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Otis Library
Norwich, Connecticut
DISCARD
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02951 6496
Gc 974.602 H25bu Burr, Nelson Rollin, 1904- A history of Grace Episcopal Church, Hartford,
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https://archive.org/details/historyofgraceep00burr
Brillen. "
GRACE CHURCH TODAY: By Hartford Artist, James Britton
A History
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Grace Episcopal Church of
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT''
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G 974.62 G-751
1863 - 1938
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Copyrighted by GRACE CHURCH PARISH Hartford, 1939
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
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Tothe Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and to all the Other Ministers and People who have Served and Wor- shipped and Received the Sacraments within the walls of Grace Church, this History is Reverently Dedicated, by the
Author, Nelson R. Burr On the Occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Consecration of the Church, A.D. 1938.
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I saw the throng, so deeply separate Fed at one only board - The devout people, moved, intent, elate, And the devoted Lord.
I saw this people as a field of flowers, Each grown at such a price The sum of unimaginable powers Did no more than suffice.
A thousand single central daisies they, A thousand of the one; For each, the entire monopoly of day; For each, the whole of the devoted sun.
Alice Meynell, "A General Communion."
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Foreword
This historical sketch of the Parish of Grace Church was written for the occasion of the celebration of the seventieth anni- versary of the consecration of the original chapel, November 11, 1868. Originally it appeared as a series of five articles published in the Hartford "Times" on November 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15, 1938. In that form it comprised only the sections I, II, III, VI and X of this publication, those being deemed the parts of greatest interest to the general public. The other sections have been added for the special benefit of the members of the congre- gation and their friends.
The author especially desires to render thanks to many who have assisted in the composition of this history. To Mr. James Brewster, State Librarian; Mr. Harold Burt, State Examiner of Public Records; and Mrs. Louise G. Newton, for their kindness in furnishing the parish with photostatic copies of its records, to make them available in time for use in writing this work. To Mr. Ward Duffy, Managing Editor of the Hartford "Times," for his kind interest in publishing the original articles. To the fol- lowing members and friends of Grace Church Parish, who have supplied the author with old records or reminiscences: Mr. Lewis N. Bowers, Parish Clerk, for minutes of the Vestry meet- ings; Mr. James Monks, for the first volume of records of the Prudential Committee; Mr. Walter Elmer, Treasurer, for the little book with the list of subscribers to the Rectory fund; Mr. Edward Schimke, for records of the Church School; Mrs. Clarence Anton, for records of the Saint Martha's Guild; Mrs. Martha L. Stevens, for records of the Saint Hilda's Altar Guild; Mrs. Pauline Fitchner and Miss Charlotte Fitchner, for minutes of the Girls' Friendly Society; Miss Mary Manwaring, for many valuable notes and a picture of the old chapel; Mr. Andrew Steele, Mr. George Nichols and Mr. Samuel Clark, for pictures; Mrs. Harry Foord of Newington, for recollections; Mr. George
Smith, Jr., for copying parochial statistics; the Rector, Wardens and Vestry and many parishioners who expressed interest in this work while it was in course of preparation; the Reverend Messrs. Frederick P. Swezey, George K. MacNaught and Paul H. Barbour, for their letters containing information and encourage- ment. Special thanks are due to the Rector and office staff of Trinity Parish, for permission to copy extensive passages from the records of that parish. Also to the office of the Town Clerk of Hartford, Mr. John A. Gleason, for permission to copy deeds from the Hartford land records and to trace the plat of the Fran- cis Tract. To William B. Goodwin and Charles A. Goodwin, for information concerning the life and records of their father, the Reverend Francis Goodwin. Also to all those whose financial contributions have made possible the publication of this history.
West Hartford, Connecticut January 2, 1939.
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HARTFORD IN 1869: SHOWING "TRINITY CHAPEL," PARKVILLE
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GRACE CHURCH: INTERIOR TODAY
I INTRODUCTION
GRACE CHURCH, the fifth congregation of the Episcopal Church to be founded in Hartford, came to life during the most remarkable expansion of that Church in the history of the city. Between 1850 and 1870 more Episcopal congregations were gathered here than in any period of equal length in the city's history, before or since. This amazing growth was due partly to the fact that in those years Hartford was changing swiftly from an overgrown village into a modern industrial city.
