USA > New York > The centennial history of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York, 1785-1885 > Part 21
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A mission chapel was built on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and Twenty-eighth Street, near 1850, and placed under the ministry of Rev. Edwin Harwood, but it soon developed into a vigorous and independent parish, under the title of The Church of the Incarnation, now established on the same avenue at the northeast corner of Thirty-fifth Street. The mission chapel, after passing through various ownerships, was afterward demolished. This chapel was founded under the rectorship of Dr. Taylor. In 1853 Grace Chapel was re-established in Fourteenth Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues. It was destroyed by fire on the night of December 23, 1872. The present edifice was built on the same site, at a cost of $60,000, and consecrated in 1876, Dr. Potter, rector, and during the same rectorship Grace Church chantry was erected in 1878, immediately adjoining the church on the south, and connected with it, at a cost of $23,000, the gift of Miss Catharine L. Wolfe; also Grace House, 802 Broadway, connected with the chancel of the church, and containing vestry room, clergy and robing room, room for assistant minister, reading rooms and circulating library, was erected in 1880, at a cost of $35,000, also a gift from Miss Catharine L. Wolfe ; also Grace Memorial House, a memorial of his wife by Hon. Levi P. Morton, at an expenditure of $28,000; also the beautiful stone spire which replaced the former, of wood, in 1884, at a cost of $56,000, which, together with the cost of Grace Chapel, was provided for by subscrip- tions in the parish. Grace House by-the-sea, at Far Rockaway, Long Island, a summer home for women and children from
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city tenement houses, was erected in 1883. Besides this ex- penditure of $202,000 in edifices devoted to the religious and charitable work of the parish, during the rectorship of Dr. Potter, extensive alterations and improvements of the interior have been made, in rebuilding and decorating the chancel, new and costly mosaics and furniture, with a large and very complete organ at the south of the chancel, which has elec- tric communication both with an echo organ in the roof over the chancel and also the old organ in the gallery, all of which can be played from a single keyboard at the chancel organ. This is believed to be the first successful application of elec- tric action to a related series of organs. Nearly all the win- dows have been refurnished with admirable stained glass from the best foreign and American workers.
Since organization 2,660 baptisms are recorded, and 2,593 persons have received confirmation. In 1810 there were 50 communicants ; in 1820, 150; in 1830, 195; in 1840, 220; in 1850 and 1860, there is no report ; in 1870, 264 ; in 1880, 920, and the present number is 1,200. The communicants of Grace Chapel are 347, as reported in the last Convention Four- nal. The first wardens, in 1809, were Nicholas Law and Her- man LeRoy; in 1820, Herman LeRoy and Wright Post ; in 1830, Edward R. Jones and James Boggs; in 1840-1842, Goold Hoyt and William Bard ; in 1850-1852, David Austin and Luther Bradish ; in 1860, Luther Bradish and Robert Ray; in 1870-1872, Benjamin Aymeer and Adam Norrie; in 1880-1882, Adam Norrie and Lloyd Wells, and at present, Charles G. Landon and Hugh Auchincloss.
The traditions of the earlier and middle periods of its his- tory are associated with the celebrated artist Malibran, and the hardly less celebrated Julia Northall, in the choir, which ex- ercised a wide and permanent influence in the culture of the higher forms of religious music. For many years Grace Par- ish has been thoroughly organized for every good word and work, disbursing during the last ten years of Dr. Potter's rec- torship no less than $100,000 each year. The ratio of work and beneficence is not likely to fall under his successor. The clergy at present connected with Dr. Huntington are Rev. E.
