USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church parish and cathedral, 1762-1942 : an historical sketch > Part 2
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Although still incomplete, the building probably was occupied for worship in 1795. It was of unusual size for the time, as though to express a substantial confidence that the work would grow: ninety feet long and forty-four feet wide. It was so great a task for that small and not over- wealthy parish, that in 1795 there had to be another subscription, and a great part of the original lot was sold to meet the expenses. While the edifice was in process of erection, services were held in the old wooden state-house, which in 1796 gave place to the classical elegance of the present building.
The new church stood about on the northwest corner of Main and Church Streets. Old pictures show a typical meeting-house of the period: plain, clapboarded, with a projecting square tower in front, surmounted
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by an open belfry and a sharply tapering spire. The spire fell while the edifice was rising, but was rebuilt before the consecration. The interior had the usual gallery on three sides, and was lighted by two tiers of arched windows. As in most New England churches of the time, the front was blocked by a large and lofty pulpit, beneath which stood the communion table. The recessed chancel, and the stone or carved wooden altar, were unknown at that date in the Episcopal churches of America. The church was then considered the finest in town, for the two Congregational meet- ing-houses were plain. colonial structures, and the Baptist one was simply four walls and a roof. There was no consecration until November 11, 1801, when the Right Reverend Abraham Jarvis, second bishop of the diocese, performed the solemn ceremony in the presence of fifteen other clergymen. The Churchmen of Hartford had toiled and hoped for that day for forty years. At the same time the Reverend Menzies Rayner was formally inducted as the first settled rector, and the services concluded with the celebration of the Holy Communion.
It was a far plainer service than the present choral Eucharists, with the delicacy of white stone, rich flowers and twinkling lights. The cele- brant was vested in a long full surplice open in front, with a black stole. He merely ascended one or two steps to the prayer desk, where he read the order of Morning Prayer, the Litany, and probably even the Ante- Communion service. Then retiring for a short time to the vestry room, he emerged in the ample, rustling folds of a black gown, ascended the pulpit above the prayer desk, and preached the sermon. Once more he vanished into the vestry, to appear again vested in surplice and stole for the Communion service, which was said before the table below the pulpit and desk. Procession, servers, lights and colored vestments were all far in the future - but the congregation were all good Churchmen, just the same. Only the psalms and canticles ever were sung, and then to the simplest tunes. Everything was in keeping with the comparative simplicity of the edifice itself.
For many years the first church did not even have a bell. Not many churches did then, and rings of chimes were unknown outside large cities like New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. But in those days no self-respecting town, as large as Hartford, would lack at least one bell, by which citizens might set their clocks and watches. Center meeting- house had one, and when it was torn down in 1805, the bell and clock were removed for a while to the belfry of Christ Church. About six years later the parish at last started a bell fund, and some of the subscribers were Congregationalists and Baptists. Although that bell weighed seven hundred pounds, it did not seem heavy enough for the tower of the second and present church, and was sold to Saint Paul's Church in
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Riverton.
The first edifice served for about a third of a century, gradually be- coming more and more cramped as the parish kept pace with Hartford's growth. Now and then it was repaired and redecorated, as in 1813, when the parish raised a fund to paint the interior. It was unheated, except by little footstoves and the visible breath of the congregation. That was endured until the winter of 1815-16, when two brick chimneys were erected for stoves. No doubt old-timers mumbled that luxury was creep- ing up on a softened generation. The simple fact is that the winter, following a furious hurricane, was one of the bitterest on record. Besides, the Center meeting-house was getting stoves, and it would never do for Episcopalians to fall behind! Many did not regret the days when parson and flock had to freeze it out together, and the Communion bread was known to "rattle sadly" on the paten. Warming - or half warming - the church was a perennial source of trouble, for somebody was forever complaining about the stoves. The question was not laid to rest until furnaces were installed about 1845 - after the present church had been standing for some sixteen years!
