USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Trinity's first century, 1844-1944 > Part 7
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The Adamses arrived in April 1918, while the nation was deep in war, with fourteen year old Winslow and eleven year old Vincent. Dr. Adams knew what he had come for, he loved it with all his soul and he set to work vigorously. First life and sparkle and enthusiasm were put into the activities on Bridge Street. The Sunday evening
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services were reborn, streamlined. He was a liberal in theology, modern. Before the new psychology became a vogue it was familiar and popularized by lectures and study groups in Trinity. Jane Cowles came, famous lec- turers, motion pictures. The church was gathering strength.
And back of all of this Dr. Fred Adams was studying architecture and symbolism and dreaming dreams. And the laymen of the church were uncommonly busy handling business deals and financial plans.
There was going to be a new church out in Forest Park. And it was going to be great and beautiful.
Lucius E. Ladd must have turned back over again in his grave. He would want to see this. He would very much have liked to have been in on it. It was almost like the old days. And there was something about adventuring for Christ, if the venture was big enough, to capture a man's heart.
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Horace A. Moses
Thanks to the vision and enduring philanthropy of Mr. Horace A. Moses, Trinity Methodist Church is included among the most famous and beautiful churches in the world.“
7 TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH
(VEN to begin to try to be specific about the activities leading up to and culminating in the merger of Bridge Street Trinity and Grace Churches, the thousand and one adjustments that followed, and then the unending niagara of multitudenous details involved in planning, building, financing and dedicating so vast an enterprise as the pre- sent church buildings and program, would take a shelf full of volumes.
On May 8, 1922, Dr. C. Oscar Ford, superintendent of the Springfield District, read to a joint meeting of the two Quarterly Conferences, Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes' de- claration of merger, "By the authority vested in me . . . . The die was cast. The family was reunited. The great adventure was on.
The merged society had only 600 members. The loss to neighborhood churches because of the move was painful, and putting the membership rolls in order meant sharp trimming.
There followed an era of activity and accomplishment which quite staggers the imagination. Within three weeks a temporary tabernacle was designed and built, by the Ernest F. Carlson Company, on Oakland Street, directly across from the Forest Park Junior High School front entrance. It was dedicated on May 21. The official
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TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH, A COMMUNITY CATHEDRAL
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
boards and committees were set up from the merged socie- ties, the building committee for the new church appointed: Carlos B. Ellis, chairman, Horace A. Moses, Willis H. Sanburn, H. S. Baldwin, G. H. Chamberlain, Horace N. Clark, F. D. Lantz, Mrs. Faxon E. Nichols, Madeline Moses, R. L. Notman, H. W. Selby, and F. C. Taplin.
By June 3 of that same year the new Quarterly Confer- ence (four secret ballots were required) adopted the name of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen & Collens of Boston, the personal choice of Dr. Adams, and a com- pany distinguished for its gothic designs, was selected as the architect. By August 18 the contract for the Com- munity House, the Education Building and the Chapel was let to the Edward F. Miner Building Company of Worces- ter. The actual work began. It was not on the site origi- nally planned, but on Sumner Avenue, at the corner of Forest Park, on property purchased from the Street Rail- way Company.
Meanwhile services in the tabernacle, which "was not much better than a barn," had all the vigor and exciting anticipation natural to such cumulative events. Arthur Turner who had been organist and choir director in Bridge Street Trinity since 1912 was in charge of the music. Mr. Bowern, from Grace Church, was asked to take charge of the music in the newly organized Liberty Church (whose pastor, incidentally, was subsidized $300 by Trinity). Few have approached Mr. Turner's contribution to the musical life of Springfield. He was the organizer and director of the MacDowell Male Choir and the ladies St. Cecelia Choir both of which gained wide repute, and he was the conductor of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra for ten years. He served Trinity Church, old and new, for fourteen years, leaving in 1926.
The congregation worshipped for a year and a half in the tabernacle and then on November 15, 1923, about the same time that an imprisoned Austrian paperhanger by the name of Adolph Hitler was beginning a book, "Mein Kampf" in a Munich prison, moved over to spend five years of worship in the newly dedicated Community Hall.
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SOME "FIRSTS"
Here are some "Firsts" for the record:
Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes, Resident Bishop of the Boston Area.
Dr. C. Oscar Ford, Superintendent of the Springfield District.
Arthur H. Turner, Director of Music.
Warren T. Powell, Director of Religious Education.
