USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Winchester > History of Winchester, Massachusetts > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
Mr. Metcalf served as a chaplain with the United States army in France during the World War. He resigned his pastorate in Winchester to become one of a commission for Hungarian relief which was sent abroad in 1920; his special duties were to extend help and encouragement to the churches of the Unitarian faith in Transylvania. Subsequently he was pastor of a Unitarian church in Portland, Maine, where he died.
The original building of the Winchester church was pretty completely destroyed by fire November 16, 1897. The blow was heavy, but the society lost no time in preparing to rebuild. A
THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
THE UNITARIAN CHURCH
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
233
,
CHURCHES IN WINCHESTER
building committee was appointed at once; it consisted of Lewis Parkhurst, William B. French, Lewis C. Pattee, John L. Ayer and Daniel W. Pratt. The new church, which is the handsome building of stone with which all Winchester is familiar, was not erected on the old lot but on the land at the corner of Main Street and Mystic Valley Parkway where the house of Harrison Parker, Sr. formerly stood. It cost something more than $40,000 and was ready for dedication on April 27, 1899.1 A chime of bells given by Jere A. Downs and Elizabeth S. Downs in memory of their mother, Mrs. Elizabeth E. Downs, was placed in the tower of the church in 1924, and four years later the same donors replaced the four original bells by a full chime of eighteen bells, which was dedicated with impressive services on December 30, 1928.
In this attractive church home so beautifully placed, the Uni- tarians of Winchester have worshipped now for almost forty years. In 1929 the usefulness of the building was enlarged by the addition of a large and convenient parish house in architectural harmony with the church edifice. The parish house has been named the Metcalf Union in memory of the two pastors of that name who have served the church. It was dedicated on February 10, 1929.
It is fitting that mention should also be made of the Ladies' Friendly Society, which was organized by the women of the Uni- tarian Church only a few months after the society itself was formed in 1865, and has had an honorable and useful existence for more than seventy years. Its helpful charitable activities have extended far beyond the limits of the parish, to the benefit of the entire town.
The first seeds of a Methodist church organization in Win- chester were planted by Mrs. John C. Mason and Mr. J. S. Owen, who called together a few like-minded persons in April 1871 and secured their support for preaching services to be held in Union Hall, which occupied the second story of the building on Main Street where Mr. Sanderson's store was located. The first of such services was held on Thursday, April 20, notices of it having been read the previous Sunday in the Congregational and Baptist churches. It was a stormy evening, but sixty were present in the
1 From articles by E. A. Wadleigh in Winchester Record, Vol. I, page 150, and Arthur E. Whitney, Winchester Star.
234
HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
congregation, and so much interest was manifested that weekly meetings for Methodists were at once arranged for. On June 13 the first class meeting was held at Mr. Mason's house in Winthrop Street, and it was conducted by Mr. Cyrus Houghton, affection- ately called Father Houghton by the members of the small but devoted group who gathered round him.
During the winter of 1871-1872, prayer meetings and an occa- sional preaching service were held in Union Hall, and a Sunday school was organized, of which Mr. Robert M. Armstrong was the first superintendent. On February 21, a Methodist Episcopal Society was formally organized, with John C. Mason, G. E. Cobb, Robert M. Armstrong, J. S. Owen and Ferdinand Scudder as the Board of Stewards. The first quarterly conference of the new church was held two months later, Rev. Dr. David Sherman, the presiding elder, being present.
Two years passed before the church felt strong enough to ask for a settled pastor. In the meantime the pulpit had been filled by students from the Theological Seminary in Boston, and the congregation had been meeting, now in Union Hall, now in Lyceum Hall, and now in Adelphian Hall, for its worship. Rev. D. S. Cole was the first minister assigned to the Winchester church.
The steady growth of the society encouraged its members to make plans for their own church building. Mr. Mason, having the opportunity to buy the well-situated lot at the corner of Pleasant Street (now Mt. Vernon) and Converse Place, purchased it, and held it for the use of the church. Plans were drawn, money raised, and on October 20, 1875 the ground was broken for the new build- ing, "Father" Houghton turning the first spadeful of earth. The labor of digging for the foundation was done by the men of the church "either in person or by proxy. A course of lectures paid for the foundation, and the expense of furnishing was met by the ladies, the Sunday school and Mr. J. C. Mason." The cost of the building was $9,400, and when the subscriptions proved inadequate, Mr. Mason assumed the indebtedness and carried it until the church was able to liquidate it.1
The new house of worship was dedicated on June 1, 1876, Rev. R. R. Meredith of Boston preaching the sermon. The building was 1The Story of Methodism in Winchester, published by the church in 1897.