Another cause was the missionary zeal of an unusually active group of laymen, and of Bishops Thomas Church Brownell and John Williams, whose episcopates covered the enormous period of eighty years, from 1819 to 1899. In that time the Episcopal Church in Connecticut grew from a small and scattered flock into the third largest body of Christians in the state, surpassed only by the Congregationalists and the Roman Catholics. That period witnessed the establishment of nearly all the institutions of the diocese, including Trinity College, the Berkeley Divinity School and several homes for the aged and the helpless.
The change in the Episcopal Church in Hartford was start- ling. When Bishop Brownell was elected in 1819, the only parish was Christ Church, founded in 1762 but without a building until 1795. The second and present edifice was consecrated by Bishop Brownell in 1829 and remains today what it was then considered to be - one of the finest examples of Gothic architec- ture in the country. This parish grew rapidly and by 1841 the church had become so crowded that a large group withdrew and founded Saint John's Parish. Old Saint John's, still held in affection by some of its faithful "Old Guard," stood on the present south lawn of the Morgan Memorial and was consecrated by Bishop Brownell in 1842. Plans for the Morgan Memorial and the steady westward drift of the congregation caused the sale
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of the old site in 1905 and the erection of the present Saint John's on Farmington, just over the West Hartford line. The splendid new building was consecrated in 1909.
These two parishes accommodated the Episcopalians of Hartford until 1850, the beginning of a remarkable branching of the old vine. The principal causes of this movement were an increasing dissatisfaction with the Church's social position, and the growth of Hartford beyond the old bounds of settlement. As a result of agitation in the previous decades, about that time the Episcopal and other churches were deeply disturbed by the undemocratic character of the pew-rent system of supporting parishes. It tended to exclude the poorer people and caused the churches to appear in the false colors of clubs for the privileged classes.
A few leaders in the Episcopal Church, particularly in New York City, were taking a stand for "free" churches, and in the fifties their influence was spreading to Hartford. The re- sult was the establishment of the Episcopal City Mission Society in December, 1850, by members of Christ Church and Saint John's, meeting in the old chapel of Christ Church.
A mission was begun in rented quarters at the corner of Market and Temple Streets, but it grew so rapidly that in 1855 a church on Market Street was consecrated under the name of Saint Paul's. It was a "free" church and prospered under the ministry of the Reverend Charles Richmond ("Father") Fisher, the City Missionary. After his death in 1876 this work declined and finally was abandoned. The attractive brownstone church, on the west side of Market Street, was sold and the proceeds be- came a fund which still is used for missionary work of the Episco- pal Church. After being occupied by the German Lutherans, the building was purchased by Saint Anthony's Italian Roman Catholic Church. After serving for many years as a house of worship of that congregation, it is now a parish hall called "Casa Maria."
The brief life of Saint Paul's stimulated the Episcopal Church in Hartford to new missionary efforts along the lines of the "free church" movement. This was in accord with the new
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spirit of the city, which in that period was breaking out of its old bounds, both physically and mentally. Hartford was be- coming noted as a center of the insurance business, and in 1855 large-scale manufacturing made its appearance with the erection of the Colt firearms factory in the South Meadows, then the largest plant in the state. The city had acquired railroad con- nections with New York, New Haven, Springfield and Boston, and the Connecticut River was a far more important factor in freight movement and passenger travel than it is now. Hartford was a publishing center and enjoyed the fame of a literary circle. Trinity College, founded in 1823, had an international reputation and a renowned faculty. The establishment of the Public High School in 1847 marked the modern period of the school system.
The city therefore was reaching out beyond the ancient limits of thick settlement, and residences were springing up be- yond the "South Green," north of the present Keney Tower, and on the "Hill" west of the railroad station. The westward trend became especially marked in the late fifties, creating a pleasant suburb of roomy houses surrounded by spacious and leafy grounds, in the district between Asylum Hill and Woodland Street.