Harold Sweeny, Director of Physical Education, soon to be followed by Earle Herbert.
H. L. Notman, Superintendent of the Sunday School, soon followed by Wallace Higgins.
Robert Marshall, Director of Boy's Work.
Davis Clark, General Secretary of the Sunday School.
Howard Selby, W. O. Parmenter, Ralph Crandall, J. Edwin Fletcher, local preachers.
William Wahl, President of the Epworth League, followed by Ruth Ohnsman (Mrs. Edwin Malone).
Royal B. Sturtevant, Treasurer, followed by Howard Selby then Edward Seyler.
Harry Perry, Recording Steward, followed by Kenneth Miller.
Faxon Nichols, Treasurer of Benevolences, followed by Charles W. Jones.
Mrs. H. E. Streeter, President of the Women s Society, followed successively by Mrs. Howard Selby, Mrs. Ray- mond Johnson and Mrs. Walter Weitzel.
Annie M. Raddin, Church Secretary and Deaconess. Caroline A. Boultenhouse, Deaconess.
Mrs. Edna Palmer, Pastor's Assistant, later joined by Helen Durgin.
Mrs. Beatrice Osmond, Bookkeeper.
Miss Ruth S. Smith, Children's Worker.
Mrs. Harry Hoyle, Parish Visitor.
Kenneth Miller, Secretary of the Official Board.
Fred D. Lantz. Chairman of Board of Trustees.
Nelson E. Foley, Treasurer of the Building Fund (and still is).
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+
Rev. Dr. Fred Winslow Adams First Pastor of the New Trinity Church
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F. J. Darby and Oliver S. Lawrence, Sextons, followed by Herbert Hutchinson and Arden Mead.
Mrs. Mary E. Lewis, Locker Room Matron (and still is).
F. J. Harmon, William Wahl and Sherman Ellis, Ushers Committee, followed by the many years of leadership of Albert Rice.
J. R.Jennings, President, of the Men's Club, organized in December 1923, followed by Chester Savage, then Sam- uel L. Forbes.
Mrs. Alfred S. Coren, President of the Women's Home Missionary Society.
Mrs. R. L. Notman, President of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society.
John H. Ohnsman, President of Senior Men's Bible Class, with Mr. Fletcher as teacher.
Mrs. Charlotte Bermudes, Director of the Trinity Play- ers.
Philip Landers, Editor of The Carillon.
J. Edwin Fletcher, Church Guide (and still is).
Dr. B. B. Farnsworth, Teacher of the Open Court Class. Herbert VerVeer, President of the Open Court.
Ada Wilson, Trinity Girls Club, brought along from Bridge Street Trinity, and meeting in the Salvation Army quarters at Stearns Square.
The North Main Street, or Atwood Class, The Mary I. Nichols Class and the S.S.S. Class have been mentioned previously.
The church office was in the Stearns Square Building, 293 Bridge Street. A beautiful parsonage was purchased at 87 Maplewood Terrace.
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1
Façade of Trinity Sanctuary.
DEDICATIONS
On October 1 a unique and impressive event was the opening of the corner stone boxes from old Trinity and Grace Churches, containing many relics, all of which are preserved in the historical cabinet. Among the prize items in this cabinet is the spade which turned the first earth for the construction of both old Grace and the new Trinity.
There were so many ceremonies and dedicatory services in connection with the progressive building program that
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it is only possible to list the successive dates:
May 21, 1922 August 1922
The Tabernacle dedicated.
Ground broken on Sumner Avenue Site.
November 15,1923
Community House and Educational Building dedicated, Bishop Hughes preaching.
September 2, 1924
Cornerstone laid under Grace Chapel.
Grace Chapel dedicated.
June 7, 1925 October 30, 1927
Breaking of ground for the Sanctu- ary, Mrs. Horace Moses turning first shovelful of sod.
September 11, 1928
Dedication of Singing Tower and Carillon.
September 16, 1928
First recital on Carillon by Anton Brees."
December 14, 1928 May 19, 1929
Dedication of Junior Building.
Sanctuary completed and dedicated, Bishop William F. Anderson, prea- ching.
