1946

  • 16 Jan. The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters, who had served as a Navy chaplain during World War II, became our sixth rector.

    Pauli Murray ae. 36

    Pauli Murray became 36 in November, 1946. Photo credit: Library of Congress; Conde Nast Publications

  • Mademoiselle awarded Pauli Murray its Merit Award for Signal Achievement in Law.
  • Albert W. Rockwood, Chairman of our Property Committee, contracted with Chester A. Brown at the architectural firm of Cram & Ferguson to draw up plans for renovations for our:
    • Basement
      • A concrete floor was poured.
      • Bathrooms were installed.
      • Alternating current was installed to control two huge boilers, which were converted from burning coal to oil.
      • A boys’ choir room was created.
    • Sanctuary
      • Carpeting in the nave was replaced with brown, vinyl-asbestos tiles.
      • Pews were repaired.
      • Brides’ Lobby was redesigned.
    • Parish House
      • The kitchen was renovated.
      • Cold-water service was replaced.
      • A separate heating-zone was probably established then.

–Thanks to Julian Bullitt for researching these topics in our archives.

1926

Amy Lawrence Lowell (1874-1925) was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for What’s o’Clock.  

After the consecration Lindsey Chapel, our parish house was enlarged by adding a third floor to the former chapel.  A parish hall with built-in book shelves and a stage became known as “The Library”. Most of its books have been dispersed, but those remaining in 2008 were cataloged  by our Parish Historian, Mary Chitty.  What is now our second-floor Music Room served as a work area for women’s groups and as a dining hall.  For more details, please see our Timeline of Building History.

1907

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

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

1903

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. 

1899

  • The new sanctuary was dedicated.
  • Fay Cottage @ 216 Elm Rd., Falmouth MA was built c1740 by David Butler. 1916 photo thanks to Woods Hole Historical Archive

    A cottage overlooking the Vineyard Sound in Falmouth was provided for a summer-long series of 10-day seaside sojourns for women and children of the Church of the Ascension by Emmanuel parishioners Mr. & Mrs. Henry B. Fay.  A piazza and bathhouses along its beach were constructed with Emmanuel funds.  Sarah M. Gay assisted Clara M. Carter, the Diocesan Deaconess, in managing the retreat at Fay Cottage for the first of 25 years to come.  See also history of Fay Farm.

  • The Students’ House was rented at 21-23 St. James Ave.  It housed about 20 young women and maintained a club for 150 others for more than a decade.
Club Room at Students House, 21-23 St. James Ave.

Club Room at Students House, 21-23 St. James Ave.

 

1898

  • Henrietta Sargent, daughter of our benefactor Mary Robeson Sargent (1847-1919) and Charles Sprague Sargent, married architect Guy Lowell at St. Paul’s Church, Brookline.   CSS has a botanical legacy in the Professor Sargent camellia, which was released in 1908.
  • April 19.  Francis R. Allen‘s plans were approved and work began on the expansion. The plan shows a pre-existing extension from the chapel to include a two-story parish house including offices and a bathroom on the first floor for the rector and parish administrator.
  • Florence R. Rhodes rented a cottage on Sandy Pond in Lincoln MA as a summer camp for girls of Church of the Ascension, which was run by Deaconess Henrietta Goodwin and Helen E. Moulton, intern from the NY Training School for Deaconesses.

1896

  • Leighton Parks rejected a call from a Brooklyn parish.  The Vestry quickly began work on a larger church, which would add forty pews.
  • The Ascension Chapter (#1407) of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew was organized by the Rev. Edward Atkinson.
  • Harriet Dexter Lawrence Hemenway, 1890, by John Singer Sargent. Credit: WikiCommons

    Harriet Lawrence Hemenway and her cousin Minna B. Hall founded the Mass. Audubon Society.  For some time they had fought against the slaughter of egrets and other birds for their plumes by organizing women to stop wearing feathered hats.