USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > Melrose, Massachusetts, 1900-1950; commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Melrose and the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Melrose > Part 5
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A stone from Melrose Abbey in Scotland was presented to Trinity Church in 1886 by William L. Williams, and is placed under the support of one of the trusses on the south side of the church. Many stained glass windows were installed, designed by William H. Burnham and Son, Melrose residents, among them being a memorial window to five young men of the Parish who fell in World War II, Richard Philip Lyle, George Lyman McRae, Wallace James Manson, Waldo Earle Newton, Jr., and Wendell Allen Nye. Three windows, from the Connick Asso- ciates Studios, were dedicated November 20, 1949 to the memory of Florence Chesley Murray, a communicant of the church.
A peal of bells was presented to the Church by Robert Henry Harris, Rowland W. Harris and Mrs. Paul Sterling as children of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Harris, and consecrated on December 17, 1909, by Archdeacon Babcock and the rector, Rev. Paul Sterling.
The old Parish House having been destroyed by fire on Janu- ary 16, 1936, a new Parish House was built and opened for inspec- tion on January 8, 1937.
In 1948 a memorial organ was installed by the Parish and dedicated to the memory of Robert E. Nordstrom, a young soloist in the choir, untimely deceased.
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The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Parish was celebrated by a Harvest Home Festival on Michaelmas Day 1881. In 1906 the Parish celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary, with Rev. Paul Sterling as rector. In 1931 the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary was held, attended by Bishop Sherrill, and a pageant was given cover- ing the notable events in the Parish history.
In 1900 the membership of the Parish was four hundred thirty, grown to nine hundred ninety-eight in 1949. Rev. Paul Sterling had been rector since September 15, 1891, and continued as such until his retirement in 1913. From 1914 to 1929 Rev. Hugh Wallace Smith was rector, followed in 1930 by the present rector, Rev. Warren C. Herrick.
Among the church societies may be mentioned the Woman's Auxiliary, in two branches, St. Margaret's Guild, St. Elizabeth's Guild, Men's Club, Young People's Club, Boy Scouts, and others.
The first Roman Catholics in Melrose were the families of the Conways, Dohertys and Kellys who attended Mass in Wake- field from 1851 to 1854, when Melrose was included in the newly established parish of the Immaculate Conception in Malden. On Christmas Day 1868 the first Mass in Melrose was celebrated by the Rev. Thomas Gleason of Malden in the Masonic Hall. In 1873 Melrose was made a part of the Stoneham parish under Rev. William H. Fitzpatrick and the Masonic Hall was used for serv- ices for several weeks until the old Baptist Church was bought, moved to Dell Avenue and renamed St. Bridget's. There were then about three hundred members in the Parish.
In 1875 the church building was repaired and enlarged, and in 1883 the land for the present church was purchased on Herbert Street at the corner of Myrtle. In 1891 the cornerstone was laid under the direction of the Reverend, later Monsignor Dennis J. O'Farrell, and in 1893 the church was dedicated as ST. MARY'S OF THE ANNUNCIATION. In 1894 Melrose was made a parish and Rev. Francis J. Glynn was named its first pastor. In 1895 the rec- tory was established at 41 Myrtle Street, and in 1897 Rev. Daniel J. Carney was appointed to assist Father Glynn. By 1900 there were nearly two thousand members in the Parish.
On April 26, 1903, the church bell, a gift from Mathew A. Divver and Neil A. Divver in honor of their mother Mrs. Bridget E. Divver, who had recently died, was dedicated by the Arch- bishop, the Most Reverend J. J. Williams, assisted by some twenty-three members of the clergy.
