USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 14
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In 280 years New Ilaven has changed, in outward appearance, as much as has that place where the oak tree stood. A decade ago the observer who stood at the southeast corner of the Green on a summer Sunday and watched the multitudes crowding the cars on their way, not to the churches, but to Savin Rock or Lighthouse Point, to the numberless cottages and resorts which line the east or the west shore, to woods or mountains in various directions, or who noted the endless stream of pleasure motor vehicles on their way anywhere but to the house of worship, might have said in his haste that the day of the supremacy of the ehureh had passed. There were those who read in the polyglot constitution of a great part of New Haven's population the story of a churchless people, of
* In this and the following chapter the churches of New Haven have been treated as nearly as possible in the chronological order of their foundation, without discrimination of creed, race or rolor.
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a continental Sunday. The inference was that those who have come from all parts of the world will seek freedom from all sorts of religious as well as gov- ermmental repression, and will achieve a license as to the former which will for- ever end the day of the church's preeminence, even in the New Haven of John Davenport.
It was not so. The man who today really observes New Haven knows that it is not so. To count the "unehurched, " as it is superficially the habit to elass them, is to get only the negative side of the ease. The positive side is found in the number, the growth, the vigor, and more than all the obvious fruits, of the churches of New Haven. These evidences never were as impressive as today, and careful examination and weighing of the work which the churches are doing and promoting materially strengthens them. The serious mind of this particular time is evident in New Haven, and those who note the many ways in which the community is rising to its duty and opportunity, and seek the causes of this publie mood. find that, after all, New Haven is and has ever been founded where Davenport placed it, squarely on the church.
There are eighty-eight churches in New Haven, counting all which follow in any degree the manner of New Haven's church traditions. There are others which call themselves churches, and we should hesitate to question their elaim. In this day when we believe we see
"Books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything"
thoughtful persons are less inclined to deny the virtues of any carnest, forward and upward looking body of believers or worshippers. The times are past when anybody doubted that there was room in New Haven for all. Perhaps we ought to increase the number of religious communions in the city to about a hundred.
Considerable space has already been given in these pages to the ancient and modern phases of that first church which Davenport founded. It has maintained its place in the life of New Haven, the center in reality as well as in name, of its religion as well as its civies. It has been served, sinee John Davenport and James Pierpont, by a long and distinguished line of men of power and vision, It is not the purpose, either with this or with most of the other churches to be mentioned. to traee that line down the years. So we find in Center Church pulpit, in the more than half a century following 1825, the distinguished theologian, preacher and teacher Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. llis pastorate of fifty-six years was one of the most notable of the past century, even in a land of long pastorates. But almost as notable in its way was that which followed it, of Dr. Newman Smyth. Of old New England stock and Maine origin. he had his college course at Bowdoin, then his baptism of war in 1864 and 1865. As a veteran and a first lieutenant he took his divinity course, and after Rhode Island, Maine and Illinois pastorates-the last in the Presbyterian ministry-he came to the historie pulpit. Ilis place in the community of New Haven and among the theologians of the
CENTER CHURCH ON THE GREEN, NEW HAVEN
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century has been all his own, and there is no need to compare it with his pred- ecessors or his contemporaries. Ile needed not to make C'enter Church a place of fame, for it was already that, but he made it a place beloved by all the people of New Haven, and by thousands of the men who were temporarily residents of the eity. It was in his pastorate that the vesper services, at 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoons, were established. They soon became characteristic of the church. There was something seemingly above earth in the experience of sitting for an hour under the influence of the atmosphere of worship, the words of the seer and the charm of the musie, which had its lasting effect on multitudes in the passing years. Dr. Smyth made, in the quarter of a century while he actively served the church, an impression for uplift that was not at all confined to its members. It was a community service, and more.