Present at many of these dedicatory events were eight people who had been members of old Pynchon Street Church and had witnessed the corner stone laying of Bridge Street Trinity: Mrs. W. R. Price, Mrs. Mary E. Sanburn, Mr. S. Olin Potter, Miss Delia and Miss Ella Potter, Mr. F. L. Gunn and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Warren. And there were five who had been members of old Central Church and had witnessed the cornerstone laying at Grace Church on South Main Street: Mrs. O. K. Merrill, Mrs. J. W. Durfee, Mr. Charles W. Turk, Mrs. Delia Carroll and Mrs. R. D. Chaffee.
Needless to say the everlasting most was made of every occasion and for the seven building years life was a be- wildering procession of pageantry, inspiration, liturgy and breathtaking pride. There was practically an epidemic of dedications. Nationally known clergymen from all over the nation participated, and the best of musicians. Scores of columns of newspaper print and cuts told the unfolding
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story to an awed Springfield public. The church publica- tions of all denominations ran feature accounts regularly, and the Trinity office was swamped with inquiries, com- ments and congratulations.
The final dedication in 1929 lasted for a week with fra- ternal greetings from leaders of sister denominations, the organ dedication, reception of two hundred new members, youth dedications, dedicatory banquet, honors to former pastors, the commission of Reverend and Mrs. J. Holmes Smith to be Trinity's missionaries in India, and even a dedicatory hymn written by Mrs. Warren (Marie Cole) Powell to the tune of "America the Beautiful."
"O beautiful for grey stone walls Against the sunset sky;
For mystic grace when darkness falls And stars look from on high. O Trinity, blest Trinity, May God build thy walls strong;
And may their might stand for the right To succor human wrong.
O beautiful for spirits brave Who dreamed thy walls sublime,
Who strength and love and service gave To achieve the dream divine.
O Trinity, blest Trinity, May we their spirit share;
God grant that we may serve for thee And all men everywhere."
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TRINITY GROWS
Smack in the middle of this stirring period, in 1924, the quadrennial General Conference of Methodism met in Springfield for a solid month. This was the only time in history that the General Conference has convened in New England. There were delegates from all over the world and the whole church was exposed to Trinity's expanding exploits. That year, too, marked the beginning of the famous world wide Centennary Drive of the church for benevolences. Side by side with the gigantic building financing Trinity, with Faxon Nichols as treasurer, gave $10,000 for benevolences in one year, $7,700 going directly to this fund.
The Reverend Warren E. Powell came in 1924 and for four years he and Mrs. Powell pioneered in developing pro- grams and plans in the field of Religious Education. Both Dr. and Mrs. Powell went directly from Trinity to the faculty of the Boston University School of Religious Ed- ucation where they have made significant contributions to the educational phases of church work.
New societies and projects came to the front. The Trin- ity Men's Club, which had been organized in December 1923, reached the peak in 1930 under the leadership of Walter Ellis and became the nucleus of the Springfield City Club. The Open Court Class, started by eight charter members from the Men's Club, was born in 1925. Dr. Burt B. Farnsworth of Springfield College taught it for several years. At first it was a men's class only, often averaging sixty in attendance. Later the women joined and attendance went over the hundred mark. The Trinity Player's dramatic group was launched in 1923. It soon established a high reputation for Little Theater produca- tions and made Christmases and Easters brilliant and glowing in the church. Mrs. Charlotte Bermudes was director during the initial two years, after which Mrs. Nelson Foley continued in that capacity until 1933. The first president after the reorganization in 1935 was John Seyler.
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A section of Trinity's own printing plant.
In 1928 the Trinity Child Study Group formed, later responsible for the free Well-Baby Clinic. The Trinitan Fellowship for young people between the ages of eighteen and thirty was created on December 11, 1927 with Harold Durgin as the first president: The first issue of ( The Carillon., a weekly parish paper, published and printed in the composing and press room of the church, appeared on November 25, 1927. It is now in its eighteenth year, hav- ing failed to function only three years since its founding by Philip Landers. Today it is one of the best known journals of its kind in the country and reprints of its editorials and comments are to be found in church calendars and parish papers from coast to coast.
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Ladies Parlor
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A typical year for the Women's Society showed that it raised $5,506 in the general budget, $450 for Home Miss- ions and $864 for Foreign Missions. Nearly $3000 of this was from one project, a dining hall at the Eastern States Exposition grounds.
Once Angela Morgan, the famous poetess, came to the Church. She was so enchanted by the beauty of Grace Chapel that in 1927 she wrote a little verse, inscribed to the Chapel, which has since become generally well known. It is called "Sanctuary"
"Only a step from the road,
A league from the toilsome town -- But oh, what hands to lift your load, What splendor streaming down; What eloquence of architecture Pure as forest shade, The ancient hush of Eden
Lighty on your spirit laid.