Other inexhaustible topics were lighting and seating. Not until 1822 did the glimmer of candles give way to the steady glow of whale-oil lamps, which cost the young men of the parish one hundred dollars. The sexton, who already thought he was overburdened, is said to have been annoyed by his new duty of filling, trimming and lighting them. In all honesty, he did have a lot to do! For the grand sum of forty dollars a year, he rang the bell for services, swept and dusted the church once a week, blew the organ bellows, cleared away the heavy snows of winter mornings, fetched wood and made fires, and washed the surplices twelve times a year. Every time he filled, trimmed and lighted those fussy lamps for evening service, he received fifty cents extra.
The old seating customs are interesting, and left records that show the parish's growth from time to time. The parish leased the pews, which in those days were considered a reliable source of revenue. Free seats, now taken for granted in the Episcopal Church, were then the exception. In 1805 there were only thirty-eight pew holders, who paid prices ranging from four up to twenty dollars a year. By 1822 there were eighty-three, including eight in the galleries, and two pews were reserved for widows. Something had to be done to increase the seating capacity, and the parish voted to substitute modern "slips" for the old-fashioned square pews. Students from Trinity (then Washington) College sat in the galleries, with occasionally disturbing results. In 1817 the vestry voted to provide seats for pupils of the newly-founded Hartford Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, a prophecy of the services held in the cathedral by the Silent
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Mission, until January, 1942.
Steady growth of the Episcopal Church in Hartford impressed upon the parish the futility of tinkering with the old church, and suggested the wisdom of a new one. Since 1795 a startling change had come over the minds of American Churchmen, respecting sacred architecture. By 1820 the Christian romantic movement in literature and art was in full swing, and Greek classical buildings were beginning to seem rather pagan. Gothic was coming into fashion as the only distinctively Christian archi- tecture. Here and there were Gothic edifices like Trinity Church on New Haven Green, and young clergymen like John Henry Hopkins - later Bishop of Vermont - were studying Christian architecture of the Middle Ages. The results were not always fortunate: so-called Gothic ornaments sprouted fearfully in Puritan meeting-houses, and one still sees pointed abbey windows combined with Greek porches.
The new spirit came to Hartford with the return of the Reverend Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton, from his trip to England in 1823 and 1824, to seek aid for the new Washington (now Trinity) College. With sugges- tions from Bishop Brownell, Doctor Wheaton and the architect Ithiel Towne worked out a design, which united features of various English churches, especially York Minster. In 1826 the vestry appointed a com- mittee to procure plans for a church, and Mr. Towne, designer of Trinity Church in New Haven, drew them. There is a tradition that Doctor Wheaton carved with his own hand some of the odd little faces that grin down upon the shopping crowds and the streaming traffic.
After much discussion of sites, the present one seemed inevitable and was selected in April, 1827. Ground was broken in the following summer. This fact explains the puzzling date on the cornerstone, which was not actually laid by Bishop Brownell until May 13, 1828. The building was roofed before the next winter. On December 23, 1829 the Bishop, the visiting clergy, the wardens and vestrymen, and the congregation assembled for prayers in the old church and then went in solemn pro- cession to the new one. The service of consecration was performed by Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York, acting for Bishop Brownell, who was on a long missionary tour, planting the Church in waste places of the South. Prayers were read by the Reverend Professor Humphrey and the lessons by the Reverend Professor Potter of Washington College. The instrument of donation was read by the Rector, the Reverend Nath- aniel S. Wheaton, the sentence of consecration by the Reverend William Jarvis, Rector of Trinity Church, Chatham (Portland), and Bishop Hobart delivered the sermon.
The old lot was sold in 1830, and the building was purchased by Holy Trinity (now Saint Patrick's) Church, the first Roman Catholic
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parish in Hartford. It was moved to Talcott Street, and. the spire was amputated, while the basement was fitted for a parochial school. It was reconsecrated in 1831 by Bishop Fenwick of Boston, and was com- pletely destroyed by fire on May 11, 1853.