235
CHURCHES IN WINCHESTER
occupied by the Methodist Church for almost fifty years. It is the same which now stands at the corner of Converse Place, having been bought and remodelled to suit the purposes of the Winchester Laundry which occupies it for its executive offices.
The sale of the property occurred on November 19, 1920, the church having meanwhile bought the triangular lot at Church, Dix and School streets, long occupied by the handsome home of Lewis C. Pattee, for a new building. A planning committee of twenty members, of which Frank E. Crawford was the chairman and Edward I. Taylor the secretary, was constituted and the work of raising the necessary funds was begun. It was six years before the necessary amount was in hand, for the society determined to build a house of worship worthy of itself and of the town in which it should stand. During these years the services were held in Waterfield Hall.
The corner stone of the church building was laid October 7, 1923 by Bishop Edwin H. Hughes, so affectionately remembered by the Methodists of this part of the country. It was completed and dedicated on October 10, 1926, in the presence of Bishop William F. Anderson. The building is a dignified and skillfully pro- portioned meetinghouse of brick, in the authentic New England style, with a graceful steeple in which a clock is placed and a pil- lared portico. Hutchins and French were the architects; the cost was approximately $150,000. Many of the fathers and mothers of Methodism in Winchester were remembered by memorial gifts - the bell was given by the descendants of John C. Mason and his wife, Lucinda Mason. The tower clock was the gift of Mrs. Ken- nedy, granddaughter of "Father and Mother" Houghton, and the organ is in memory of George E. Henry.
While the church was in process of construction, the Methodist Society sold the old parsonage on Myrtle Street and rebuilt the substantial brick stable on the Pattee estate into an attractive house for the resident pastor. On the occasion of the discharge of its mortgage indebtedness in 1928 the church voted to assume the name of the Crawford Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church i memory of Mrs. Winnifred L. Crawford, the wife of Mr. Frank E. Crawford, who had been an indispensable leader in the building o the church house.
236
HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
The church, which began in the day of small things ("when we began our services," wrote Mrs. J. C. Mason in after years, "we knew of only five Methodist families in town") has now a mem- bership of more than three hundred and a flourishing religious life. The following clergymen have served as its ministers:
Rev. D. S. Cole
Rev. H. P. Rankin
Rev. J. E. Judd
Rev. Vincent Ravi
Rev. G. H. Cheney
Rev. J. R. Chaffee
Rev. W. H. Meredith
Rev. C. W. Blackett
Rev. J. M. Leonard
Rev. L. W. Adams
Rev. J. H. Mansfield
Rev. O. C. Poland
Rev. G. H. Perkins
Rev. C. H. Davis
Rev. A. Dight
Rev. A. B. Gifford
Rev. C. E. Holmes
Rev. Hiram W. Hook
Rev. C. E. Spaulding
Rev. J. West Thompson
Rev. F. B. Harvey
Rev. George A. Butters
Rev. Edward Higgins
Until 1874 there was no place of Roman Catholic worship in Winchester; members of that communion attended St. Charles's Church in Woburn. In that year a small chapel of frame construc- tion was built on the site of the present Catholic church, and Mass was celebrated therein on Christmas Day by the Rev. Edward F. McClure, assistant at the Woburn church. This chapel was at first attached to the parish of St. Charles, but in 1876 Winchester was constituted the independent parish of St. Mary's, and Rev. Cornelius O'Connor was assigned to it as the first resident pastor. The chapel was replaced by a larger and handsomer edifice, and the church began to exhibit a remarkable growth.
Rev. Patrick J. Daley, the second pastor of St. Mary's (1882), added to the lands of the church by purchasing the lot at the corner of Washington and Eaton streets for a parochial residence, and while he was in Winchester the church building was further enlarged to its present proportions. Rev. William O'Brien followed Father Daley, and Rev. Henry J. Madden succeeded him in 1893. Until Father Madden's incumbency, St. Mary's Church had been an obvious construction of wood; but he not only renovated the church but built an outer wall of brick around the building, to the
237
CHURCHES IN WINCHESTER
great improvement of its appearance. Father Madden also pur- chased for the church the large Judkins estate on the western side of Washington Street, and used the old Judkins mansion as a pri- vate residence.
