mission to the South End, which had since 1881 been called Emmanuel Chapel, was renamed Chapel of the Ascension when it moved to 69 West Concord St.. Minister-in-Charge, the Rev. Walter E.C. Smith expanded its youth activities.

Parishioner Annie Lawrence Lamb gave funds in memory of her father, Benjamin Smith Rotch (1817-1882), to found Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan.

Rear of Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan, which was designed by Arthur Rotch. Photo credit: Ch. of the Holy Spirit

1884

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Edward Sprague Rand (1809-84, senior warden 1860-64)

Jan 18.  SS City of Columbus was wrecked on Devil’s Bridge off Martha’s Vineyard. A group of Wampanoags heroically managed to rescue several men. All women and children had perished when an icy wave swept them overboard.

Among the 65 passengers drowned were parishioner Oscar Iasigi, who was the Turkish consul for New England and our founding senior warden Edward Sprague Rand, who was on his way to Florida with his wife, daughter-in-law, grandson, and son, The Rev. C. A. Rand, rector of Trinity Church, Haverhill. All were lost. 

 

1883

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Memorial bronze bust of The Rev. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Vinton by Augustus St. Gaudens was installed in the nave.  It was finally dedicated in 1894. For details please see an article in the Boston Daily Globe.

The family of the late Benjamin Smith Rotch endowed the Rotch Travelling Scholarship for architects.

See also

1882

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Our first organist and music director, Silas Atkins Bancroft (1823-1886), retired after two decades of faithful service.  He is buried in Lot 2607 on the Mistletoe Path of Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

B.S. Rotch (1817-1882) at time of our foundation. Photo courtesy of Boston Athenaeum.

Senior Warden Benjamin Smith Rotch died in office. A founding vestry member and warden since 1880, he was later memorialized with his wife Anne Bigelow Lawrence (1820-93) in our sanctuary’s reredos.

They are buried in  Lot 3004 on Bellwort Path in Mt. Auburn Cemetery.  His epitaph from Revelation 2:10 reads:  Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

1881

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  • Emmanuel Chapel was established as a mission at 114 W. Canton Street in the South End.  After 1885, it became Chapel of the Ascension, then Church of the Ascension in 1890.
  • Enoch Redington Mudge, who had founded recently-dedicated St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn, died. Jr. Warden from 1865-72, he had been a vestryman during the Civil War, when he lost his son Charles Redington at Gettysburg.

    Enoch Redington Mudge (1812-1881)