USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 21
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*Lamb's "History." See above,
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the church itself was, of course, a most important fac- tor in these operations, for it helped greatly to fix the character of the neighborhood and to attract as residents the most desirable class of people.
Even before the site for the church had been se- cured, the trustees had begun to consider in a general way, the plans for their new building, but when Thirty-seventh Street was finally determined upon, they began in earnest. A committee consisting of Messrs. Spofford, Knapp, and Holden of the trustees, and Mr. John M. Nixon, representing the congrega- tion, presented tentative plans for the new church and lecture room in November, 1856. It seems to have been agreed by all, from the beginning, that in its shape and in the general arrangement of its pews the new building should resemble the old one, and especially that, while each pew might well be made more commodious and the aisles increased in width, the seating capacity should not be enlarged. "No. church [to be under the charge of one pastor]," it was said, "should contain a greater number of pews" than did the old place of worship on Beekman Street.
In regard, however, to several other important matters, there was some uncertainty. It was first proposed, for instance, that the lecture room should be under the church, but fortunately it was at length decided that a chapel should be erected in the rear of the main building, although it was feared that this would add $10,000 to the cost. Another important question related to the placing of the pipe organ; for it had been determined that the violoncello should no longer supply the church's music. This innova-
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tion, which the trustees had early made a part of their plans, was, it is interesting to know, heartily desired by the congregation and by the session, "in the hope," as they said, "of adding interest to the public worship of the sanctuary." * The debated question in regard to the organ, therefore, was not whether there should be one, but where it should be placed, some favoring the front of the church above the entrance, and others the west end behind the pulpit.
The architect employed for the preliminary work was Mr. Leopold Eidlitz, but after February, 1857, the work was in the hands of the firm of T. Thomas and Son,; to whom doubtless the final plans, from which the church was built, should be altogether attributed. Several months were spent in this all- important work of preparation, and then, in the summer of 1857, the walls began to rise.
They were built of two materials. The first was, of course, that which tradition and the church's name prescribed: it was still to be the "Brick" Church. But in deference to the accepted fashion of that par- ticular time, referred to a few pages back, the base, the trimmings, and the greater part of the steeple, whose strong and graceful lines have made it ever
* The session at this time were aroused to an increased interest in the music of the church. Possibly they felt that the trustees had too entire control of it. At any rate, mindful of "the sacred privilege and the appro- priate duty of the session to conduct that part of public worship which consists in praise to Almighty God," they now appointed a special com- mittee for this purpose. The committee's first task was to secure an organist, who was to receive a salary of $500 a year.
t On May 18th, 1858, and from that time on, the architect's fees were paid to Mr. Griffith Thomas, who is subsequently referred to as "the archi- tect of the church."
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since one of New York's noblest architectural monu- ments, were of brownstone. * The tower, from which the steeple rose, contained the old Beekman Street bell and a clock, ¡ whose four faces told the time to the whole neighborhood. There were three main entrances to the building from Fifth Avenue, and high windows lighted the church, the vestibule, and the chapel, on either side. The style chosen for the architectural details was the somewhat late classic, and the design as a whole was simple and dignified. On both street and avenue the church was surrounded by a high iron fence with lamp-posts at the entrance gates. In short, without continuing further this description, it is enough to say that except for the stained glass in the windows and the vine which now covers the entire south wall and is making its way across the front, the exterior at the present day tells us precisely how it looked at the time of its erec- tion.
The same thing cannot be said of the inside of the building. The plaster walls were then almost white in color, and divided into rectangles to give the effect of courses of stone. The windows, filled with plain glass, were fitted with great folding shutters, §
* The tendency to scale off which this stone developed in the moist climate of New York, has caused the repair of the steeple from time to time to be a very troublesome and costly operation.
t The clock was ordered while the church was building, but it did not arrive until after the dedication. The gossip of the time gave out that, when installed, it would have "illuminated dials." See "The Presby- terian," November 6th, 1858.