In 1906 Rev. Dr. Daniel J. Keleher succeeded Father Madden. He was a man of unusual ability, and Winchester had reason to regret his transfer to a more important church in Lowell after an incumbency of only three years. It is recalled that on his coming to this town a reception was given him, which was promoted by Rev. Mr. Suter of the Episcopal Church and attended by many of the principal citizens of the town - an exhibition of comity between Protestants and Catholics, still rare in those days.
Monsignor Keleher, as he now is, was followed by Rev. Nathaniel J. Merritt, who remained for twenty years the pastor of St. Mary's, a priest whose sturdy good sense and deeply spiritual character made him a great force for good in the community. Under his pastorate St. Mary's made great progress. A large and handsome rectory, sufficient for the accommodation of the pastor and the two assistants whom the growth of the parish had made necessary, was built on the crest of the high land on the Judkins estate, and completed in 1912. In the following year work began on St. Mary's Parochial School, which stands directly opposite the church building on Washington Street. It is a well-planned and attractive building of brick, the corner stone of which was laid by His Eminence, Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston. The school today (1936) has three hundred and twenty-six pupils, some of them enrolled in St. Mary's High School, established in 1922. The teaching is carried on by fifteen Sisters of the teaching order of St. Joseph. Father Merritt remodelled the old Judkins mansion for their accommodation.
In 1931 a part of St. Mary's parish, including much of the northern part of the town on either side of Main Street, was set off with the adjoining section of Woburn to form a new parish - that of the Immaculate Conception. Of this new parish Rev. James F. Fitzsimmons was the first resident pastor. The church building stands on Sheridan Circle in Winchester, very near to the Woburn line.
Father Merritt died after some months of illness on February 5,
238
HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
1934. He was succeeded by Rev. Aloysius F. Malone, who is the present pastor. Since he came to Winchester he has organized a flourishing Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to direct charitable work among the poor of the church, and he plans the erection of a new and modern convent building to take the place of the venerable Judkins mansion.
Like most other churches in Winchester, the Episcopalian church had as its forerunner a number of home services in which two or three devout persons gathered together to read the prayer- book and sing the hymns they loved. Some of these services are said to have been held as early as 1862. The first public service was in Harmony Hall (Brown and Stanton Block) on February 26, 1882, Rev. C. R. Parker of Cambridge officiating. The Diocesan Board of Missions shortly afterward accepted the growing enter- prise as a mission, and assigned Rev. Charles M. Addison, the rector of St. John's, Arlington, to be missionary in charge. After- noon services were held in the auditorium of the Methodist church, and a Sunday school and Ladies Guild were organized. Irving S. Palmer was the first warden of the infant mission, Charles Gratiot Thompson was the treasurer, Samuel W. McCall, vestryman, and Frank J. Wills, clerk.
In 1884 the little body of Episcopalians, believing that the services of the church could only be properly conducted in a build- ing of their own, subscribed a sum sufficient for a small church. The land on which to place it was offered by Mr. D. Nelson Skillings; it was on Pleasant Street (now Mt. Vernon Street) beside the Aber- jona River, at the foot of the elevation on which Mr. Skillings's house stood. The building, long since outgrown by the Episco- palians, is that now occupied by the Christian Science congregation. The first service was held in it January 25, 1885, and on May 29 of that year it was duly consecrated by Bishop Paddock, assisted by a number of other clergymen.