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O. Flagg, rector's assistant ; Rev. George F. Nelson, in charge of Grace Chapel; Rev. L. H. Schwab, in charge of the Ger- man mission and the Church of the Nativity, and Rev. H. St. G. Young, parish missionary. Services in the Italian language are regularly maintained at Grace Chapel, which is lent to the Italian Mission on Sunday afternoons. Among the perma- nently organized activities are the Sunday schools, industrial schools, the St. Luke's Association for special care and min- istrations among the sick, the Benevolent Society, Domestic Missionary and Relief Society, Women's Foreign Missionary Association, German Missionary Association, Grace House, with its libraries, Junior Century Club reading rooms, the Day Nursery in the Memorial House, and the Fresh Air Fund. Most of these organizations exist also in Grace Chapel. While passing through the press it has just transpired that, at the Easter Sunday Offering, Miss Catharine L. Wolfe pre- sented $45,000 for the purchase of St. Philip's Church edifice for the permanent establishment of the Italian Mission, other members of Grace Parish providing the expense for its reno- vation and proper furnishings. In his introductory note to the Year Book of Grace Parish for 1855, the rector writes : "The opportunities for usefulness of every sort, open to a parish church placed as ours is, are simply numberless. Much of the work so notably achieved during the past ten years has been of the nature of a preparation for doing what was wait- ing to be done. We have now almost every imaginable facility ready to hand. Pray we God, then, to give us eyes to see our calling and make us
" ' Strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'"
ST. JAMES' CHURCH, NEW YORK.
This parish grew out of a " chapel of ease," erected for the convenience of prominent church families who passed their summers at their rural country seats along the bank of the East River. There is, therefore, no date of organization. It was, however, taken into union with the Diocesan Conven- tion in 1810, prior to which date organization must have taken
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place, and the first church was built in that year. Churches subsequently were erected in 1869 and in 1884. The rectors have been : Rev. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, 1813-1820; Rev. William Richmond, 1820-1837 ; Rev. James Cook Richmond, 1837-1842 ; Rev. John Dowdney, 1842-1847; Rev. Edwin Harwood, 1847-1850; Rev. Peter Schermerhorn Chauncey, 1851-1866, and Rev. Cornelius Bishop Smith, since 1867, rector and present incumbent. Since 1867 there are 576 bap- tisms recorded, and 349 have received confirmation ; previous to that year there are no data. The present number of com- municants is about 350. The wardens in 1810 were Peter Schermerhorn and Francis Bayard Winthrop ; in 1820, Peter Schermerhorn and Martin Hoffman; in 1830, Edward R. Jones and James Boggs ; in 1840, Joseph Foulke and George Riblet ; in 1850, Peter Schermerhorn and Edward Jones ; in 1860, Samuel Jaudon and Frederick J. Austin ; in 1870, Andrew D. Letson and Montgomery A. Kellogg, and in 1880, Thomas Rutter and Walter Shriver.
St. James' Church was built in 1810, for the summer wor- ship of prominent citizens of New York, whose country seats were upon the bank of the East River, near by. The site chosen was the summit of the hill, and is now marked by the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and Sixty-ninth Street. But Seventy-first Street marks the line of the old Harson's Road, which this church faced and by which it was approached from both sides of the island. For many years the parish was united with St. Michael's, near the Hudson River, and had the same rector. As the population increased, worship was held throughout the year. The church was al- ways the prominent landmark of Hamilton Square, now Lenox Hill, and old inhabitants well remember its quaint belfry, its willows and its shed. In 1869 a larger, but tempo- rary building was erected in Seventy-second Street, and oc- cupied for fifteen years. The present church is built in brown stone, is Gothic in design, and after plans by Mr. Robertson. It includes a deep chancel, large Sunday-school room, and also five separate rooms for choir, library, guild, vestry and Bible classes. There are 1,000 sittings, and when the plans
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are carried out, the cost of the church, including the land, will be nearly or quite $260,000. It stands on the same Har- son's Road by which the congregation has come to its services from the beginning. The present rector began his work in the old church, and has the unusual experience of minister- ing to the same parish in three different church edifices. An interesting relic of Fitz-Greene Halleck was deposited in the corner-stone of the new church. It was the poet's prayer book, presented by his friend and biographer, Gen. Grant Wil- son, senior member of the vestry, who also contributed for the same purpose relics brought from the Holy Land and from other places of interest in the Old World and New. The present church was first occupied on Christmas morn- ing, 1884. Among the prominent members of the parish, as recorded on one of the three brasses in repoussé work, in the vestibule of the tower on Madison Avenue, may be mentioned Thomas Addis Emmet, Edmund H. Pendleton, John Jacob Astor, William C. Rhinelander, Henry Delafield, Nathaniel Prime, John C. Beekman, George Jones, Henry Parish, Ed- ward Dunscomb, Gideon Lee and Charles Astor Bristed.