That was the word which the pastor passed on to his successor who eame in 1909, the Rev. Osear Edward Maurer. He had a burning sense of the mission of this church to the whole community. IIe expanded in various ways the reach of Center Chureh to all New Haven. He is a man of deep eonseeration, high vision and the finest personal eharm. His place in New Haven outside the ehureh has been, without the least weakening of loyalty to his own people, an enviable one. Almost a decade of his service in every good work has left his mark on New Haven as a man of power and a brother of devotion, an impression not in the least diminished by his throwing of himself into war serviee when the opportunity eame. He was for two years a member of the Second Regiment of the Wiseonsin National Guard, and in 1910 was made chaplain of the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard at New Haven. He could not resist the urge of the great war. In 1917 he entered the service of the Young Men's Christian Association at Camp Meade, and the following year he went in the same serviee to Franee.
The one ehureh of John Davenport has grown, in the course of 280 years, to fifteen ehurehes of its faith and order, so that New Haven is regarded as one of the centers of congregationalism. The oldest next to Center, having its place of worship on the Green. is the United, or, as it was known in former years, the North Church, with reference to its location. Still further baek than that, it was the Fair Haven Church, so named for reasons which require a little reference to the earlier history.
For a little more than a century the church of Davenport had reigned alone. That a second church was formed in 1742 is less surprising than that the 350 persons who landed with Davenport had grown to nearly 5,000 without forming another church. That was when the White Haven Church was founded. It seems to have gathered some independent spirits, so independent that they could not wholly agree, for in 1769 there was a secession, and the Fair Haven Church was formed. This had nothing to do with the distriet of the town since known as Fair Haven, but referred to a name by which some were at one time disposed to eall New Haven. But the divided elements were reunited in 1796, and the beginning of the United Church was made. It was for some time thereafter, Vol. 1-8
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however, known as the Fair Haven Society. For some decades previous to 1815 the building used was what was known as the "Blue Meeting House." A sort of pale blue seems at that time to have been a favorite color for painting some buildings. The union which made this the United Church, superseding the common appellation North Church, was formed by the addition of the Third Church in 1884. The present edifice, one of the finest types of the New England church architecture of that period, was completed in 1815.
Before that time some notable men served the White Haven and Fair Haven congregations, the most famous of them being the Rev. JJonathan Edwards the younger, who was pastor in the days of the Revolutionary War. The Rev. Sam- nel Merwin was pastor in 1812, and was the moving spirit in the starting of the building which for over a century has stood at the north side of the Green. A break of a little more than half a century from his pastorate brings us to the Rev. Dr. Theodore Thornton Munger, for fifteen years preacher and teacher of this church and through it of a country-wide audience, one of the giants of the church in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He was a plain man of simple humanity, something of a Puritan, it may be, but a supernally clear thinker and practical theologian. In the community of New Haven his power was beyond computation. He was one of the seers of our time, and even now it is impossible, for lack of adequate perspective, to appreciate the greatness of the work he did.
There was a brief pastorate following, the intensity of whose personality. and the tragedy of whose ending, took deep hold on the hearts of the people of the church and of New Haven. Rev. Artemas Jean Haynes came, as so many of the recently ealled pastors of New Haven have done, from service in the West, though he was in New England when his call reached him. For seven years he grew into the hearts of the people of New Haven through his church and com- muity work. His great soul was too brotherly, too sensitive to human need, to resist any appeal for the wonderful help he could give by his carnest counsel, his helpful presence or his eloquent words. He bore up well under the burdens he carried, however, only to mysteriously meet his death by drowning in a Cape Cod lake in the summer of 1908.
Since 1909 the church has been served by the Rev. Robert C. Denison, who came from Janesville, Wis. He has worthily followed the path of service, both of the church and community, trod by his predecessors. Many are the calls on the time and effort of the pastor of the United Church, sometimes seemingly more than a less than superman can meet, bnt Mr. Denison spares not himself. A man of fine sympathies, of clear vision, of devoted purpose, he is making a place in the heart of a city of great opportunities which will give him something more enduring than fame.