Among those who sought quiet there were several prominent Episcopalian families whose heads were playing distinguished parts in the city's growth. In those "horse and buggy" days it was a rather long distance from the "Hill" to the Main Street churches. Therefore in September, 1859, twelve men formed a religious society under the name of Trinity Church, to establish a parish in the western part of the city. At that time there was no house of worship of any denomination on the "Hill," and the consent of Christ Church and Saint John's was therefore the more readily obtained. The new parish was admitted into union with the Diocesan Convention on June 11, 1860.
In their zeal to secure a church, the founders of Trinity Parish accomplished a most unusual and daring feat. They pur- chased the Unitarian Church of Our Saviour, built in 1845-1846, a rather massive edifice of brownstone at the northeast corner of Trumbull and Asylum Streets. They had it taken down, stone
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by stone, and re-erected on the east side of Sigourney Street near Farmington Avenue. This reconstructed church was dedicated in 1861 and served the parish until 1892, when the erection of the present buildings was commenced. The first rector of the new parish was the Reverend Pelham Williams, who ministered from 1861 to 1863. Trinity Parish from the beginning expressed the new missionary and social spirit of the Episcopal Church, and in 1870 became a "free" church, supported by voluntary offerings rather than by pew rents.
In spite of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and the business depressions of 1857 and 1866, Episcopal zeal for expansion con- tinued to plant new shoots from the old vine in all the newly settled parts of the city. The establishment of Trinity Parish was followed by Trinity Mission at Parkville about 1863, the Church of the Good Shepherd in 1866, Saint James' (then called the Church of the Incarnation) in 1868, and Saint Thomas' Church in 1870. The only comparable period of growth com- prised the years from 1904 to 1913, which witnessed the planting of Saint Monica's (1904), Saint Andrews' (1908) and Saint Paul's Italian Mission (1913) and the acceptance of Grace Chapel as a parish.
Grace Church, founded as a mission about 1863, was there- fore an outgrowth of the most impressive expansion in the whole history of the Episcopal Church in Hartford. Its origin was one expression of a period of unusual missionary enthusiasm, and of the new social spirit in the Episcopal Church, springing from the "free church" movement.
II ORIGINS
The new spirit was strong in Trinity Church, which was hardly more than established when the members began to look afield to establish a mission. The call seemed to come from a
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GRACE CHAPEL IN THE 1890's
HARTFORD & NEW HAVEN RAILROAD
HARTFORD PROVIDENCE & FISHRIL RAILROAD
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WILLIAM FRANCIS SUBDIVISION OF PROPERTY SCALE -- 100 FEET TO THE INCH HIRAM G LOOMIS, DEPUTY SURVEYOR FEBRUARY 1971
STREET
STREET
NE
GREENWOODSTREET
PLAT OF THE FRANCIS TRACT: 1871
HAMILTON ST.
suburban region to the southwest, already known as "Parkville." It was not a district of factories, tenements and apartments, but rather a semi-rural village of widely scattered residences set in large lots and surrounded by gardens, fields and woods. There were only four streets, and but two of them - Park Street and Sisson Avenue - bore their present names. New Park Avenue, now a broad boulevard, was a dirt lane called Baker Street or Road. On the east side, opposite the present site of Grace Church, stood a brick schoolhouse, the forerunner of the New Park Avenue School. Prospect Avenue, another dirt lane, bore two names. South of Park Street it was called McKegg Road, from a family of that name living on the south side of Park Street about opposite the entrance of the present Rowe Avenue. North of Park Street it became Prospect Hill Road. Although it was traversed by the railroad, Parkville was a somewhat isolated sec- tion, as there were no trolleys or buses. To get there people rode in a horse carriage or "buggy"; or they walked over the dirt roads, which were very dusty in summer and in the winter and spring were ribbons of deep, sticky red mud. Persons still living have vivid memories of the mud, which ruined their shoes and stockings.