The remedy of wings for woe, Of triumph for dispair,
Eternities that breathe and glow Within the sacred air.
As though the very heart of God
Had flowered in this place, Through windows rich as goldenrod And carvings fine as lace, His majesty had spoken
In the beauty of an aisle, And altars were a token He had prayed with us awhile. Only a step from the street, . And the troubled ways of men; Yet here may God with mortals meet, And Christ be born again."
In August 1928 Mr. Philip Landers came to fill the office of Director of Religious Education, bringing with him a new bride. He had the privilege of helping to plan
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Kindergarten Department, Vacation Bible School July, 1944
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the new Junior Building and handle a religious education program of 787 enrolled pupils. Mr. Earle Herbert, who had been a student helper, had come directly from Spring- field College on April 1, 1927 to take over the full program of physical education, with student assistance. He con- tinued in that position for eight years with outstanding success in a pioneer field, for the last four years assuming the directorship of the religious educational work as well. Between them Mr. Landers and Mr. Herbert supervised as many as 2133 individuals a week! One of the events was a motion picture program (initiated the same year that the new sound pictures were being demonstrated in New York City) which played to an average attendance of 340 people. In 1927 the general Board of Education of the Methodist Church chose Trinity to be one of the thirty- five experimental centers in the nation.
In May, 1928, Trinity lost one of its pillars in the death of Mr. Robert R. Cleeland. He had been a member for fifty years, a trustee and treasurer of the church for a quarter of a century. Through all the planning and build- ing era his leadership was prominent and he was chairman of the building committee for Liberty Church. In business life he was the president of Kibbe Brothers, candy manu- facturers, and for two years was president of the National Confectioners Association. Mr. Cleeland fulfilled the as- sertion, so often confirmed by the record of Trinity's first century, that good churchmen make the finest citizens. He was long treasurer of theYMCA and was chairman of the building committee which erected the present Central Y building in Springfield and the one in West Springfield. With Mr. Moses he had conceived and founded the Junior Achievement movement which is now a thriving national enterprise. For several years a fund which he left the church supported the Cleeland Lectures.
Mrs. Mary J. Snyder, who had long been a Trinity member and whose husband, James E. Snyder, Jr., was officially active, was chosen to'succeed Arthur Turner as organist and choir director in 1926. A genuinely con- secrated Christian as well as a talented musician and with
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a modest manner which won many friends, it was her thrilling experience to build the first choirs, play the great, new Skinner organ, and, after a period of instruction, be- come the first carilloneur and the second woman carill- oneur in America. Mrs. Fred Winslow Adams was the soprano soloist of the choir for seven years beginning in the Bridge Street Church. But at the 1929 dedication service the quartet of Mrs. Giles Blague, soprano, Mrs. Charles Lougee, contralto, Mr. Leslie Mason, tenor, and Mr. George Roberts, bass, was to serve continuously, with the exception of Mr. Mason, for fifteen years. Mr. Roberts is still at it and better than ever.
Mrs. Edna Palmer (Mrs. Ludwig Kongsted), came up from the Bridge Street Church as Dr. Adam's assistant and general doer of all things churchly. She remained for ten years. Her reports were always delightfully informal. Once she described the tribulations of a church secretary by telling some of the amusing errors which crept into the printed calendar. When Dr. Adams was preaching on Channing Pollock's "The Fool", the calendar unwittingly declared, "Sermon by Dr. Adams -- The Fool." Again when his sermon topic was "Thou Shalt Not Steal," the chorus choir sang, "Silently Steal Away." And yet again when the subject was "Why Do Young People Stay Away From Church Sunday Night," the girls' choir innocently sang, "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go." And best of all -- or worst -- one of Dr. Adams' beautiful Easter med- itations on immortality was confused to, "So Indeed Shall We Practice Immorality."
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FINANCES
This greatly expanded and increasingly expanding pro- gram cost money. With the pressure of the Building Fund drives there was a deficit in current expenses which con- tinued to grow larger each year. Frequently money was borrowed from the banks to meet these immediate ex- penses.
