USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1916-1955 > Part 30
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We therefore request your consideration of this matter, and if it meets with your approval and that of your Official Board, we would suggest that some of the representative women of the church be appointed to said Board as there may be opportunity to make such appointments.
It does not appear whether this radical departure from tradi- tion upset the brethren on the Board or not. In any case, the recommendation was accepted and women were seated on the Board, "although I have noticed," wrote Miss Bristol some years later, "that at Board meetings the women seem to sit on one side of the room for the most part, and the men on the other, reminding one of the meetings the Shakers used to hold. But everything is harmonious, apparently."
Also during Dr. James' pastorate, the sanctuary was thor- oughly remodeled at a cost of $110,000 and rededicated in 1925, with the sermon preached by Bishop Adna Wright Leonard of Albany. Two years later, $100,000 was spent in re- modeling and enlarging the parish house. Meantime, in 1922, the First Methodist Church, as part of its missionary work, had presented a new science building to the Chosen Christian Col- lege at Seoul, Korea.
Upon Dr. James' departure in 1931, he was succeeded by the Reverend C. Russell Prewitt, who remained during the diffi- cult depression years, down to 1939, when he was called to another church and was replaced with the Reverend H. Elliott Chaffee.
During the latter's pastorate, in 1941, the church celebrated with a week of special services the 150th anniversary of the founding of Methodism in Pittsfield. At this time a Minister of Music was added to the staff, Mrs. Howard Fohrhaltz.
Taking over the parish in 1947, the Reverend Robert C. Howe remained until 1951. During these years the Church School adopted the Character Research Program of Union Col- lege, and the church appointed an Associate Minister of Educa- tion, Miss Dorothy Scholl.
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The present pastor, the Reverend Charles Walter Kessler, had been serving at the Freemont Street Church in Gloversville, New York, before coming to Pittsfield. His appointment was made by Bishop G. Bromly Oxnam.
In 1953, under the Reverend Dr. Kessler, the church raised $100,000 to construct and equip a new Education Building on the east side of the church. Sunday morning classes in the Church School had been very crowded, with more than 300 people attending, divided into thirty-eight groups. Six classes had to meet simultaneously in the sanctuary, seven in the assem- bly hall, and seven in the dining room. Even the pastor's private office had to be pressed into service. The new Education Build- ing was first used in September 1955.
The church liberalized its procedures in 1953 by granting women the right not only to vote for trustees but to hold that office. The Board of Trustees, as now constituted, includes a representative of the Women's Society of Christian Services, who is nominated and elected by her peers.
Two new modern parsonages have been acquired by the church. In 1953, a bequest by Miss Lottie Merry provided a house for the associate minister and his family at 152 Williams Street. The church sold in 1955 its old parsonage, an immense house on Bartlett Avenue, and purchased for the purpose a house of more modest proportions at 64 Marlboro Drive. In 1955, the First Methodist Church enlarged its mission staff by appointing a missionary to serve in Rhodesia, South Africa.
Trinity Methodist
Trinity Methodist Church grew out of a Sunday School estab- lished by First Methodist Church in the Morningside section in 1900. The Sunday School met for a time in the curling rink on Woodlawn Avenue, but soon established itself in Trinity Chapel, a small building erected at the corner of Tyler and Plunkett streets.
In 1914, Trinity became a separate parish, with the Reverend Ralph B. Finley as pastor. The facilities of Trinity Chapel were greatly enlarged by constructing a temporary addition. Plans for
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a larger and more permanent structure were drawn, but had to be postponed because of circumstances attending the outbreak of World War I.
After World War I, during the pastorates of the Reverends Robert B. Leslie, George M. Moody, and William B. Goodman, the congregation worked hard to augment its building fund, and in 1925 a new $89,000 church at the corner of Woodlawn and Dalton avenues was dedicated. As the church was heavily mortgaged, this caused difficulties when the Depression struck and revenues declined.
During the 1940s, energetic campaigns were conducted to clear the debt, renovate the church, and improve its facilities- and with some success, though it was not till late in 1954 that the congregation celebrated "mortgage burning week." At last, the church was free of financial difficulties that had burdened it so long. The present pastor is the Reverend Nelson M. Burns, who has been serving the parish since 1952.
