Tag Archives: churches

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.

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

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

1880

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The Rev. Dr. William R. Huntington wrote “A Brief Sketch of the Early Days of the Church of the Good Shepherd”, Parish Journal of the Church, pp. 7-10.  Its title page lists as rector The Rev. George J. Prescott and as warden JDW French, who had come with founding priest WR Huntington from Emmanuel.  Also listed are warden Robert H. Richards and other founders, vestrymen, and sexton.

See also 1866

1866

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Enoch Redington Mudge

Chapel of the Good Shepherd was consecrated as an independent corporation, the Free Church of the Good Shepherd at 8 Cortes St. in the South End. The mission had begun in 1862 with a Sunday school, which was held in rooms over a carpenter’s shop on Church St. in Bay Village.  Among its Emmanuelite founders were the Rev. William R. Huntington, warden John Davis Williams French, and Enoch R. Mudge.

See also:   1880

1865

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Having been denied church funding,  Rector Dan Huntington raised funds from parishioners, including the French family, to pay for Chapel of the Good Shepherd, which was consecrated.

  • April 9.  Surrender at Appomattox VA ends the Civil War.
  • April 14.  President Abraham Lincoln was assisinated.
  • Dec. 6. Congress ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which ended slavery in the US.