Rev. John W. Suter was the first rector, a gentleman whose learning, urbanity and cultivation made him from the first a highly respected and influential citizen of the town. He was a graduate of Harvard and of the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge. Winchester was his first parish, and when he resigned as its rector
239
CHURCHES IN WINCHESTER
in 1910 he took no other. The parish of the Epiphany, for such is its designation, flourished under his charge and before many years was in a position to consider the building of a larger and finer church. A large lot of land at the corner of Church and Central streets was bought as early as 1893, but ten years passed before building could be undertaken. On August 5, 1904, a committee, consisting of Charles W. Bradstreet, Alfred S. Higgins, Arthur H. Russell, W. M. Mason, H. J. Winde and the rector, was appointed to direct the construction. Warren and Smith of Boston were chosen as the architects; Mr. F. Patterson Smith, himself a resident of the town, drew the plans for the church and had charge of the building operations. The corner stone was laid on October 20, 1904, by Bishop Lawrence; it had been hoped that the Archbishop of Canterbury, then visiting in this country, would be present. Arch- bishop Davidson had been Bishop of Winchester before his elevation to the primacy of the English Church, and if he could have assisted in the laying of the stone the occasion would have been a memorable one. Unfortunately his plans did not permit him to come to Win- chester on that day, but he sent a message of sincere regret to the rector, calling down the blessing of God upon the Church of the Epiphany.1
The new building was completed within the year, and first services held there October 8, 1905. It is of brick with trimmings of antique stone, the pillars, which uphold the roof, of the same material. Such construction is not common, but the design is so sincere and so faithful to the canons of the best ecclesiastical archi- tecture that the effect is charming. A very interesting detail of the building is the niche forming the credence, where the offertory plates are kept. Over the opening in the brick wall of the sanctuary is a stone finial which was originally a part of the ancient cathedral of Winchester, England. In the course of certain repairs it was removed from its place in the cathedral and presented by vote of the Dean and Chapter to the Episcopal church in Winchester, Massachusetts. The architect, Mr. Smith, has made discreet and skillful use of the venerable piece of stone, blending it with great taste with the modern stonework by which it is supported.
The church, which contains between three and four hundred 1 Winchester Star, October 21, 1904.
240
HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
sittings, was built at a cost to the parish of less than $50,000, but a considerable number of gifts and memorials, including the altar, font, choir stalls, pulpit, organ and other furnishings, represent a large sum in addition. The glass of the several memorial windows is excellent, both in color and design, and the reredos is a beautiful piece of tapestry, something of a novelty in church furnishing. It is a memorial to Mr. Eben Blake Page, long a member of the church.
The architect's original plans called for a parish house and rectory, forming with the church building three sides of a square, open at the western end. The parish house was built in 1921, but the rectory has not yet been added. Neither has the imposing square tower over the entrance, which is part of the architect's plan, yet been erected.
Mr. Suter remained rector, as I have said, until 1910. He was succeeded by Rev. Murray W. Dewart, who made a deep impression on both church and town. At the end of twelve years he was called to an important church in Baltimore, Maryland. While he was in Winchester, Rev. Mr. Dewart was chaplain of the First Field Artillery, M.V.M. which he accompanied to the Mexican border when it was ordered thither during the troubles with Villa and Huerta in 1914. On the entrance of the United States into the World War, this regiment was embodied as the IoIst Field Artillery of the Twenty-Sixth or Yankee Division. Mr. Dewart went over- seas with it as its chaplain, and rendered devoted service on the fields of France. Epiphany has had three rectors since Mr. Dewart, Rev. Allan Evans (1923), Rev. Truman Hemmingway (1927) and Rev. Dwight W. Hadley, the present incumbent (1931- ).
On June 7, 1936 a most interesting service was held in the Church of the Epiphany, in commemoration of the fiftieth anni- versary of Dr. Suter's ordination as a priest. The church was filled with the friends of the venerable clergyman. The ceremonial was impressive and a pleasant feature was the delivery of the sermon by Dr. Suter's son, John W. Suter, Jr.
The church building on Mt. Vernon Street abandoned by the Episcopalians in 1904 was not long without a tenant; it was taken over by the Society of the First Church of Christ Scientist, which had been organized in Winchester in 1900. For several years before
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH
ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
THE CRAWFORD MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH
-
THE NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH
THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
24I
CHURCHES IN WINCHESTER
that, occasional services and lectures had been held in houses or halls, but after 1900 the Christian Scientists worshipped with regu- larity in the Town Hall. When the little church by the Aberjona fell vacant, its advantages as a church home conveniently located were at once apparent to the society, and the necessary arrange- ments having been made, it was occupied, and has ever since been occupied, by the followers of Mrs. Eddy. The society is vigorous and its services are well attended, many persons from adjacent towns being among the congregation. More than once the society has contemplated building a larger church on ground of its own, but the step has not yet been taken. It did, however, add a Sunday school room to the old church building in 1928, and as is the custom with churches of this denomination, it maintains a reading room, free to all, in which Christian Science literature is always to be found.