# In March, 1908, new clock faces of glass replaced the original wooden ones, of which one was blown down in a strong wind in the preceding fall.
§ The writer well remembers with what interest, as a boy, he would watch the sexton manipulate them, if by some good fortune they needed readjustment during service.
INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT BRICK CHURCH AS IT APPEARED IN 1858
-
m
.... 4
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while the ceiling, now so richly adorned, was then a perfectly plain white surface. Yet it is interesting to observe that those features of the newly completed interior which were selected for special mention by a contemporary journal * a week after the building was first opened to the public, are, with one exception, to be seen in the church to-day. The "Scagliola col- umns" still support the half dome of the apse behind the pulpit .; The floors of the vestibule, "laid with marble," have withstood admirably the tread of almost two generations (though at the pres- ent day of costly buildings their material would hardly be deemed worthy of any special admira- tion). The stairways to the galleries are still of the same "solid oak," of which they were con- structed in the beginning, and we hope that those who climb them still find that they "are of easy ascent."
The one exception referred to a moment ago was perhaps the most magnificent object of which the new church could boast, the sole extravagance, one might say, in which the trustees had indulged. It was a huge brass chandelier of a hundred lights, which hung from the centre of the ceiling, and, except for a few single brackets under the gallery and two lamp- stands in the pulpit, lighted the entire church. It cost no less than $1,300. Its place now knows it no more. Long ago, no doubt, it was broken up and sold for old metal, but it was greatly admired when the
* "The Presbyterian," November 6th, 1858.
t Their position, however, was slightly changed a few years after the church was built. Originally the six columns were all at equal distances from one another. The reason for the change will be explained at the proper place.
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new church was first opened and for many a year after.
Three other features of the church need to be men- tioned before the reader will be able adequately to picture to himself the original interior. First, the pews were painted white or cream-color and had the same mahogany trimmings that exist to-day, though now almost overlooked amid the generally dark tones that prevail. Secondly, the organ-loft had been placed at the west end, above and behind the pulpit. The marble columns in those days stood free, and through the openings between them one could look into the gallery, where the organ * had been erected, and from which the chorister led the con- gregation in the singing. Finally, as many people of the present day will remember, there were, in the east wall of the interior, over the central door, three niches. It was originally intended that all of these should be used, as the following action of the trustees informs us. At a meeting held the day before the church was dedicated, they resolved "that whenever the lady friends of the Rev. Dr. Spring shall procure a bust of his person, in bronze or marble, semi-co- lossal in size, and executed with artistic skill, the cen- tral niche in the inner front wall of the new Brick Church be, and is hereby appointed, to its reception, and the side niches to urns or vases as shall most appropriately embellish the same." The embellish- ing urns or vases were never introduced, and the bust of Dr. Spring did not take its place in the centre until after his death.
If the interior of 1858, with its light color and
* The organ was built by Mr. Richard Montgomery Ferris, for $2,300.
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severe simplicity, would seem strange to persons familiar with its present appearance, it seemed no less strange to the members of the old Brick Church, when they first entered it, for, aside from the most general resemblances to the older building in shape and arrangement, there were but two familiar objects in the whole church. As they came in at the central door they could see, on the left-hand wall of the ves- tibule, the old dedicatory tablet of black stone which had been removed to this place from the front of the downtown building, a visible memorial of the "Pres- byterian Church erected in the year of our Lord 1767," * and when after entering the church itself, they had taken their seats and begun to look about them, there, in its familiar place, high on the wall above the pulpit, was the old white shield with its gilt letters, beloved by all the Brick Church people, still proclaiming that this house was "Holiness to the Lord." ¡
* Opposite, on the right-hand wall was (and is) another tablet of the same style and material, bearing the inscription:
THIS EDIFICE ERECTED In the Year of Our Lord 1858.