ZION CHURCH, NEW YORK.
The certificate of incorporation is dated March 13, 1810. The first church edifice was built in 1811, and the present edi- fice in 1853-1854. The rectors have been Rev. Ralph Willis- ton, 1805-1817, an English Lutheran minister until the parish was organized within the jurisdiction and authority of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; Rev. Thomas Brintnall, 1819- 1837 ; Rev. William Richmond, 1837-1845 ; Rev. Richard Cox, 1845-1859; Rt. Rev. Horatio Southgate, D.D., 1859-1872 ; Rev. John N. Gallaher, D.D., 1873 to July 14, 1880, when he resigned on account of his election as Bishop of Louisiana, and since April 2, 1880, Rev. Charles C. Tiffany, D.D., present in- cumbent. A rectory was purchased in 1867. A mission chapel was organized and built in 1851, at 418 West Forty-first Street, now under the pastoral charge of Rev. I. C. Sturgis. In ad- dition to the usual Church ministration it sustains large and flourishing Sunday and industrial schools. The records of
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Zion Church are too defective to authorize any statement concerning baptisms, confirmations, and communicants since organization. The present number of communicants is 275.
The wardens in 1810 were John P. Ritter and Lewis Hart- man ; in 1820, John Heath and John Graff; in 1830, the same ; in 1840, John Heath and Frederick Pentz ; in 1850, Frederick Pentz and James Van Norden : in 1860, the same; in 1870, James O. Smith and Robert W. Nesbit, and in 1880, Samuel Hawk and David Clarkson.
In 1797 a portion of the congregation connected with a German Lutheran Church then established on William Street, after ineffectual efforts to have the services conducted in the English language, withdrew and built a frame church on Maganzine Street, now Pearl Street, which was incorporated July I, 1797, as an English Lutheran Church. The rapid in- crease of the congregation necessitated a larger church build- ing. Building lots were purchased on Mott Street, corner of Cross Street, and in 1801 a stone church was erected and known as the " English Lutheran Church Zion." On the 13th of March, 1810, that corporation was dissolved, the congregation, with their then pastor, having determined to join themselves with the Protestant Episcopal Church. The next day, Zion Protestant Episcopal Church was incorporated, the pastor having received Holy Orders. The church was consecrated by Bishop Moore, March 22, 1810. The church was totally destroyed by fire October 31, 1815, and its recon- struction was not completed until 1819, when it was conse- crated by Bishop Hobart, on the 19th of November. In 1850 the erection of a church in the upper part of the city was agitated. Final action seems to have been determined by the liberal proposition of the heirs of Susan Ogden, who, through the Hon. Murray Hoffman, offered as a gift five lots of land on the southeast corner, and five lots on the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-eighth Street, conditioned upon the building of a church. In 1853 the church on Mott Street was sold-it is now standing-and in 1851 a chapel to Zion was built on Thirty-eighth Street ; and, in 1853-1854, Zion Church was built, and consecrated by Bishop Wain-
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wright, June 28, 1854. The Church of the Atonement on Madison Avenue was consolidated with Zion Church, March 30, 1880, under the corporate name of The Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of Zion Church, in the City of New York.