On August 27, 1909, the parochial school of St. Mary's
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Parish on Myrtle Street at the corner of Grove Street was com- pleted, staffed with six teachers from the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and opened for classes on September 8, 1909, with one hundred twenty pupils. At the same time a convent of the Holy Child Jesus was opened on Herbert Street to house the teach- ers, later replaced in 1927 by a brick building opposite the church. In September 1913 the High School for Girls was opened in St. Mary's School, but later moved to the convent building. On February 4, 1948, the old convent building, then occupied by the Catholic Woman's Club, suffered damage in a three-alarm fire, but was later repaired for parish use.
The parish societies, exclusive of the Knights of Columbus, the Order of Foresters, and the Melrose Catholic Woman's Club, include the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, organized in 1896; the Children of Mary Sodality, organized among the Catholic high school girls in October 1937; the Society of the Holy Name, organized by Father Glynn following a mission at St. Mary's Church by the Dominican Fathers in 1898, with the first meeting held September 26, 1898; the St. Mary's Junior Holy Name Soci- ety, formed in 1935 to carry on the principles of the senior Holy Name Society among the young men of the Parish, meeting first in the church and sacristy, and later in the basement of the Knights of Columbus building, which was fitted up as a clubroom and made a center for the activities of the Society; the St. Mary's Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, organized on Octo- ber 2, 1916 among the men of the Parish; St. Mary's Alumnae, organized among the graduates of St. Mary's School by Mother Mary Regis in 1919 and which has awarded since 1929 a gold medal to the student graduating with the highest scholastic record; St. Mary's Parent Teachers Association, organized Febru- ary 15, 1937 by Rev. Joseph F. Bonner to bring together the Sisters and the parents of St. Mary's School, which has sponsored the yearly outing of the school children, and made it possible for a number to attend the Parish Camp at Scituate; St. Mary's Girl Scouts, organized in 1921 as Troop No. 2 of the Melrose Girl Scouts, and reorganized in 1937, with two additional Troops added since then; the St. Mary's Boy Scouts which received their charter from the National Headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America on April 30, 1937; the Italian-American Men's Club, organized in October 1937 under the leadership of Rev. Edward F. Dowd for the purpose of spiritual, educational and social wel- fare of the Italian-American residents of the City ; the Ladies' Auxil-
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iary, organized in May 1938; the St. Thomas More Literary and Dramatic Society for literary and dramatic study and the public presentation of plays, organized in 1938 by Rev. Francis A. Barry; and the St. Mary's Discussion Club, organized in 1938 by Rev. Joseph F. Bonner among the high school students of the Parish for discussion and study of religious and modern problems.
In 1949 the Parish numbered about six thousand five hun- dred members, with Father Bonner assisted by Rev. Francis A. Curley, Rev. Edmund W. Croke, and Rev. Thomas F. Casey.
In October 1931 a new parish was formed in Wakefield, of Catholics from Melrose Highlands and Greenwood, with Rev. Patrick J. McCarthy as pastor, and the Most Blessed Sacrament Church was built on Main Street in Greenwood.
The GREEN STREET BAPTIST CHURCH in the Highlands began in 1893 when Mrs. Emma J. Prince and Mr. George McCallum organized meetings in the schoolhouse on Franklin Street just west of the railroad tracks. Interest in the meetings increased until a church society was organized February 5, 1894, with thirty- five members, known as the Free Will Baptist Church of Melrose Highlands, with Rev. George N. Howard as pastor. On May 4 of the same year land was purchased at the corner of Green Street and Farwell Avenue and a church building started, the larger part of the work being done by the church members. This organ- ization continued until April 1903, when it disbanded and was reorganized April 22, 1903, with twenty-five members and Rev. Hibbard Lockhart as pastor, and took the name of the Free Will Baptist Church of Melrose.
On October 12, 1912, the Church united with the regular Baptist denomination, severing its connection with the Free Will Baptist a few years later, and has since been known as the Green Street Baptist Church. The Church was incorporated on Feb- ruary 10, 1921, and has a present membership of four hundred fifty-six.