St. Stephen's, Episcopal
The first Episcopal parish in Pittsfield, organized in 1830, St. Stephen's dedicated its present red stone church on Park Square in 1890. Attached to the rear of the church, a parish house was built in 1916 at a cost of almost $28,000.
The pastor of St. Stephen's from 1915 to 1924 was the Rev- erend Stephen Edwards Keeler, Jr., now Bishop Keeler, who came from Cleveland, where he had been curate at St. Paul's. He was also appointed by the Berkshire Convocation to be priest-in-charge at St. Martin's in the Morningside section and at St. Luke's, Lanesboro; Grace Church, Dalton; and St. An- drew's, Washington.
In 1924, the Reverend George Henry Heyn, a graduate of Trinity College and the Berkeley Divinity School, took charge of the parish, which bought a new rectory, paying $14,000 for a house just completed at the corner of Appleton Avenue and Weston Street. In 1929, the church was redecorated and re- lighted. By 1930, its endowment fund exceeded $70,000.
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At his death in 1933, the Reverend Heyn was succeeded as rector of the parish by the Reverend Ralph H. Hayden, who served for sixteen years, down to 1949, when he was succeeded by the Reverend Frederick Ward Kates. The present pastor, the Reverend Malcolm W. Eckel, took office in 1953.
Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding in 1955, St. Stephen's launched a campaign to raise $150,000-more than $162,000 was soon pledged-for the purpose of repairing the organ and of renovating and enlarging the parish house.
A lot on Allen Street between the parish house and the Cen- tral Fire Station was bought from the city for $5,000, and plans for the large $125,000 addition were drawn by Prentice Brad- ley, a parishioner and local architect. The remodeled and en- larged parish house will provide much needed space for meet- ings, church school classes, and other activities.
Having grown steadily through the years, St. Stephen's had more than 1,100 communicants in 1955, with almost 500 en- rolled in its church school.
St. Martin's, Episcopal
An Episcopalian mission in the Morningside section devel- oped in 1909 into St. Martin's Church, with the Reverend Charles J. Sniffen as pastor. In 1911, a chapel was built on Woodlawn Avenue. The next year, St. Martin's was formally organized as a new parish and placed in charge of the Reverend Charles P. Otis, who also ministered to Grace Church in Dalton.
The congregation grew slowly, and in the 1930s improve- ments were made in the church building. A central heating sys- tem and new lighting were installed; the interior was redecorat- ed. Under the Reverend William B. Sperry (1943-45), plans were drawn for a new church, to be erected at the corner of Dalton Avenue and Benedict Road on land donated to the Board of Missions. But as estimated costs ran too high, action was postponed. At length, the congregation decided to move its building on Woodlawn Avenue to the Dalton Avenue site, which was done in 1951. A wing was added to provide an office, a kitchen, a sacristy, and a choir room. Resigning as vicar in
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1951, the Reverend William E. Arnold was succeeded by the present pastor, the Reverend Arthur R. Lynch, who had been at St. Paul's Church in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Lutheran
Organized in 1859, the Protestant German Evangelical Church changed its name to Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1892, and in that year built and occupied its present brick church on First Street. Originally, the services were in German. The first sermon in English was preached in 1888 by the Reverend C. F. William Hoppe soon after he came to be pastor. In 1893, he was succeeded by the Reverend Werner L. Genzmer, whose pastorate extended over many years, down to 1923.
His successor was the Reverend Dr. Henry B. Dickert, the present pastor. In 1924, a new parish hall was dedicated, and the publication of a monthly, Zion's News, was begun. The congregation purchased in 1927 a house at the corner of Taconic Street and Pomeroy Avenue for use as a parsonage. A parlor for general use was added to the church in 1937. In 1942, the New York State Luther League held its annual con- vention in the church, the first time the League had met out of its own state. A thorough renovating of the church building began in 1955.
Unitarian
The Unitarians organized in 1887 and for about twenty years had a church on North Street, above Bradford. In 1915, with Earl C. Davis as minister, they were meeting in a parish house, with upstairs dormitory and caretaker's apartment, at 45 Linden Street. The parsonage was in the rear, with wide lawns and a tennis court.
There was an active Women's Alliance and a young people's organization-the Francis David Fellowship. The Alliance was one of the Pittsfield women's clubs that established the People's Lecture Course. It is recorded that a Unitarian committee mem- ber who introduced the speaker to a capacity audience one win-
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ter evening did so after driving seven miles in a cutter and being tipped over in the snow when the horse shied at a water- ing trough on East Street. During the winter of 1917-18 the Unitarians joined other Protestant churches of the city in union services as an economy measure.