t See p. 133. Some other facts, which should not be altogether omitted may here be set down indiscriminately. At the west end of the church there were, on each side, above the entrances to the side galleries and just below the cornice, two smaller galleries which have been de- scribed as "the slave galleries," but they could hardly have been put to such a use in New York in 1858. They are now bricked up, so that they are no longer visible from the church, but the spaces still exist, and in one of them the old seats remained until a few years ago, when the room was fitted up as a robing-room for the choir. The pulpit of the church in 1858
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When the church was complete, and ready for occupancy, one delicate problem still remained to be solved. Those who had owned pews in the old building must in some just manner have their rights transferred to the new. At first it was hoped that in planning the uptown church the plan of pews might be made identical with that on Beekman Street, and the rights of the pew-owners simply transferred to new pews, exactly corresponding with the old ones. This, however, proved to be impracticable, and a more complicated method was adopted. First, $140,000, a figure somewhat arbitrarily fixed upon as the value of the pews in the old church, was ap- portioned among the said pews according to their size and location, and scrip for the proper amounts was issued to the owners. Second, minimum prices were assigned to the pews on Murray Hill .* And, third, the pews were put up at auction "in order," as the trustees somewhat naively remarked, "to give
was furnished with an enormous sofa and two equally enormous arm- chairs. The coverings of these, and of the cushion on which the Bible rested, together with the valance which surrounded the marble-topped communion table, were of brilliant red damask. The carpet also, I believe was red. The chapel (and this name, by the way, was applied to the entire building in the rear of the church) contained on the first floor the lecture room, fitted up with pews like a little church. The square entrance hall was then open all the way up to the roof. On the second story were the pastor's study or "library," and the Sunday-school room. It had been proposed to place the Sunday-school in the basement, and possibly this was done for a time. The entire building, church and chapel together, cost about $150,000. (This was $25,000, more than had been expected at the outset.) The furniture and carpets had cost nearly $5,000. Including the land, therefore, the trustees had paid out about $213,000. The pro- ceeds from the sale of the old site, with interest, provided 203,000, so that $10,000, had to be borrowed. Other needs increased this loan to $15,000.
* The prices ranged from $150 to $1,500.
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every person an opportunity to locate according to his wishes." Before this plan had been entirely car- ried out, however, the church had been opened for public worship.
And happy must the people have been as the time approached when they would once more have a church of their own. For more than two years they had been using Hope Chapel, maintaining there, as well as they could, their church life. * And, indeed they had succeeded nobly. This is sufficiently in- dicated by the mention of a single fact, namely, that it was at this very juncture, while they were strug- gling to reestablish their own organization on a new basis, that they found time and energy to go outside of their own immediate interests, in order to inaug- urate another work of the utmost importance. This refers to the opening of that Sunday-school on the west side of the city which has since developed into Christ Church; but the complete story of that unsel- fish and most successful enterprise must be reserved for a future chapter.
And now, at length, the time had come to take possession. The period of exile was over, or, since these pilgrims were not minded to return to the land from whence they had come out, we may rather say that their ship, which had left the old harbor and put to sea two years before, had at last been brought
* Dr. Adams had "very kindly and cordially" offered the use of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church for the holding of the Communion Service on at least one occasion, and this was gratefully accepted. The trustees' meetings during the two years had been held in the directors' room of the Mechanics' Bank, the session meetings in the pastor's temporary study.
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in safety to her desired haven. On October 31st, 1858, the church on Murray Hill was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. *
* From contemporary newspapers and other periodicals, the following account of this event has been compiled. The people, assembled by the same bell that had "sounded the call to worship for so many years in the old church," came together in great numbers. When the service began "an immense crowd filled the spacious edifice, even to the aisles and por- tals." Ex-President Fillmore and his wife were observed to be among the congregation. The service was, of course, conducted by Dr. Spring, "the venerable pastor, who seems yet to retain a large portion of the vigor of his younger days." The order of service was as follows:
1. Opening Prayer.
2. Psalm (sung by the congregation),
"Where shall we go to see and find A habitation for our God."