The pastors who have served the Church include Rev. Hib- bard Lockhart, April 22, 1903 to April 3, 1904; Rev. Ernest M. Holman, September 11, 1904 to May 26, 1907; Rev. Walter J. Malvern, September 15, 1907 to September 27, 1912; Rev. Samuel A. Dyke, October 4, 1912 to October 4, 1918; Rev. William J. Twort, December 1, 1918 to July 1, 1919; Rev. John M. Currie, October 3, 1919 to September 6, 1925; Rev. William S. Webb, November 25, 1925 to May 3, 1927; Rev. Frank M. Holt, No- vember 1, 1927 to March 31, 1937; Rev. Frank H. Snell, Decem-
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ber 1, 1937 to February 20, 1949; and Rev. Wendell Lloyd Bailey, September 1, 1949 to date.
The church societies include, besides the Sunday School, the Ladies Aid Society, Women's Missionary Society, Women's Union, Praying Associates Group, Matrons Society, Fellowship Group, Senior and Junior High Christian Endeavor Societies, Afterglow Group and the Men's Club.
In 1928 the Church purchased the house and land at 14 Far- well Avenue as a parsonage. In 1939 an addition known as the West Wing Unit was made to the church building to accommo- date the growing Church School, and also to enlarge the kitchen and social hall facilities. In 1943 the interior of the church audi- torium was remodeled and an electric orgatron purchased. In 1947 the basement area under the church auditorium was exca- vated and a large new room created for the Church School and social purposes, with burning of the various mortgages incurred.
Since the Church has been organized four laymen have been licensed to preach, one has been ordained a minister and one pastor was ordained in the church. One young woman was ordained as a pastor and is now the wife of the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Medford.
Although religious exercises were begun in Melrose High- lands in the spring of 1857 with Deaconess Augusta Durant hold- ing Sunday School in the Franklin Street schoolhouse, encour- aged by Deacon Joel Snow who settled in the district in 1859, it was not until September 29, 1875 that the MELROSE HIGHLANDS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH was organized with thirty members and the Rev. D. Allen Morehouse as the first pastor.
The following year Mr. Morehouse resigned, and was fol- lowed by Rev. John G. Taylor, who soon began to agitate for a church building. This was accomplished and the new church building at the corner of Franklin and Ashland Streets was dedi- cated September 29, 1880. The church society was incorporated in 1893, and grew so rapidly that a new building became neces- sary. The old building was sold and moved across the street for use as a silver factory. The new building was first occupied Janu- ary 2, 1896. The membership at that time was about three hun- dred sixty, and Rev. Burke F. Leavitt was pastor. Financing the new building proved difficult, but was finally accomplished, and the debt-free church was dedicated December 5, 1919.
Mr. Leavitt, who became pastor October 15, 1893, resigned
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HILLCREST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UPHAM STREET
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FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST, GREEN STREET,
on April 1, 1905. Rev. Henry Hyde supplied until November 4, 1906, when Rev. John O. Paisley became pastor until May 29, 1927. Rev. Charles W. Huntington, D.D. then supplied until Rev. John H. Leamon became pastor on February 1, 1928, and remained until October 1, 1940. He was followed by Rev. Kendig B. Cully from March 1, 1941 to May 1, 1946, and he in turn by Rev. Russell T. Loesch from May 1, 1946 to date. The church membership in 1949 numbered about eight hundred fifty.
The church societies include, besides the Church School, the Junior Hi Club and Pilgrim Fellowship, the Highlanders, Witucs and Couples Clubs, Men's Fellowship, Women's Guild, Boy and Girls Scouts, with Cubs and Brownies.
Two young men of the Church have been consecrated to the ministry, ordination services being held for F. Treadwell Smith in April 1918, and for Oliver B. Munroe in December 1924.