In this apparently unpromising neighborhood a group of lay- men and women of Trinity Church resolved to establish a Sunday School. In those days that was a favorite way of establishing Episcopal churches, for the Church of the Good Shepherd and Saint James' Church also owed their birth to Sunday Schools. The exact date when the school was established is uncertain, as the records of Trinity Church, of Grace Church and of the Dio- cese make no reference to it, but we do know that it was shortly after 1860. As there was no large hall in Parkville at that time, the only suitable building was the brick schoolhouse on Baker Road, which was used until the erection of the chapel on the opposite side of the street.
At that period there was no established place of worship of any denomination in the Parkville district. The city churches were two miles eastward; on the south the nearest was the Con- gregational meeting-house at Newington; and far to the north- west lay the Congregational and Baptist meeting-houses and
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Saint James' Episcopal Church at West Hartford center. The Sunday School therefore quickly grew into a mission of Trinity Parish. The first volume of the Parish Register of Grace Church, under the date of December 15, 1863, shows the burial of Isabel Elizabeth Quigley of "Park Street Road," a child two years old, who was scalded to death. The service was performed by the Reverend Simon Greenleaf Fuller, Rector of Trinity Church from 1863 to 1865. The mission, therefore, must have been well established by 1863. The list of families and the records of baptisms, confirmations and communicants all begin in 1864, the marriages not until ten years later. The earliest entries were made in the Register of Trinity Church, with refer- ences to the work on Baker Road as "Trinity Mission." Many of the early entries were carefully copied into the first volume of the Grace Church Register from the records of Trinity Church, by the Reverend John Humphrey Barbour, who ministered at the chapel from 1873 to 1889.
Although the mission certainly was flourishing in 1863 and 1864, the first reference to it in the Journal of the Annual Con- vention of the diocese occurred in 1865. The Reverend Francis Goodwin, a generous patron of the mission, then reported that it was under the care of Mr. George Buck, "to whose self-denying labors it owes much of its success." His report for 1866 showed continual progress of "Trinity Mission" under the ministry of a candidate for Holy Orders. Trinity Church had already begun its long and generous patronage, having contributed two hundred and sixty-eight dollars to the mission during the year. In 1867 Mr. Buck, then a candidate for Holy Orders, was again in charge, the Sunday School attendance was more than forty, and there were good congregations at every service. Rector Goodwin even had "reason to hope that, before long, the size of the congregation will make it necessary to erect a suitable chapel." The fulfill- ment of his desire sprang partly from his own noble generosity and partly from the beginning of a more active suburban growth in Parkville.
After the Civil War, a brief depression was succeeded by a "boom," which lasted until 1873. In Hartford the effect of this
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period of prosperity was evident in an increasing movement of interest toward the western and southwestern parts of the city. The attention of business men turned to real estate development on a scale suggesting the modern growth of West Hartford. Among these enterprising men was a well known hardware mer- chant, Mr. William Francis, who became a "developer" of Park- ville. A plat, now preserved at the Town Clerk's office, shows that by 1871 he had acquired one hundred and fifty lots on both sides of Park Street west of the railroad, both sides of Grace Street and Greenwood Street, on Hamilton Street from New Park Avenue to the railroad, on New Park Avenue from Park Street to beyond Grace Street, and on both sides of Francis Avenue, which derived its name from him.
His wish to develop this property coincided nicely with the missionary zeal of Trinity Church and of the Reverend Francis Goodwin, and from these circumstances came the origin of the chapel which has become Grace Church. Mr. Francis for a long time was a member of the Unitarian Society from which Trinity Church had purchased its first building, and no doubt this con- nection as well as interest in the neighborhood influenced his action in providing the site for Parkville's first house of worship.