3. Prayer.
4. Psalm 132.
5. Collection, "A Thank Offering, for the benefit of the Princeton Students."
6. Sermon, on "The Sanctuary," from the text Leviticus 19 : 30. (It "held the unwearied attention of the audience for an hour and a half.")
7. The Dedication (the people standing).
8. Hymn.
9. Benediction.
"Fifth Avenue was completely blocked with carriages for a long time after the close of the services." Afternoon and evening services were also held, Dr. Samuel Spring of East Hartford officiating at the one, and Dr. Phillips of New York at the other. See "N. Y. Tribune," "N. Y. Evening Post," and "N. Y. Times" for November 1st, 1858, and "The Pres- byterian" for November 6th.
CHAPTER XVII
WORK RESUMED: THE CIVIL WAR: 1858-1863
" We enter upon our new career under few circumstances of discouragement and many of bright anticipation. In the name of the Lord, therefore, we set up our banners. It is an eventful age of the world in which our enterprise receives this new impulse."-GARDINER SPRING, 1858, "The Brick Church Memorial," pp. 74 f.
"Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."-Matthew 24 : 6.
T HE members of the Brick Church had not waited for the new building to be ready be- fore they began to revive the work which was to occupy it. At least one discontinued enterprise had been zealously taken up again as soon as the new site had been purchased, and even before the plans for the new church had been fairly begun. This was the Sunday-school. At the call of Dr. Spring, eighteen persons came together in Hope Chapel on a Sunday afternoon in November, 1856, "to organize a Sabbath-school which should be con- nected with the Brick Church and located for the present at the Hope Chapel." One of the first acts of the teachers, after the school had been started, was to inquire whether during the interval the old title, "School No. 3," had been assigned to any other in- stitution. If not, they voted to reassume it. We do not know whether they were successful, for this is the last time that the old name appears in the records.
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But the school itself, at any rate, was reestablished, ready for the new opportunity that was about to open, and on the day of the new church's dedication, the first service was that of the Sunday-school, which, at quarter after nine assembled in its own room in the chapel in the rear of the church. The immediate renewal of this important department of church work was certainly an auspicious opening, and indi- cated that the people were eager to regain as soon as possible whatever ground had been lost.
As soon as the church was established on Murray Hill, preparations were made to take stock, as it were, of the congregation, and to exploit the neigh- borhood. Districts were laid out for visitation by the pastor and elders, and we still possess a copy of a printed street-plan which was used to facilitate this work. It represents the section between Thirty-sixth and Fortieth streets and between Sixth and Lexing- ton avenues, divided up into sixty visitation districts. Dr. Spring, in his dedication sermon, had called attention to the fact that no other churches had lo- cated in the immediate neighborhood, * so that there was a free field for the Brick Church to work in, and he declared also that the surrounding population had already shown a disposition to receive the church in a most friendly spirit. Many, indeed, of those who were now neighbors, had in former days attended the old Brick Church, and these welcomed the opportunity of restoring the old relationship.
* The Madison Square Church had been built on Twenty-fourth Street in 1854 and the "Marble" Dutch Church at Fifth Avenue and Twenty- ninth Street in the same year. There were less important churches at Eighth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, Broadway and Thirty-ninth Street, and Lexington Avenue and Thirtieth Street,
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For all reasons, therefore, it was desirable that a very patient and thorough visitation of the whole region should be made, and this the session now undertook.
But this very undertaking must have brought forci- bly home to them a truth long evident to all, that their pastor, now over seventy years of age, was ill able to do the full work of a city pastorate, and least of all, to break ground in a new field. Indeed, there was already an understanding between them that as soon as the new church was complete, steps should be taken to lift a part of the burden from his shoul- ders.
As early as 1848, it had been necessary to provide a considerable amount of pulpit assistance. The sum of $1,000, was then put at the disposal of the session for this purpose, and this act was repeated three years later. But some months before the de- parture from Beekman Street it became evident that a more radical change was necessary. The situation was one that the officers desired to treat with the greatest delicacy, not wishing to seem in any way im- patient of the growing infirmities of their beloved pastor; and we may well believe that he, for his part, lover of the church as he was, and of his work in it, was reluctant to begin the laying aside of the powers and responsibilities he had borne so long.