The HILLCREST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH began in 1895 when the mothers in the then wooded section of Melrose east of Bellevue Avenue felt the need of a neighborhood Sunday School. A meeting was held in the abandoned Upham Hill schoolhouse, and a Sunday School organized. As a regular church service became desirable, the Methodist Church responded with leaders for a weekly Sunday evening meeting. This became the East Side Mission, led for two years by George Albert Henry, a student at the Boston University Theological School. The members were both Methodist and Congregational.
As a serious fire in the Methodist Church building made it impossible for that Church to maintain the Mission, the Board of Trustees of the Congregational Church came to the aid of the Mission in the spring of 1905, and it became the East Side Chapel of the Congregational Church. In January 1906, when Rev. Thomas Sims was pastor, a building fund was started, and in March 1907 the present site was purchased. The chapel became officially the Hillcrest Church on Easter morning, 1920, with Rev. Harrison W. Dubbs as pastor. The cornerstone of the present building was laid with Masonic ceremony on October 28, 1923, and the church occupied and dedicated June 1, 1924.
The pastors since that time have been Rev. Harrison W. Dubbs 1920-25; Rev. Kenneth S. Lealey 1925-27; Rev. John R. Nelson 1927-36; Rev. Morris C. McEldowney 1936-42; Rev. Guy E. Mossman 1942-48; Rev. Mark Shaw 1948 (interim); Rev. J. Everett Bodge 1948 -. The present membership is about two hun- dred twenty-five persons. While it is organized as a Congrega-
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tional Church, it considers itself a Community Church, and wel- comes members of any denomination.
The ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH began in the summer of 1900 with meetings at the home of Rev. John W. Evans at 11 Belmont Place, Melrose Highlands. Public services followed on September 2 of the same year in the hall in Deferrari's Block with twenty-five persons present. A Sunday School was organized October 6, 1901, with ten pupils. On July 19, 1906, a group met at the little school- house on Franklin Street and formally organized the Church with eighteen charter members. Since then the membership has in- creased to sixty in 1949.
The following pastors have served the Church : Rev. John W. Evans, Rev. David H. Woodward, Rev. M. L. Cunningham, Rev. John M. Currie, Rev. John R. Fox, Rev. Bernard F. Brooks, Rev. G. F. Haines, Rev. Guy L. Vannah, Dr. G. A. Haines, Rev. Walter Sheppard, Martin K. Rasmussen and the present pastor, Rev. Edwin K. Gedney.
On April 12, 1912, the Church voted to purchase the prop- erty of the Melrose Highlands Baptist Church on Franklin and Albion Streets, which it now occupies. The dedication of the Cunningham Vestry was held on March 5, 1948.
The Church is especially interested in missionary work, and between October 1948 and September 1949 had collected and dis- tributed $1,088.04 for such purposes. Besides the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society and the Sunday School, the church societies include a Men's Fellowship, Loyal Workers and a Junior Mission.
The FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST in Melrose was organized in 1914, its charter being dated August 6, and the first meeting was held September 6 in Hawthorne Hall, 527 Main Street, with some two hundred twenty persons present. Sidney H. Davis was First Reader and Miss Edith M. Ormsby, Second Reader. In 1925 meetings were held in Masonic Hall, and at dawn, July 18, 1930, the cornerstone of the present church on Green Street near the Lynn Fells Parkway was laid. The new church was first occupied November 2, 1930, and was dedicated May 15, 1945, when free of debt.
In 1949, the First Reader was A. Waldo Phinney and the Second Reader Mrs. Muriel L. Irish. The church members are not numbered under the by-laws. Neither are there any church soci- eties, although a Sunday School is maintained.
The Church maintains a Reading Room on Essex Street near
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the Post Office, and two free public lectures on Christian Science are held each year. During World War II, a War Relief Com- mittee was formed, and many articles of food and clothing were sent abroad to help those in need.
The GOLDEN HILLS UNION BAPTIST CHURCH On Bay State Road was organized in May 1923, and now has about sixty mem- bers, with Rev. Hazen Parent as pastor. Besides the Church School it has a Woman's Club and a Young People's Society. Rev. P. A. A. Killam was formerly pastor for about two years, following his retirement from a Boston pastorate which he had held for twenty-five years.
The FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE was organized August 26, 1928 by Rev. Howard V. Miller, District Superintendent for New England, and Rev. K. Hawley Jackson, Pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Malden.
For three successive years prior to the organization, tent meetings were held on Dell Avenue for two weeks with Rev. Martha Curry of Lowell as evangelist, two weeks in 1927 with local Nazarene pastors as evangelists and for five weeks in 1928 with Rev. Howard V. Miller as evangelist. Mrs. Harriet E. Sawyer of Melrose opened her home at 13 Winter Street for cot- tage meetings, held each week for the two years preceding the organization of the Church.
The Church was organized and the first meetings held in Allen Hall, Odd Fellows Building, on Main Street, with twenty- six charter members, since then increased to eighty-nine mem- bers. In January 1930 services were held in Boardman Block at the corner of Main and Essex Streets, and continued there until moved to the present church building at the corner of Green and Short Streets.
The land for the new church was bought on December 14, 1935, the cornerstone laid May 31, 1936, the new church dedi- cated October 11, 1936, and the mortgage burned on June 2, 1946, all with special services.
The pastors of the Church have been Rev. Linford Marquart, 1928-1929; Rev. James W. Shirton, 1929-1934; Rev. Leon J. Alley, 1934-1938; Rev. William N. Harrington, 1938-1943; and Rev. Arthur M. Fallon, 1943 to date.
Shortly after the Church was organized, a Nazarene Young People's Society and a Women's Foreign Missionary Society, now with thirty-three members, were organized, and in 1930 a Junior Society was organized. Within the past year a Hammond
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CHURCH
NAZARENE
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FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE, GREEN STREET
UNION BAPTIST CHURCH, GOLDEN HILLS
organ has been purchased, and new pews installed. The Church has also helped the organization of a Church of the Nazarene in Stoneham, of which Mr. Fallon has been acting as pastor.
The only Jewish organization in Melrose is the Melrose Jew- ish Community Center, Inc., organized in 1940, incorporated in 1945, and which has about seventy-five members, with Mrs. Miah H. Rovner as president. They hold monthly meetings. There is no Jewish synagogue in Melrose, the Jewish community holding services on holy days in the Legion Bungalow.
Communal religious activities in Melrose included an evan- gelical campaign in February 1909 which compelled Rev. T. J. Horner of the Unitarian Church to make a public statement in the press defending his lack of participation. He said he had met and talked with the evangelists, and while he respected them as men, he could not agree with their point of view. Another cam- paign of evangelism was held in Memorial Hall during the winter of 1916 in connection with a similar campaign in Boston by the Rev. Billy Sunday.
From January 20 to March 8, 1918, the Baptists, Congrega- tionalists, Methodists, Unitarians and Universalists agreed to hold their services jointly in the Baptist Church to conserve coal.
On March 8, 1918, a grand temperance rally was held in the Baptist Church when a resolution in favor of national prohibi- tion was voted amid great enthusiasm.
On August 15, 1945, V-J Day, a joint service was held in the First Baptist Church, conducted by five local pastors in accord- ance with the form of service prepared by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. The pastors taking part were Rev. Guy Mossman of Hillcrest Church, Rev. John L. Cairns of the First Methodist Church, Rev. Warren C. Herrick of Trinity Epis- copal Church, Rev. Chadbourne Spring of the Unitarian Church and Rev. Wallace Forgey of the First Baptist Church.
During the summer season, a number of the churches are closed, but take turns in holding a joint service, with the pastors also taking turns in leading the services, not always in their own churches.
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MELROSE HOSPITAL, LEBANON STREET
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE HOSPITAL
The Melrose Hospital Association, organized at the home of Mrs. Decius Beebe on July 28, 1893 with forty-eight corporate members, had grown to a membership of eighty-five in 1900. The Melrose Hospital Sewing Guild which had been organized at the same period for the purpose of holding monthly meetings to sew for the Hospital at the various churches, had grown to eight hundred members in 1900.