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, NEW YORK,
Was organized November 20, 1811, previous to which date it had been a chapel of Trinity Parish. The first church was built in 1751 and 1752, in Beekman Street, on a north-side corner. The present church was built on the west side of Stuyvesant Square, 1847-1848, and greatly injured by fire in 1865, but was rebuilt, preserving the old walls and spires. The rectors were : Rev. John Kewley, 1813-1816 ; Rev. James Milner, D.D, 1816-1845 ; Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., 1845 -1878, at which time he was elected rector Emeritus, re- taining and receiving his full salary until he died in Septem- ber, 1885. He was succeeded by his assistant, Rev. Walter W. Williams, D.D., who became rector in May, 1881, and since January 1, 1883, Rev. William S. Rainsford, present incumbent. The rectory was built on land adjoining the church, in 1852. A chapel on Sixteenth Street, and Sunday- school building, were provided in 1848, during Dr. Tyng's ministry. In May of the current year the erection of a parish house, a memorial of Charles Tracy, many years warden, and his wife Louisa, will be begun on ground adjoining the church, 86 feet by 100, and completed, from the munificent gift of the heirs and family of Mr. Tracy, promising to be the most complete edifice of its class in the city. The parish records are imperfect, and do not present a complete account of clerical acts, as Dr. Milner's rectorship has no account of either baptisms or persons confirmed. However, 4,574 bap- tisms are recorded, and 2,262 are ascertained to have received this apostolic rite. The present number of communicants is 1, 100. The wardens in 1811 were : Garritt H. Van Wagenen and Henry Peters ; in 1821-1831, J. De Lancey Walton and Edward Morewood ; in 1831, Herbert Van Wagenen and John Stearns, M.D .; in 1841, John Stearns, M.D. and Thomas Bloodgood; in 1851, William Whitlock and Frederick S.
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Winston; in 1861, William Whitlock and A. Law ; in 1871, Samuel Hopkins and Charles Tracy, and at present, David Dows and J. Pierpont Morgan.
St. George's Chapel was erected by Trinity Parish in 1752, and conveyed to St. George's Parish at its organization in 18II, by the parent church, together with several lots as an endowment. On the accession of the present rector the vestry resolved, at his urgent request, to make the church free, and the results, not only spiritually and socially, but financially, have greatly exceeded their expectation. Not only is the church thronged to its utmost capacity, and services greatly multiplied and enriched with a chancel choir and organ, but the voluntary contributions and offertories reach a far larger amount than was ever realized from pew rentals. The parish activities are greatly multiplied and in most thrifty operation. There is a mission under one of the parish clergy placed on Avenue A, near Sixteenth Street, and other similar undertakings, as the Church of the Reforma- tion, in Stanton Street, under the care of Rev. E. F. Miles, M.D., receive support and co-operation from members of St. George's Parish.
It may be of interest and should therefore be recorded here, that under Dr. Milner's rectorship the proposition of removal up town was first proposed. The doctor very strongly urged the erection of a large, free chapel up town, to be associated with the old church, which, according to his design, was still to remain down town.
ST. JAMES', HYDE PARK.
For its foundation this parish is largely indebted to the zeal and liberality of Samuel Bard, M.D., LL.D., President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York ; seconded by the efforts of Gen. Morgan Lewis, some time Governor of this State, and a son of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence ; of Judge Nathaniel Pendleton, Judge John Johnston, and others. At the date of its organization it was the only parish on the east bank of the Hudson, for a
,
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considerable distance north of Poughkeepsie. There were 16 resident communicants before the establishment of the par- ish. The first church edifice was built and consecrated in 18II before the formal incorporation as St. James' Church, at Hyde Park-then a part of the town of Clinton-which took place on March 30, 1812, when the first vestry were elected, as follows :
Wardens: Dr. Samuel Bard and Gen. Morgan Lewis.
Vestrymen : John Johnston, Nathaniel Pendleton, Wil- liam Broome, William Bard, Christopher Hughes, James D. Livingston, Titus Dutton, and William Duer.
The parish was admitted into union with the Convention of the Diocese, October 6, 1812, Dr. Samuel Bard and Nathan- iel Pendleton being its first lay delegates.