The new church - as Bishop Brownell remarked - was and still is one of the finest fruits of the Gothic revival in America. It cost a staggering sum for that time: over forty-three thousand dollars up to March 1, 1830. The building's mere size was impressive: there were seats for more than thirteen hundred people - yet within a short time nearly all were rented. The parish and the vestry strove to be worthy of the magnificent fabric, by bestowing the most careful attention upon its maintenance and improvement. That reverent attitude has persisted to the present day, with renewed and increased devotion since the venerable church became the cathedral of the oldest Episcopal diocese in America. It is recorded that "No young wife was ever more careful of her new house than were these men of the building which they had recently erected, and of which they were justly proud."
In 1830 a parish meeting voted to hire a man "to attend in the Gallery during divine service, until Easter, to prevent the church being defaced." The wardens and vestry were requested to appoint beadles to preserve order in church, and to start a prosecution against anyone who defaced the building or behaved in an unseemly manner. Six years later the vestrymen, through a committee, asked the town to appoint tything- men for the next year, to oversee the galleries, and ordered the clerk to obtain staves for them "as a badge of office"- and perhaps for a more practical use! As the young ladies of Miss Draper's Female Seminary doubtless were above suspicion, they must have been thinking about the penknives of the youngsters from Trinity College.
Almost from the beginning improvements, repairs and additions have contributed to the splendid fabric we see today. In 1833 the pillars of the nave were secured against dry rot. Three years later a committee was named to select a suitable font; and in 1840 the vestry thanked Miss Hetty B. Hart for her gift of a beautiful one, and Mrs. Elizabeth Hart for an episcopal chair. The present font, acquired in 1890, formerly stood in the southwest chapel of the Nativity, but is now located in the chapel of Saint Dorcas at the northwest corner.
The most impressive early accomplishment was the completion of the tower, which for some years was left as a rather unsightly stump. In 1833 the vestry appointed a committee to obtain a plan. A campaign for subscriptions began in April, 1838, and within a few months secured over four thousand dollars, largely through efforts of "the younger and ambitious element." A new tower meant also a new and larger bell, pur-
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chased in 1839. In 1864 the parish began to want a set of chimes. They came nearly fifty years later, to ring in the year 1913. In 1853 was ordered the dignified, Gothic iron fence that now encloses the church lot.
Even before completing the tower, Christ Church undertook a work of the deepest meaning, not only to itself, but also to the Episcopal Church in Hartford. Early in the last century every large parish con- sidered it essential to have a separate chapel or lecture room for weekday services and special occasions. A chapel was proposed in 1832, and three years later the parish resolved to erect one back of the church, on the present site of the old parish rooms and choir hall. It cost around twenty- five hundred dollars, and in old photographs appears as a far from beautiful, red-brick edifice, not at all harmonious with the style of the church.
Its claim to remembrance rests upon the many events, deeply affecting Hartford's religious life, that took place within its walls. There in 1841-42 were held the first services of the newly-founded Saint John's Church, the second Episcopal parish in this city, a daughter of Christ Church. In December, 1850, the Episcopal City Mission Society was founded there, by members of Christ Church and Saint John's. The result was a third parish - old Saint Paul's on Market Street, with free seats, expressing an ideal of the Church for all souls, especially the poor. In 1856 the chapel became a place of worship for the German immigrants, free of charge whenever they wanted to use it on Sunday. There were held important meetings, lectures, social gatherings, and weekday ser- vices from time to time. That homely old building remained a practical necessity in parish life, until succeeded by more elaborate accommoda- tions for the many activities of a downtown church.
Modern and social features crept in steadily after the middle of the century, displacing old inconveniences and bringing in a flood of new customs and comforts. When Hartford went in for modernism about 1849, by adopting gaslight, the vestry appointed a committee to con- sider using it in the church. It sufficed until around 1905, when electric lights appeared.
The deeply-rooted custom of selling seats - which some of the clergy hated - slowly yielded to the idea of a free church, which spread after 1840, especially from the example of the Church of the Holy Com- munion in New York. In 1852 Christ Church had a committee to pro- cure "movable seats," evidently for newcomers and strangers who had no regular places. Ushers were named in 1859 and 1863, to "show" strangers to the seats reserved for them. As late as 1869 it was voted to assess the seats for "a sufficient sum to cover the ordinary expenses of the parish." The break with antiquity came in 1881, when the vestry
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planned to allow free sittings at the proposed evening service. It must have seemed inconsistent to have favored free seats at Saint Paul's and bar the stranger and the poor in the mother church! Colored folk were always made welcome in the new church. In 1829 the vestry appointed a committee to assign them two seats in each gallery. Two years later the parish gave them one pew in the south and two in the north gallery - a prophecy of the distant time when Christ Church would shelter the early services of Saint Monica's.