The third constituent member of the United Church. the Third Congrega- tional, was the next of the churches of this denomination to be formed in New Haven. In 1815 the three churches on the Green (Trinity making the third) were the only churches in New Haven. But in the ten years following there was
UNITED CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, ORGANIZED IN 1742
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a considerable growth of population at the eastern side of the city. Wooster Square had just been laid out, and it seemed to the Congregationalists that there was need for a church in that section. So the Third church was organized, and until it could get on its feet, met in the Orange Street lecture room of Center Church. This was in 1826, and soon after a building was erected at the corner of Chapel and Union streets. The Rev. N. W. Taylor, D. D., a professor in the Yale Divinity School, supplied as pastor for the first few years, but the Rev. Dr. Elisha Lord Cleaveland was the first pastor, from 1833 to 1866. Somehow the vicinity of Wooster Square did not at that time prove a favorable spot for Congregationalism, for the congregation abandoned its building to the stock- holders (along with the debt ) and came up to worship in Saunders' Ilall at the corner of Chapel and Orange streets about 1839. Then they built again, on Court Street, the building which abont 1856 we find occupied by the Jewish Congregation Mishkan Israel. For the church seems to have prospered better for a time in its uptown location, and thought it must have a better site. It secured the money to build again in 1845 the edifice on Church Street, between Chapel and Court, which, abandoned by the Third Church in 1884, was after- ward for some years used as a public library, and was, after being given np by that institution, torn down to make room for the Second National Bank Building.
But there were too many churches of the same denomination around the im- mediate eenter of New Haven, and the residence area was moving away from the Green. So the Third Church did not find adequate support in its newest location, and after some decades of unsuccessful struggle gave it np. There was room for those of its members who still wished a central place of worship in the North Church, and the union was made in 1884. Rev. Stephen R. Dennen, D. D., was its last pastor, from 1875 to 1884.
There was a minority in the Third church, when its comparatively new build- ing at Chapel and Union streets was abandoned, who still held to the belief that the city needed a church in the Wooster Square district. After a year or two they managed to get control of the building, and renamed it the Chapel Street Church. This was the beginning of the Church of the Redeemer, which grew to be one of New Haven's strongest Congregational churches, but not in the Wooster Square seetion. It was abont 1869 when, after having been served for brief terms by a number of pastors, this church sought what was then a com- paratively new portion of the city, the corner of Orange and Wall streets. There it completed a new building, from the size and excellence of which one must judge the church to have had considerable financial strength at the time. The year after the new church was completed the Rev. JJohn E. Todd came to be its pastor, and for twenty years, from 1870 to 1890, with a short break when failing health forced his temporary retirement, he took a leading place among the pas- tors of New Haven, and gave his church a like standing in the city.
In 1890, when Dr. Todd finally resigned the pastorate, the church made another popular and progressive move by calling the Rev. Watson Lyman Phil-
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lips, who was destined for the next quarter of a century to be one of the powers in the Congregational pulpits of New Haven. Masterly as a preacher, earnest and aggressive as a worker, and an energetic participant in every form of gen- eral community activity, Dr. Phillips won and held a high place in the esteem of all the people of the city. Ile resigned from the pastorate at the end of 1915.
This church also, in the latter years of Dr. Phillips's pastorate, had felt the expansion urge. The church population was expanding; the churches had re- mained centralized. The Church of the Redeemer, in a distinctly central loea- tion. felt need for the support of those who had moved nearer the edges of the city. So its members resolved to begin their next pastorate in a new field. Pur- chasing a property at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Cold Spring Street, they made plans for the immediate building of a temporary parish house in which to worship until they could complete a new edifice, and called to their pulpit the Rev. Roy M. Iloughton, who took up the work in 1916. He ener- getically attacked the task of reconstruction, and by the end of 1917 he had seen the $90,000 for the building of the parish house part of the new church equip- ment practically all pledged. Then he felt the urge of the great strife across the seas, and applied for a release from his duties to take effect April 1, 1918, so that he might join the growing group of New Haven pastors who were serving the army in France. The church reluctantly, though patriotically. granted the release.