When the Reverend Mr. Davis left in 1919, he was succeeded by Charles R. Joy. During his pastorate, the Berkshire Chapter of the Unitarian Laymen's League was organized. Two mem- bers of the church arranged the first annual art exhibit in Pitts- field. In 1920, the church purchased the Peace Party House and its grounds at the corner of East Street and Wendell Avenue as a future church location, for the Linden Street facilities were no longer adequate.
Elliot L. Moses became minister in 1922 and by 1925 occu- pied the Peace Party House as a parsonage. Church activities centered in the new parish house erected behind the Peace Party House at 11 Wendell Avenue.
The next minister was George B. Spurr, who left in 1930. Henry G. Ives served from 1931 to 1937. He and his wife did much to restore the colonial charm of the Peace Party House, and opened it for many church activities.
In 1937 the church celebrated its 50th anniversary. A former minister of the church, Earl C. Davis, returned to conduct the service, and the address was given by the Reverend Dan H. Fenn, son of the church's first minister.
Subsequently, for two years, Truman L. Hayes served as min- ister. After his departure, services were conducted by laymen until they were discontinued in 1940.
Ten years later, in 1950, because of so many requests, the American Unitarian Association started services again in Pitts- field. They were so well attended that the church reorganized in 1951 and called David R. Kibby as minister. The next year, a committee started the Freedom Forum series of discussions, with lectures by eminent men and women.
Stirred with new vigor, the church and Sunday School out- grew the parish house and in 1954 moved to 175 Wendell Avenue, occupying a large house with adequate Church School
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rooms, a beautiful auditorium, and a separate craft shop for teaching the handicapped, sponsored by the Brotherhood and Service Committee. The old parish house was sold to a Jewish congregation, Knesses Israel, which transformed it into a syna- gogue.
First Church of Christ, Scientist
Formally organized in 1905, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, elected George D. Dutton as its first president. Sunday services and Wednesday evening meetings were held in the Merrill Building on North Street.
In 1907, the growing congregation bought the Bowerman house on South Street, transforming it into a church and read- ing room at a cost of $15,000. The reading room was moved to the corner of North Street and Park Square in 1919, and to its present location on South Street in 1944.
Meantime, in 1919, a lot on Wendell Avenue had been pur- chased from the wardens of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, and here a $135,000 church was dedicated in 1927. Funds for the construction of the church came from unsigned pledges given by members of the congregation, to be paid on a certain date. When the time came to meet the contractors' bills, there was always sufficient money on hand, so that the congregation did not have to go to the bank for the mortgage that had been arranged. When completed, the attractive new church, semi- Colonial in design, was free of liens and encumbrances. During the 1950s, new lighting was installed, and the interior re- decorated.
Seventh Day Adventist
In the home of Lucy F. Myers on Sabbath (Saturday) after- noon, August 4, 1906, a small company of thirteen members was organized by Elder H. F. Ketring as the Seventh-Day Ad- ventist Church of Pittsfield. The church ordained F. W. Stray as the local elder, and the ordinances of the Lord's Supper were celebrated. During the next few years, the church declined as members moved away or joined other churches. Regular preach-
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ing services ceased from 1910 to 1918, though a Sabbath School was regularly held.
In the summer of 1921, Elder Sidney Norton, pastor of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Springfield, held a tent re- vival in the eastern part of town. During the revival, Sabbath services were held in the tent. Afterward, the congregation met in a hired hall on North Street, at the rear of Clark's wallpaper store, later holding its meetings in the Odd Fellows' Hall on South Street. Elder W. R. Utchman came as pastor in 1927, and meetings were then moved to a rented building on the corner of Smith and Tyler streets.
In 1928, Elder C. P. Lillie, just returned from mission service in China, became pastor. The first Junior Missionary Volunteer Society for young people was organized by his wife, Sister Lillie, in 1934. At this time the place of meeting was changed to the Morningside Methodist Church, later to the upper room of the Unitarian Church on Wendell Avenue. In- creased membership soon obliged the congregation to rent the main auditorium.