Yet it seemed perfectly safe. Mr. Frank Dunlap was tireless in his counsel and service to put the highly involved real estate holdings of the church on a sound basis. A three story business building, consisting of five store units, was built on the site of old Trinity, and a similar enterprise of three units on the site of old Grace. Both of these pro- perties were ready to be sold or leased and their valuation was extremely, and satisfactorily, high. It was even go- ing higher. To sell them meant the sacrifice of thousands of dollars in potential income. The Mohican property had been sold for $200,000 after Mr. Dunlap had made it possible, without profit to himself, to buy it originally for only $55,000 and use its rich yield in rental through the years that the valuation was climbing.
True, there was considerable shrinkage in pledges. They had been made to cover a five year period. Five years is a long time and much can happen. The Carillon and Singing Tower, with its sixty-one bells, and beautiful Grace Chapel had been the outright gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Horace A. Moses and their daughter, Miss Madeline Moses. And when the sanctuary building fund drive was launched for $400,000 in 1927, with Mr. Everett M. Sime at the head of it, Mr. and Mrs. Moses agreed to match every dollar that came in with another dollar.
A great deal of money was borrowed at different times from the banks, to keep construction going, with perfect faith in the general pledges of the people. In some cases as many as twenty-nine different individuals in the church endorsed these notes. Why not? Everything was bounti- fully covered by pledges and valuable real estate. All of these negotiations were transacted openly and in perfect
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order, every move formally submitted to and passed by the Official Board or the Quarterly Conference. In later years there was veiled criticism of these maneuvers and it is re- vealing to discover that the silent but eloquent minutes of the proceedings show that some of the severest critics were precisely the same ones who had made the motions to take such steps. Those were lush days.
The building was finished and dedicated on May 19, 1929.
Five months later, in October 1929, the stock market on the New York Exchange crashed and the Depression was on! The decline in stocks dipped fifteen billions in two months, affecting 25,000,000 people and representing a total loss of $50,000,000,000. The valuation on the prop- erties Trinity was holding slid down almost out of sight overnight, the mortgages stayed up, and the interest. Some sales contracts that had already been made were returned, unhonored. Hundreds of Trinity people lost jobs and savings. Their pledges could not possibly be met. Many a man of great wealth was wiped out completely.
Though Trinity had not one cent of mortage on her new building, she was nevertheless left with a staggering debt and nothing in the way of security for it but those down- town holdings of indeterminate value and high tax rates, and the endorsed names of trusting laymen.
In October, 1930, Mr. Foley could quietly report for the Building Fund: $1,281 on hand; $161,800 due on notes. The report was placed on file.
Dr. Adams had served for twelve years, two of them on Bridge Street and eight in the thrilling but incredibly arduous task of planning and building, less than one year in the magnificent sanctuary about which he had dreamed for so long. His job was done, and done better than well. An invitation came to accept the chair of "Worship and the Pastoral Office" in Boston University School of Theo- logy. He accepted.
There were few dry eyes the night he read his resigna- tion. "Trinity will forever be a living memorial to his labors" was the official verdict of the people, more than
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V
The Singing Tower
The Trinity Carillon in the Singing Tower consists of sixty-one bells and is one of the largest ever made.
The big four-ton bell bears the inscription:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD This Carillon is the gift of Horace .A., Alice E., and Madeline Moses Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church Springfield, Massachusetts
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half of whom had joined the church during his indefatig- able ministry. Unanimously he was elected Pastor Emeri- tus and in March 1930, not only the longest pastorate in any branch of Trinity's long history had come to an end, but by all odds the most successful and fruitful.
Dr. Adams retired from the faculty of Boston Universi- ty in 1937, served three years in Cambridge uniting Harv- ard and Grace Churches, retired from the active pastorate in 1941 and was appointed to supply the famous old Cop- ley Street Methodist Church in Boston, which he still serves. He and Mrs. Adams live at 4 Newport Road, Cambridge. Both Winslow and Vincent are married, and both are today in the United States Army.
PERIOD OF THE DEPRESSION
The Reverend F. Marion Smith was a Californian who had come east for theological training, had served the Northampton Church for four years and then had been called to the First Methodist Church in Brooklyn, New York, in the New York East Conference. Very tall, strik- ing in appearance, a young man of engaging personality, high spiritual and intellectual qualifications, he made an instant impression upon the committee seeking a new pastor. The bishops were consulted, the choice agreed to and the appointment made.
He arrived with Mrs. Smith and son Wilson in April 1930 for five years of ministry during five years of the depression.
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