While the Association was busy raising money by holding lawn parties, street fairs and soliciting subscriptions from indi- viduals and organizations, search for a hospital location was be- ing made, hampered by a popular prejudice that hospitals exuded contagion to their neighborhood.
Quarters were eventually rented at 39 Oakland Street on February 12, 1894, and Miss Emilia W. Poole, a graduate of Wal- tham Training School, was engaged as the first superintendent. On February 26 the first student nurse was received, and within a week three other young women were admitted to form the first class of the Melrose Hospital Training School. On April 4 the first patient was received, and during the first year's operation, twenty-three other patients were admitted, and fourteen home cases cared for.
Within two years the accommodations at Oakland Street had proved too small. The residence of William Bailey on Myrtle Street, now the Elks Home, was purchased by the Association and remodeled for hospital use, and occupied in 1895. In the new quarters seventeen patients could be accommodated.
The residence of Andrew W. Haskell at the corner of Myrtle and West Foster Streets was purchased by John Larrabee and leased to the Hospital as a nurses' home in 1901.
Land had been purchased at the corner of Main and Porter Streets across from Ell Pond, and May 6, 1911, the Trustees voted to proceed with the building of a hospital there, with Sidney H. Buttrick as chairman of the committee. The new Hospital, with a seventy-five bed capacity, was dedicated on May 30, 1913, with a large attendance, Moses S. Page, president of the Hospital Association, being in charge of the program. Addresses were made by the architect, Edward F. Stevens of Boston, John P. Deering,
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then chairman of the building committee, and the Mayor, Oliver B. Munroe.
In June 1928, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Colby of 24 Vinton Street, "for personal and sentimental reasons" made a gift of $125,000 to the Hospital for the building of an additional wing, increasing the capacity of the Hospital to one hundred twenty- five beds. This was done and the new Colby Wing was dedicated May 11, 1929.
When the Hospital moved from Myrtle Street, Miss Melissa J. Cook was acting superintendent, but in view of her obvious capability, she was confirmed as permanent superintendent. Born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, January 25, 1881, she graduated from the Normal School in Fredericton, taught school, then came to Boston and graduated as a nurse from the Massachusetts General Hospital, and came to Melrose in 1912 as assistant super- intendent. She also became an American citizen.
After a long illness Miss Cook died in the Hospital Novem- ber 6, 1946, and was buried from the First Congregational Church. On April 22, 1947, a bronze plaque, presented by the doctors of the Hospital staff, was unveiled in the Hospital in her honor by Charles H. Adams, chairman of the executive committee, with Dr. Willis M. Townsend presiding.
On September 24, 1948 the professional staff of the Hospital held a reception for Dr. Townsend in recognition of his fifty-five years of practice as a physician. He had been a member of the staff for over fifty years and for many years served on the Medical Board. He was presented with a clock on behalf of the staff by Dr. Ralph R. Stratton.
At the time of Miss Cook's death, Dr. Ralph D. Leonard, who had long been connected with the Hospital in a professional capacity, was asked to take charge of her work as superintendent, and following her death has continued as such.
The Hospital income is from three sources: earned income from room and nursing care, endowment funds and voluntary gifts from individuals and organizations. The largest of the endow- ment funds include three donations from Seth K. and Emma Ken- nedy Ames totalling $561,540.38, the Joseph G. S. and Susan Ellen Carlton Fund of $10,229.25, the Decius Beebe Fund of $10,000 and the Alfred H. Colby Fund of $10,000. There are also the Albert N. Parlin Fund of $23,423.45 and the J. Henry Marcy Fund of $10,723.23 for free beds, the John Franklin and Mary J. Crowly Fund of $41,584.89 for indigent and aged patients, the
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