The following is a list of its rectors:
1811-1817. Rev. John McVickar, D.D., resigned 1817.
1818-1823. Rev. David Brown; resigned 1823.
1824-1833. Rev. Samuel Roosevelt Johnson, D.D .; resigned 1833.
1835-1856. Rev. Reuben Sherwood, D.D., died May II, 1856. 1856-1860. Rev. Horace Stringfellow, D.D., resigned 1860. 1860-1876. Rev. James S. Purdy, D.D., resigned 1876. .
1876. Rev. Philander N. Cady, D.D., still incumbent.
The rectory was built in 1835. About the year 1832, the then rector, Dr. Johnson, erected a school-house in the village of Hyde Park, about three-fourths of a mile from the parish church, which he presented to the parish, together with the lot on which it stood, in 1834.
In 1857, during the rectorship of Dr. Stringfellow, a chapel was erected on the school lot, adjoining the school- house. The grounds were subsequently enlarged by pur- chase. During the same rectorship a chapel was also built at Staatsburgh, within the limits of the parish, which was or- ganized as an independent parish, April 24, 1882, under the title of St. Margaret's Church, Staatsburgh.
Since the organization of St. James', 1,237 have been baptized, and 617 confirmed. The number of communicants at the beginning of each decade was: 1812, 15; 1820, 58 ;
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1830, 48 ; 1840, 61 ; 1853, 101 ; 1860, 80; 1870, 92 ; 1880, 183.
St. Margaret's, with 53 communicants, was set off in 1882. The present number is 168.
The names of wardens at the beginning of each decade are : 1812, Samuel Bard and Morgan Lewis; 1820, Samuel Bard and Morgan Lewis; 1830, Morgan Lewis and James Russell ; 1840, John Johnston and James Russell ; 1850, John Johnston and James Russell; 1860, James Russell and Edmund H. Pendleton ; 1870, Christopher Hughes and Elias Butler ; 1880, Christopher Hughes and N. Pendleton Rogers ; 1885, Christopher Hughes and N. Pendleton Rogers.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, TIVOLI-ON-HUDSON.
This parish was organized in 1816, the first church built in 1818, and the present edifice in 1869.
The Rev. Henry Anthon, D.D., while in deacon's orders, took charge of the parish in 1816; afterwards rector of St. Marks in the Bowery, New York City.
The Rev. N. T. Bruce was rector from 1820 to 1824.
The Rev. Wm. Shelton, D.D., afterward in Buffalo, from 1824 to 1828.
The Rev. John Grigg, in Buffalo, from 1829 to 1835.
The Rev. Cicero S. Hawks, afterwards Bishop of Missouri, from 1836 to 1837.
The Rev. Mr. Kearney (died 1844), of Missouri, from 1837 to 1844.
The Rev. Mr. Bartlett and the Rev. Mr. Sherwood suc-' ceeded temporarily.
The Rev. John Henry Hobart, D.D., son of the bishop, from 1844 to 1845.
The Rev. John McCarthy, from 1845 to 1846, a chaplain in our army during the Mexican war, who preached the first Protestant sermon in the City of Mexico.
The Rev. Henry de Koven, D.D., from 1851 to 1854.
The Rev. R. O. Page, from 1855 to 1856.
The Rev. E. A. Nichols in temporary charge, summers of '57 and '58.
The Rev. G. Lewis Platt, from 1859 to the present.
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The rectory was built by the Rev. Dr. de Koven in 1853. A new one is shortly to be erected near the new church, and for this $3,000 has been provided, with a site of three acres.
The records are incomplete, there being a lapse of eleven years, following 1825. There are recorded 302 baptisms, and the confirmations of 121.
At the beginning of the second decade there were 25 com- municants, at present there are 49.
The first wardens were Lt .- Gov. Edward P. Livingston, of Clermont, and Dr. G. Wheeler, of Upper Red Hook.
Their successors were John Swift Livingston, of Tivoli, and Clermont Livingston, of Clermont.