In 1940, when it became evident that even the main audi- torium was becoming too small for the membership, a commit- tee was appointed to seek a larger place of worship. In 1944, a $5,000 church building fund was started, and the next year the congregation bought the Edmister property at 210 Wen- dell Avenue. The elementary school, or church day school, was moved from a cottage on South Mountain to a room in the new building.
During the late 1940s, under Elder Hans P. Gram's ener- getic leadership, two revivals were held, one in North Adams, which resulted in the establishment there of a branch Sabbath School.
Then followed a succession of pastors, each staying but a few years-Elder John F. Knipschild until 1952, Elder Willis Graves from 1953 to 1954, and the present pastor, Elder V. C. Brown, who came in August 1954. During these years the congregation remodeled and refurnished the church.
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Catholic
St. Joseph's
The oldest of the Catholic parishes is St. Joseph's. The early congregation, largely Irish in descent, built a small wooden church on Melville Street in 1844. In 1864, it began building the large Gothic stone church on North Street that has been a landmark in the community for so long. Many difficulties, chiefly want of funds, delayed completion of the church until 1889.
In 1897 the parish built, just south of the church, a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph. The Sisters established in their building in 1899 an academy which has grown into St. Joseph's Grammar School on North Pearl Street and the large St. Joseph's Catholic Central High School on Maplewood Avenue.
St. Joseph's has had only two pastors since 1913. The Rev- erend James Boyle served the parish from 1900 until his death in 1913. He was succeeded by Father Bernard S. Conaty, pastor for 27 years, later a Right Reverend Monsignor and the vicar general of the Springfield diocese.
On April 10, 1940, just a day before he would have celebrat- ed the 58th anniversary of his ordination as a priest, Monsignor Conaty died at the age of 84, lamented by the whole city. His successor was the present pastor, the Reverend Charles L. Foley. Born and educated in North Adams, he had been ordained at the Grand Seminary in Montreal in 1910.
Under Father Foley, the parish carried out its long-cherished hope of building a new large Catholic high school. The $400,000 building on Maplewood Avenue was dedicated in 1942.
During World War II, sixteen of the congregation lost their lives in service. In the early 1950s, St. Joseph's undertook an improvement program, renovating the church, the rectory, the convent, and the grammar school.
Notre Dame
The parish of Notre Dame de Bon Conseil, with a congrega- tion predominantly French Canadian in origin, was founded in
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1867. It observed its 70th anniversary in 1937 by erecting a new parochial school across from the church on Melville Street and by remodeling an apartment building at the corner of First and Melville streets into a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, teachers at the school.
In 1876, French Roman Catholics in the city were worship- ping in the original St. Joseph's church, a small wooden struc- ture on Melville Street. In 1895, they began erecting on this site their present church, a handsome Romanesque structure. It was dedicated in 1897 by the pastor, the Reverend Amabile F. L'Hereux.
Upon the latter's death in 1901, the Reverend Clovis Baudoin became pastor. He was succeeded in 1910 by the Reverend Levi J. Achim, who ministered to the parish for thirty-four years, down to his death in 1944. His successor was the Reverend Leo E. Laviolette, who had been an assistant and later the adminis- trator of the parish, directing the building of Notre Dame Parochial School. After a pastorate of four years, Father Lavio- lette died and was succeeded by the present pastor, the Rev- erend Albert T. Beaudry.
St. Charles'
The first parish set off by St. Joseph's was St. Charles'. Or- ganized late in 1893, the congregation first met in the old Coli- seum, or Rink, as temporary quarters. Under its pastor, the Rev- erend Charles J. Boylan, the parish soon began building its present church, a brick structure on Briggs Avenue in the north- western section of the city. The lower part was finished and mass was celebrated there late in 1894. Construction slowly continued on the upper part, and the completed edifice was dedicated on June 23, 1901, during the pastorate of the Rev- erend William H. Goggin. Meantime, the Noble house at the corner of North and Charles streets had been bought and trans- formed into a rectory.
After the transfer of Father Boylan to Hatfield in 1898, there were several short pastorates down to 1903, when the Reverend William J. Dower, pastor at St. Ann's in Lenox, came
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to minister to St. Charles' for more than twenty years, until his death in 1926. During his pastorate, a campaign was start- ed to build a parochial school. The campaign eventuated in the attractive St. Charles' School on Lenox Avenue, which opened for the fall term in 1924, with the Sisters of St. Joseph as teachers.