The Second Congregational Church as an organization dates from 1906, but it is the heir of a much older religious body, the Bethany Chapel and Sunday School. This very interesting insti- tution was a community enterprise of great value, intended to serve the religious and neighborhood interests of the people at the north end of the town in the district known as the Highlands. This was the original home of the three Richardson brothers almost three hundred years ago. The center of the district may be taken to be the corner of Washington and Cross streets, near which the attrac- tive building of the Second Congregational Church stands today. It is a mile or more from the center of the town, and has always preserved a certain individuality of its own. The devout men and women - particularly the women - of the Highlands were accus- tomed to have prayer meetings at one another's homes sixty years ago or more. As the members interested increased, a little Sunday school was formed which met in the waiting room of the Highlands railway station on Cross Street.
This house has an interesting history. When the question of a railway station for the convenience of the residents of this part of the town was agitated in the seventies, the Boston and Lowell road expressed its willingness to stop certain of its local trains there, but professed its inability to find the money for a station. Accordingly
242
HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
Mr. Aaron C. Bell offered to build a house beside the tracks, the second floor of which should be used as a station - the tracks at this point being elevated on an enbankment some twelve feet above the level of Cross Street. This he did. The building was occupied as a home by Mr. and Mrs. George W. Richardson (Mrs. Richardson was a daughter of Nathaniel A. Richardson, to whom frequent reference has been made), and Mr. Richardson acted as station agent.
Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Martha W. Rice were perhaps the leading spirits of the little praying circle already established, and she and her husband gladly offered the station room for the use of the Sunday school. The school, like the Bethany Society through- out its career, was quite unsectarian. Members of four or five reli- gious communions met and coöperated with delightful friendliness, and preachers and teachers, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist and Episcopalian and Unitarian, visited the Highlands to serve the little community organization.
It was at a meeting at the home of Mrs. Rice January 10, 1881, that the Bethany Society took on final form and received its name. It continued to hold its services in Mr. Bell's railway station until 1886, when through the generosity of friends who had means and the sacrifice of those who had little, the money was raised for a chapel, which was erected on the lot west of the Washington School on Cross Street. The first sod was turned by Stephen Roberts, a highly respected colored man, born a slave, who had come North after the war with Nathaniel A. Richardson, whose servant he had been during Mr. Richardson's service as a purchasing agent for the United States army.
Thenceforth the Highland Bethany Society prospered. Its Sunday school under the direction of Deacon E. Lawrence Barnard became a model for other and larger schools in the town; its preach- ing services, conducted in turn by the ministers of the Winchester churches and by clergymen from outside as well, were well attended; its Ladies Bethany Society was active in all charitable work. It was the religious (but non-sectarian) and social heart of the High- lands community.
In 1906, circumstances, assisted by the energy of Rev. Charles A. S. Dwight, who was at the time assistant minister of the First
243
CHURCHES OF WINCHESTER
Congregational Church, led to the organization of the Bethany Chapel into an independent church of the Congregational denomi- nation. A council presided over by Rev. Wolcott Calkins, formerly of Newton, constituted the new church and installed Mr. Dwight as its first pastor on March 13. Parts in the services were taken by many eminent clergymen - Rev. Daniel March, the venerable pastor of the Woburn church, Rev. George H. Gutterson, famous for his long missionary service in India, Rev. Joshua Coit, Rev. Stephen Norton, Rev. D. A. Newton of the First Church and others.
The Second Church has had a useful place in the religious life of the town for thirty years. Its ministers since Mr. Dwight have been Rev. P. Isaac Osborn, Rev. William Fryling and Rev. John E. Whitley. It was in 1926 that its present home, the attractive stone church at the corner of Washington Street and Kenwin Road, was built on or very near the site of the house Ezekiel Richardson built in 1642.
The Second, or New Hope Baptist Church, which is also located in the Highlands district, had its beginning in services for the col- ored people of Winchester, organized as early as 1893 by Rev. Oliver Barksdale, who had been a deacon in the Baptist Church of White Oak, Virginia, before moving to this town. These services were held in the vestry of the Congregational church for a time, and later in Waterfield Hall. In 1896 the meetings were recognized as a mission of the Baptist church, and shortly afterward the Sec- ond Baptist Church was formed with Rev. A. O. Smith as its first minister. The society received permission from the town to use the old Washington Schoolhouse on Cross Street - the original school built in 1851 - for its services, and in 1920 it bought the house from the town and spent a considerable sum of money in remodelling it in order to fit it more perfectly for religious use.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.