Early in 1868 events began to move rapidly in the direction of Rector Goodwin's hopes. At a Vestry meeting of Trinity Parish, on February 20, 1868, John S. Gray, H. K. Morgan, George B. Barnes and Judge Huntington were named a committee to build a chapel on Baker Road. This is the first definite refer- ence to the mission in the parish minutes of Trinity Church. Two days later Mr. William Francis, for a consideration of one dollar, deeded to the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Parish a lot fronting on Baker Road (New Park Avenue), one hundred and fifty feet deep and seventy feet wide. It was bounded on the south and west by other land of Mr. Francis and on the north by land of Mr. H. B. Jones, who for many years was connected with the chapel and was a member of the first Prudential Committee in 1873. This lot was given on condition that it be suitably fenced and that before June 1, 1868, the parish should "commence the erection of a brick or stone church or chapel, with a slate roof,
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in size not less than twenty-two by fifty feet internal dimensions, and complete the same within one year thereafter." A glance at the oldest part of the present church building shows how faith- fully this condition was respected.
Evidently no time was lost, for early in 1868 Rector Good- win reported to the Diocesan Convention that "Trinity Mission" continued to prosper with school and a service every Sunday, and that it was hoped to consecrate the chapel in September. Con- secration took place on the morning of November 11, 1868, Bishop Williams officiating. The most complete account of the event is found in the "Hartford Daily Times" of that evening:
"Grace Chapel, the mission belonging to Trinity Church, recently built on Baker Street, was this morning consecrated to the worship of God, according to the ritual of the Episcopal Church. The ceremony was performed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Williams, nearly all of the clergy of Hartford County being present, together with a full congregation. The chapel is a very pretty little building of the Gothic style, and is situated in a location calculated to do much good. After the sermon, which was delivered by the Bishop, the Holy Communion was administered by him, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Goodwin, rector of Trinity Church, who has been instrumental in raising up the new chapel."
The account in the "Hartford Daily Courant" of the follow- ing morning mentions also prayers after the consecration, by the Reverend Mr. Fisher of Saint Paul's. His presence was most appropriate, for Grace Chapel grew from the missionary enthusi- asm which had given birth to his own little church and which inspired the Episcopal Church in Hartford at that time.
So Grace Chapel started on its seventy years of service, with the unfailing devotion of Rector Goodwin and the large-hearted support of Trinity Parish. The cost of building and furnishing the chapel, amounting to nearly four thousand dollars, was
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borne largely by his mother and himself, and other members of Trinity Church. The mission was supported by a small weekly offertory at the chapel and the gifts of the "Trinity Missionary Society," which employed the lay-reader or other minister who conducted the services. This outpouring of money - generally four or five hundred dollars annually - continued for more than forty years, until the chapel became a parish under the name of Grace Church, in 1912-1913. In 1869 the work already showed promising growth under the care of the Reverend James B. Goodrich, who previously had been acting as lay-reader, and the Sunday School had ten teachers and eighty scholars.
III
LATER RELATIONS WITH TRINITY PARISH
Relations between the chapel and its mother church would be most imperfectly described by a mere account of administra- tion and finances, although in this case those subjects are of unusual interest. (See below) Grace Church is the only parish of the Episcopal Church in Hartford which grew up as a chapel of another parish, and the history of its administration is therefore unique in this neighborhood. The personal bonds between mother and daughter, however, produced relations of a more intimate and affecting character, interesting to many persons now living.
The affectionate tie often was a result of personal interest in the chapel's welfare on the part of the Rector of Trinity Parish and his congregation. During the ministries of the Reverend Simon Greenleaf Fuller and the Reverend Francis Goodwin, the personal bond was unusually close, as the mission in a real sense was their own creation. The first official report of its progress, in 1865, came from Rector Goodwin's able hand. He contributed
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heavily toward the building, and when he resigned the rectorship in 1871 he took care to provide for the chapel's welfare. His interest and generosity continued far beyond that period, for he gave the south part of the present church lot in 1887, for the erection of the parish hall; and in 1892 he was the largest con- tributor to the fund for building the present Rectory on New Park Avenue.
Later rectors of Trinity Parish kept an eye on the mission and its Sunday School and always selected the minister-in-charge with references to the wishes of the congregation as expressed by the Prudential Committee of the chapel. The Prudential Com- mittee was first appointed by Rector Edwin E. Johnson in 1873, and continued under various forms until the creation of the parish in 1912-1913. Its appeals for aid to the Vestry of Trinity Parish were always read by the rectors with their comments and recommendations, which generally were favorable to the chapel.
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