Those now in office are Clermont Livingston, of Clermont, and Johnston Livingston, of Tivoli.
The corner stone of the first church was laid by the Rev. Henry Anthon, July 7, 1818. This was built of wood, and situated a mile and a quarter east from Tivoli. It was con- secrated May 27, 1819, by Bishop Hobart.
The present rector, Rev. G. Lewis Platt, laid the corner stone of a new Gothic stone church, June 16, 1868, near the river on elevated ground, presented by Eugene A. Living- ston and John Watts de Peyster. It was opened for divine service in 1869, and consecrated by Bishop Potter October II, 1870. The cost of the church and furnishing was about $22,000. It contains beautiful tablets to the memory of Chancellor Livingston, Lt .- Gov. E. P. Livingston, and John Watts, of New York City. The seating capacity is over 300. Under the present rector there have been 181 baptisms and 85 have been confirmed. There is a Sunday school of 180 scholars. This parish, with a history of seventy years, is the mother church in Dutchess County, north of Hyde Park. Its records have accounts of services in Clermont, Upper Red Hook, Pine Plains, and Rhinebeck. The parish now extends nearly seven miles along the Hudson.
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ST. THOMAS' CHURCH, MAMARONECK.
This parish was organized in 1817. The first church edi- fice was built in 1822-23, and consecrated by Bishop Ho- bart, June 17, 1823. A new and costly memorial has been in process of construction since 1884, and is yet incomplete.
The first clergyman in charge was Rev. William Heath- cote De Lancey, deacon from June, 1821, to April, 1882. One month before the close of his ministry in this parish he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Hobart in Trinity Church, New York. During the latter part of 1822 Rev. William Richmond officiated Wednesday evenings, coming out from his parish at Bloomingdale for that purpose. His services were given gratuitously. From 1823 to 1837 the parish was in charge either of the rector of Trinity Church, New Rochelle, Christ Church, Rye, or Grace Church, White Plains, as follows : Rev. William M. Carmichael, of Rye, 1832- 1834; Rev. Peter S. Chauncey, of Rye, 1834-1836; Rev. Robert W. Harris, of White Plains, 1836-1837. From this period the parish was served by its own rectors, as follows : Rev. William A. Curtis, 1837-1841; Rev. John W. Ward, 1841-1866 ; Rev. Horatio Gray, 1867-1871, and from 1871, Rev. William White Montgomery, present incumbent. Of the former officiating clergy and rectors, all are deceased ex- cepting Rev. Dr. Harris and Rev. Horatio Gray.
The first rectory was bought in 1844. The second is now in course of building. A chapel with rooms for parish work is now building, Rev. Wm. W. Montgomery, rector.
The proximate number of baptisms is 781, and 288 have received confirmation. The present number of communi- cants is 134.
The wardens have been: 1817, John Peter De Lancey and Peter Jay Munroe ; 1827, John Peter De Lancey and Guy C. Bayley ; 1837, Samuel Purdy and Monmouth Lyon ; 1847, Samuel Purdy and Benjamin M. Brown ; 1857, Jesse Burgess and Benjamin H. Purdy; 1867, Samuel G. Purdy and George R. Jackson ; 1877, Charles H. Birney and James Stinger.
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The wardens at this date are James G. Harris and Erastus C. Benedict.
The elaborate and costly stone church, now in course of construction, is a memorial of the late Mrs. Henrietta Con- stable, of New York City, for many years a summer resident and parishioner. She died February I, 1884. The church is built by her husband, James M. Constable, and her children, Frederick A. Constable, Mrs. Henriatta M. Arnold, and Mrs. Edwin H. Weatherbee. Mr. Hicks Arnold, son-in-law of Mrs. Constable, gives the chancel windows as memorials of the late Aaron Arnold and Henrietta, his wife, parents of Mrs. Constable, and the Baptistery windows, as memorials of Mrs. Constable. The clock and chime of ten bells are also presented by him.
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