As the century wore on, increasing activities began to tax the resources of the church and the old chapel. Everyone agreed that there must be more adequate accommodations for all meetings. Among the far-sighted, who expected the parish to become a downtown church some day, was Lucy M. (Mrs. James) Goodwin. In November, 1878, she announced her desire to give a recessed chancel, and a parish building, with a chapel and rooms for social and business meetings. The parish at once approved, accepted the plans with joy, and appointed a committee to raise funds to purchase more land back of the church.
The old chapel disappeared under the wrecker's mattock, and on its site rose the beautiful, recessed chancel, the chapel now used as a choir room, the vestry, a rector's study (now an office room), and the upper rooms now occupied by offices and the Church Missions Publishing Com- pany. In April, 1881, the members accepted a fund of five thousand dollars to maintain the parish rooms, given by Mrs. Lucy M., James J. and Francis Goodwin. In 1888 the new chapel received, in memory of Miss Mary Goodwin, a reredos illustrating the good works of Dorcas, which now adorns the northwest chapel in the church. In the meantime the munificence of several members began to enrich the interior of the church itself. Doctor Gurdon W. Russell gave the reredos for the high altar in 1879. Nine years later Miss Alice Taintor donated the choir stalls, and the choir later was moved down from the gallery. The interior therefore began to assume its present aspect.
The matter of a rectory had long been a subject of discussion and of considerable worry. In January, 1884, the parish accepted the gift of a house and lot on Winthrop Street for a rectory - a plan proposed as early as 1856. Later the property was sold, as the neighborhood changed to business and tenements. On the death of Miss Alice Taintor in 1911, her house at No. 28 Garden Street was left to Christ Church for a rectory, and was occupied by Dr. Goodwin and later by Dr. Colladay. When Christ Church became a cathedral, the house became the Dean- ery, but on January 1, 1923 became the Diocesan House. The Dean then moved to the Russell mansion at 207 Farmington Avenue, given to the parish by its historian, Doctor Gurdon W. Russell, and his wife
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Mary J. Beresford. This is now the new Diocesan House.
The next extensive group of additions to the church came between 1900 and 1917. Brownstone pinnacles surmounted the side walls in 1902, completing the Gothic plan drawn by Ithiel Towne and Doctor Nathaniel Wheaton, seventy-five years before. By 1915 the old parish rooms ob- viously were too small for the manifold activities of what had become virtually a downtown, cathedral parish. The munificent answer to the need is the present Cathedral House, dedicated in 1917, in memory of James Junius Goodwin, one of those who had a vision of the parish's service to the whole community.
About the same time, the old chapel became a spacious choir room. Its reredos of rich mosiac was installed at the northwestern corner of the church, which became the chapel of Saint Dorcas, balancing the chapel of the Nativity on the south side, now used for daily service. The former altar of the church was placed in Saint Dorcas's chapel, as a memorial to deceased rectors and bishops who had ministered at it.
The new parish house not only provided the long-desired space for parochial functions of all kinds, but also looked forward to the creation of a cathedral, by including a large hall where the annual diocesan conven- tion now meets. A worthy structure stood ready for the decision to make old Christ Church the long-projected cathedral of the Diocese of Con- necticut.
III. CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
The election of the Reverend Samuel R. Colladay as rector in October, 1917, proved to be the first step towards realizing that ideal. In him the Episcopal Church in Hartford found one who cherished a vital interest in the services of a cathedral to the city and the diocese - in worship, fellowship and social service.