Under Father Dower's successor, the Reverend James P. Moore, who had been head of the Diocesan Mission Band, the lower church was remodeled and dedicated as a Chapel of St. Teresa of Lisieux. After his death in 1936, Father Moore was succeeded by the Reverend James W. McGrath, who came from St. Mary's in Turners Falls. The latter, in spite of difficult de- pression times, set about making extensive repairs to the rectory and convent, and reduced the parish debt to $26,000. To him the parish owes its Perpetual Novena to Our Sorrowful Mother.
After a short pastorate, death claimed Father McGrath in 1940. He was succeeded by the present pastor, the Reverend Robert L. Ahern, who had been serving as Chancellor of the Springfield Diocese. In 1943, St. Charles' celebrated its golden jubilee with special ceremonies, including the burning of the mortgage on parish property. Since that time, new floors, new pews, and a new heating system have been installed in the church building, which has been completely renovated.
Mount Carmel, All Souls' Chapel
In 1953, Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, receiving on the occasion a paternal apostolic blessing from Pope Pius XII. Appointed in 1903, the Reverend Eugene Giavina of Turin, Italy, was the first pastor.
The Italians in the city at the time were few and scattered, the majority living around "the Junction." Most of them were poor. For thirteen years the parish had no church building of its own, its members worshipping at St. Joseph's.
In 1912, the parish purchased the Daniel Dodge estate on Fenn Street for $8,000 and converted the house into a chapel and rectory. The Congregation of the Stigmatine Fathers was.
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placed in charge of the parish in 1915, with the Reverend An- thony Toniolli as pastor. Under him, ground was broken on the Fenn Street property for a new church, with the parishioners and the pastor doing much of the work with pick and shovel. The first mass in the lower church was held on Christmas Day, 1916.
Work on the $125,000 upper church began in 1922, and Easter mass was celebrated there in 1924. Northern Italian Renaissance in style, designed by George E. Haynes, it is a large and distinctive church, having a campanile rising skyward a hundred feet, in which are hung three bells given by parishion- ers in 1923.
Upon the death of Father Toniolli in 1925, the pastor was the Reverend Charles J. Zanotti from 1926 to 1940. During his pastorate, in 1931, the first group of Venerini Sisters came to the parish to assist in instructing the youth. In 1940, the last lien on the church was paid off and the mortgage burned with re- joicing on St. Anthony's feast day.
Father Zanotti's successor was the Reverend Henry Gabos- better known to his parishioners as "Father Henry"-beloved for his zeal in visiting the sick. The parish had grievous losses at this time, for twenty-five of its men gave their lives in World War II. One of them had been an assistant in the church, the Reverend William S. Contino, chaplain of the 87th Mountain Infantry. Killed in action in Italy in 1945, he was later buried in Pittsfield.
Father Gabos died in 1946 and was succeeded by the Rev- erend Peter V. Torretta. A house of worship, All Souls' Chapel, was erected for the convenience of many Italians living in the Lakewood section. As building costs were high, a Quonset building seating 300 people was put up on Pembroke Avenue and dedicated in 1948, being Mount Carmel's first mission church. Its rector was the Reverend Camillo L. Santini, who had been assistant in the parish for four years. When Father Santini departed for the Pacific Coast in 1950, he was succeeded by the Reverend Carlo J. Bevilacqua. Father Santini soon returned to the parish, becoming its pastor in 1952 when Father Torretta
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was transferred to Springfield to minister to the Mount Carmel church there.
In preparation for its Golden Jubilee in 1953, the interior of Mount Carmel was renovated. Modern lighting fixtures were installed. To commemorate the occasion, parishioners gave many gifts to the church, including lanterns, vestments, a bronze tabernacle, altar cloths, and candlesticks.
In 1953, the church bought from the city one of its old public school buildings, the Read, which extended the church prop- erty to Second Street. Improved and modernized, the building opened as the Mount Carmel Parochial School in September 1954, with the Venerini Sisters as teachers. The parish now plans to provide a new rectory for the priests and a new con- vent for the nuns.
St. Mark's
The fifth Catholic parish to be established in the city was St. Mark's, which was set off from St. Joseph's in 1913. Its first pastor was the Reverend Michael J. Leonard, who had been serving as an assistant at St. Joseph's. Father Leonard minis- tered to the parish for more than forty years, until his death late in 1955.
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