The building which the Church of the Redeemer occupied for nearly fifty years, at the corner of Orange and Wall streets, was in 1916 sold to the Trinity German Lutheran Church whose place of worship was formerly on lower George Street.
There were from early times a few colored people of the Congregational faith in New Haven. For a long time these were included in the membership of the United Church, but about 1829, their number having grown to a respecta- ble strength, they chose to have a church of their own. This was at first the Temple Street Church, and had its building, which some time since disappeared, on Temple Street south of the Green. There the Rev. Simeon E. Jocelyn served the people from 1829 to 1836, and was followed by the Rev. Amos G. Beeman. The Rev. Andrew P. Miller was pastor from 1885 to 1896. In 1902 the Rev. Edward F. Goin came to the pastorate, and has remained until now, having won by his high spirit of devotion, his earnest and able work and his admirable char- acter a high place. not only in the hearts of his people, but of all who know him in New Haven. It ceased some time ago, however, to be the Temple Street Church. The center of the colored population of the city some years since became Dixwell Avenue and its vicinity, and in 1886 this congregation built on the lower part of Dixwell Avenue, and became the Dixwell Avenue Congrega- tional Church.
The Fair Ilaven Church that was named after the Village of Fair Ilaven, now the Grand Avenue Congregational Church, was founded in 1830. the out- growth of the natural demand of the people of that part of the town for their
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own place of religious worship. it erected its own building, and soon grew to a strong church. Its present dignified and ample edifice, dating from 1854, sufficiently testifies that as early as that it was able to command considerable resources. Its first pastor was the Rev. John Mitchell, who remained from 1830 to 1836. Rev. B. L. Swan served the church for the next nine years. Then suc- ceeded the notable pastorate of the Rev. Burdett Hart, whose eminence and abil- ity gave the church a first rank among the bodies of its order in New Haven. He was pastor from 1846 to 1890, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Lee Mitchell, just out of Harvard, young and decidedly original in his ways. His was a vigorous and popular pastorate, and especially won the young people. It closed in 1901. The Rev. Isaiah W. Sneath came to the church in 1904, and for eight years was the beloved and successful leader of this growing congregation. He was succeeded in 1912 by the Rev. William C. Prentiss, a young man of devotion and power, who has ably carried on the growing work in this important portion of the town.
The year 1831 dates the organization of a church which. though small in its beginnings and for some years inconspicuous in the fellowship, was destined to have an important part in the later religious development of the city. There are none living now who remember the Mission Church, as it was called, which started with twelve members, who met in the Orange Street lecture room of C'enter Church. The development of this congregation was, however, rapid. The following year it had changed its name to the "Free Church," not, it seems. in any spirit of rebellion against the established churches. By 1833 the member- ship had increased to fifty-two, and having outgrown the lecture room, it had moved to Exchange Hall, at the corner of Church and Chapel streets, for wor- ship. There the people remained for three years, until they could complete their first house of worship, on Church Street, near George. When they went to that in 1836, they changed their name to the Church Street Church.
That building the congregation used for twelve years, but it seems not to have wholly suffieed. For the congregation steadily grew, so that a new and larger edifice on College Street was planned. This was the College Street Church, and this name the organization took when it moved there in 1848. For half a century the church remained in that building, prospering and doing a valuable work in the npbuilding of New Haven. There had been a varied sne- eession of pastors. There were several "acting pastors" from 1831 to 1837, but the first "settled pastor," who came that year, was the Rev. Henry G. Lud- low. Ile remained until 1842. The Rev. Edward Strong, D. D., in his time one of the influential pastors of the city, was settled over the church from 1842 to 1862. The Rev. Orpheus T. Lanphear, who succeeded him, remained only from 1864 to 1867, and for two years following the church was without a settled pas- tor. The Rev. James W. Hubbell, who was installed in 1869, remained until 1876. He was sueceeded by the Rev. Henry S. Kelsey, who was an "acting pastor" for the eight years.