For many years the project of a cathedral had been "in the air," and shortly after his accession Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster tried to bring it down to earth by urging it upon the diocesan convention. Other dioceses were actually building cathedrals; why not Connecticut, the oldest American diocese? Bishop William Croswell Doane, formerly rector of Saint John's in Hartford, had shown the true meaning of a cathedral at All Saints' in Albany. In New York the mighty pile of Saint John the Divine was rising slowly on Morningside Heights, fulfilling the vision of Bishop Henry Codman Potter.
Gradually the idea permeated the mind of the diocese - or at least won the leaders - and Bishop Brewster's plea for a diocesan church, at the convention in June, 1912, apparently won over the remaining waver-
THE VERY REVEREND SAMUEL RAKESTRAW COLLADAY, D.D. FIRST DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
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ers. About one year later - June 12, 1913 - the legislature granted a charter, incorporating the trustees as THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT, giving power to establish schools and religious and charitable works, and outlining the present organization. The bishop is a trustee and the presiding officer of the corporation, which determines its own constitution and makes its own laws and rules. The trustees elect officers, and agents to maintain the property. The constitution, which gives the name CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, provides for manag- ing the property and business, maintaining worship, and carrying on the cathedral's work. The corporation is the chapter, consisting of the bishop or bishops, the dean, canons, six archdeacons, chancellor and treasurer, and other representatives of the clergy and laity. The chapter keeps regular minutes and meets three times a year. The dean, who is the real genius of the cathedral, is elected by the chapter on the bishop's nomination. All officers perform duties demanded by the cathedral statutes, which also provide for standing committees of the chapter on buildings and grounds, and finances. The cathedral congregation in- cludes all regular, contributing communicants, and all legal members of the old parish of Christ Church.
Inevitably it seemed, the trustees selected Christ Church as the cathedral, and the Diocesan Convention of 1917 heartily approved. On Easter Monday, April 21, 1919, the parish of Christ Church accepted the invitation of the trustees and the diocese, and voted to turn over to the cathedral corporation its property and affairs. The Diocesan Conven- tion of 1919 therefore declared Christ Church to be the cathedral church of the Diocese of Connecticut. It has the same rights and duties and representation in the convention, as any other parish; and the conven- tion annually chooses one clerical and one lay member of the chapter.
The most important event in the parish's long history took place on Trinity Sunday, June 15, 1919, when Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster declared Christ Church to be the cathedral of the diocese. At the same time he announced the election of the rector, the Reverend Samuel R. Colladay, as the first Dean. That place he filled with distinction until 1936, when he retired and was elected Dean Emeritus.
On that memorable day nobody realized more clearly than he, that a cathedral is much more than a constitution and a building. It is the spiritual powerhouse of a diocese. The original Greek word, kathedra, referred to the bishop's seat or throne in his church. When he is in the sanctuary, the bishop really sits not in but on his cathedral! His chair in each parish church actually represents the cathedral, as if a piece of it. A cathedral is the church for a whole diocese, with the bishop as its rector. It is open to all members, and in a still larger sense, is also a "house
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of prayer for all people." It is the natural place for diocesan functions, such as meetings of the convention, consecrations of bishops, and ordina- tions of deacons and priests.
One of the charming and distinctive features of our cathedral is that it keeps the character of a parish church. At the change in 1919, its congregation and friends felt that the new state had not changed its essential nature, and that it would always be Christ Church. They were not to become just poor relations of a newly-rich and proud insti- tution. In fact, the venerable church has done rather well, in escaping the cold "institutionalism" that can - and does - lay its dead weight on religious organizations without old and vital parish traditions.
When Dean Colladay entered on his new duties, he really had to create a cathedral atmosphere, of which most of the clergy and laity knew virtually nothing. Almost immediately he sailed for England to study customs in the great cathedrals. He returned with a rich store of ideas, which he applied and perfected, until his own cathedral had a dig- nified and beautiful worship that inspired the parishioners and many a visitor from other churches. Gradually the diocese became used to the cathedral's stately life, and began to look upon the venerable fabric itself with a new interest, as it became the symbol of diocesan spirit. Dean Colladay was especially anxious to center devotion in the Holy Communion. At Christmastide, 1925, he introduced certain usages which he had noted in the services of English cathedrals, particularly those of Chester Cathedral.
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