The letter which he wrote to his elders in October, 1855, is, therefore, touched with that inevitable pathos of the old workman who is conscious of the coming night. "It must be quite as obvious to you as to my- self," he said, "that I am not able to discharge the duties of my office to any such extent as satisfies my
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own mind. Though my health is vigorous and my courage for labor undiminished, the calamity * with which it has pleased a wise and righteous Providence to visit me, unfits me for the toil in which it has been my privilege to be so long employed." But aside from this special affliction, his age itself, as he said later in this same letter, made some decided assist- ance an immediate necessity. He made several sug- gestions as to the means of providing this, evidently thinking himself that the best plan of all would be to call a colleague; and in this the session concurred, but upon full consideration of pastor and session to- gether, it seemed so difficult to secure a proper per- son for this office while the church was still strug- gling for the sale of one property and the purchase of another, that delay was decided upon, until the new land should be secured.
As a matter of fact, the church, as we have seen, was already at work on Murray Hill, before any active measures were taken for calling a colleague. For the first few months in the new church the Sun- day afternoon service was supplied by students from Princeton Seminary. But finally in March, 1859, a call was issued to the Rev. William James Hoge, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature in Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. Dr. Spring and two of the elders had gone to Virginia expressly to see him, and had returned with the report that, in their opinion, "the intellectual, religious, and social qualifications of this gentleman, as well as his public performances in the pulpit, are such as in no ordi- nary degree qualify him to become the associate
* His failing eyesight.
.
T
WILLIAM J. HOGE
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pastor of the Brick Church." He had been licensed to preach in 1850, and, previous to entering his pro- fessorship, had been for four years pastor of the West- minster Church in Baltimore, where his former pa- rishioners regarded him with high esteem. The call now issued to him by the Brick Church was unan- imous. *
It must be confessed that in accepting, as he did, Dr. Hoge was undertaking a difficult work, which would require not only high talents and great indus- try, but an unusual degree of tact and Christian grace. Dr. Spring and his people had worked to- gether, without any other person between them, for almost half a century, and it was only with the ut- most reluctance on both sides, and in answer to an imperative necessity, that the expedient of a col- league had been adopted. At the congregational meeting which called Dr. Hoge, a set of resolutions, offered by Mr. Holden, was adopted, in which were feelingly expressed the love of the Brick Church people for Dr. Spring, their sense of obligation to him for past service, their ever-increasing apprecia- tion of "his richly matured and invaluable instruc- tions," their joy that, though "his eye is dimmed by excessive devotion to his chosen work," yet "his natural force and mental vigor are not abated," and their assurance that "it will always be our pleasure and anxious desire to hear him preach once every Sabbath and to render such other assistance at our weekly evening services as may be agreeable to his own feelings and wishes." It would almost have seemed to an onlooker at the meeting that it had
* His salary was $5,000, the same as that received by Dr. Spring ..
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been assembled with special reference to the old rather than to the new pastor.
But both pastor and people had determined that the newcomer should be given all the help that could be conveyed by a hearty and affectionate welcome, and Dr. Spring, especially, had determined that his young colleague should be as free as was possible from the difficulties inherent in the situation. Those who were present on the evening when Dr. Hoge was installed in the Brick Church * were much im- pressed by the generous spirit in which the venerable Dr. Spring said of his youthful associate, "He must increase, but I must decrease. My sun is setting; his has not yet reached its zenith." "And when," says one of the eye-witnesses, "the senior pastor stopped in his discourse, and took his associate by the hand, assuring him of the cordiality of his welcome to take part in the work, there were few dry eyes in the house. Such scenes are rare," this writer con- tinues, and points out that all the circumstances of the occasion were such as could only be produced by great personal qualities in the chief participants .;
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