In 1884, with the installation of the Rev. William W. Mehane, the church
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entered on its modern period. He was to remain with it for over a quarter of a century, and in his time, and largely due to his progressive influence, impor- tant changes were to come to the church. It was soon after he came that the centrifugal population movement in New Haven really began. There were more churches within a quarter of a mile of the Green than there had ever been ; there began to be fewer people. Dr. MeLane was not long in seeing the point. Ile foresaw an inevitable change in the location of the church. The population of the character which this church served was growing westward. The progressive church must go in that direction. The short of it was that when, in 1898, Yale University made the College Street Church a handsome offer for its building. Doctor MeLane urged its acceptance. and the majority of his congregation agreed with him. That building, used by Yale for the next twenty years as Col- lege Street Hall, was disposed of by the University when its new building for the School of Music, at the corner of College and Wall streets, was completed in 1917.
Meanwhile, the College Street Church had purchased a site at the corner of Chapel Street and Sherman Avenue, and proceeded to build, on the rear of it. a parish house. There it worshipped until the church, the corner stone of which. was laid on the Ist day of January, 1901, was completed. With this completion, or before, the church changed its name to Plymouth Church, and its growth in the new location and new building was rapid. Doctor MeLane resigned the pas- torate at the end of 1910, and the Rev. Orville A. Petty was called in the fol- lowing year. He proved an attractive and progressive pastor, and the church continued to grow rapidly. In 1915, when the Connecticut National Guard was ealled to the Mexican border, he was appointed chaplain of the Second Regi- ment. Returning after four months' leave of absence from his pulpit, he re- mained with the church until the summer of 1916, when he was made chaplain of the 102d Regular Regiment which was created out of the First and Second regiments of Connecticut Infantry. He is now with the regiment, somewhere in France. His congregation parted from him with deep regret,-for he had become greatly beloved in his six years of service,-but in a patriotic spirit of sacrifice. Ile was given indefinite leave of absence, and his salary partially con- tinued. The Rev. James S. Williamson became acting pastor.
There was no Congregational Church in Westville until 1832, though some time before this there must have been a strong settlement of church-going people on that side of the West River. Up to then, however, they had followed the rural custom of "driving in" to church, probably to the Green. The Rev. Joseph E. Bray was the first pastor, from 1832 to 1834. After him the pulpit was "sup- plied " for the next eight years. From 1842 to 1846 Rev. Judson A. Root served the church, and then there were three years of supplies. In 1849 the Rev. Samnel H. Elliott came to the church, and was its pastor until 1855, when he was succeeded by the Rev. James L. Willard, who made this church notable for one of the long pastorates of New Haven. He was a native of Madison, a man of thorough learning, a powerful preacher and a beloved pastor. He made
BENEDICT MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW HAVEN
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this church in Westville one of the first-rank churches of New Haven. Ad- vanced years caused his retirement in 1893, after a pastorate of forty-eight years. The pulpit was filled in the following decade by Rev. O. R. Howe and Rev. Henry Davies. Then, in 1903, came the Rev. Frederick L. Davis, who remained until 1908. The present pastor, the Rev. Clair F. Luther, came to the church the same year, and has ably maintained and advanced its traditions and service. In a large way he has been a part of New Haven's civic as well as religious life, and has always been found willing to aid in every community effort. To his own people he has been a faithful pastor, whose fine ideals have nobly led them on.
In 1838 began the history of the first Congregational Church of New Haven to follow the star of westward empire. For at that time, Park Street was on the frontier, and there was organized, with forty-nine members, the Park Street Church. But moving with the tide of residence, it was found another block out four years later, now with 150 members, and called the "Howe Street Church." There it erected its first edifice, at the corner of Howe Street and what was then Martin Street, now Edgewood Avenue, and there it remained for thirty years. Its house of worship conformed to the prevailing New England type of that time, and though less pretentious than the "ancient" churches on the Green, was considered notable for what must, because of its remote western location, have been considered a country church.
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