USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 15
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"Mr. Rousmaniere has given to Grace Church more than ten years of earnest, zealous and successful service. The parish owes him a debt of gratitude which nothing within its power to do could wholly discharge. It has no right to demand and does not desire that he should make any further sacrifice on its behalf. . They wish him to know, however, that the regret would be felt in every heart and that our sense of loss would be overwhelming."
That Mr. Rousmaniere should be sure to consider fully the opportunities of Grace Church, the minute continued:
"There are in the parish upwards of a thousand communicants; they are now united and enthusiastic; they will follow the lead of their present rector without question and will do everything in their power to meet his wishes. Mr. Rousmaniere exercises over them individually and as a body an influence which any other man must labor long to acquire. His influence in the community is scarcely less. His withdrawal would certainly mean less progress for the parish, as well as individual loss."
As Dr. Rousmaniere felt that the opportunities in St. Paul's were unique and that he was in a special way fitted to put his hand to that helm, he finally decided to accept the call, and on October 8th resigned the rectorship of Grace Church to take effect on November 15, 1909. He preached a stirring farewell sermon on Sunday morning, November 14th, from the text, "It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell," closing with the words, "as I have tried to tell you, you go out into the service of your fellowmen strong for success, when you have begun to live the life within, the life in your heart with Him who is the life of Life. Live with Him within and you must live for Him and for His children without. Live with Him within and you cannot resist His impelling power that sends you out to serve wherever service may be needed.
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"For this supreme privilege which has been mine for these ten sacred years I devoutly give thanks and I pray God that Christ may so abide 'in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God'."
CHAPTER VI
THE THREE RECTORS
CROWDER-STURGES-LAWRENCE 1909-1929
In the annual report to the Corporation on Easter Monday, 1909, the Vestry had taken the first determined position in regard to the actual building of a new parish house, stating that it was intended soon to have drawings made to show the possibilities of a large building on the site of the existing parish house and "to make a strong effort to obtain the necessary funds." With this definite encouragement, though apparently largely on his own initiative, Dr. Rousmaniere procured attractive and promising plans for such a building and the long projected and sorely needed improve- ment seemed near at hand. The resignation of the Rector at such a critical time placed heavy responsibility upon the Vestry. It was obvious that if the plan were not to languish it was ab- solutely essential that the new rector be a man who would at once command the confidence and support of those parishioners who were counted on to subscribe over $100,000 for the new edifice.
Before Dr. Rousmaniere left on the fifteenth of November, the Vestry felt they had found the right man in the person of the Rev. James DeWolf Perry, Jr., then doing a very significant and effective work in New Haven. Mr. Perry, as hundreds of the people in the diocese now know well, was at home in Rhode Island, descended as he was from families richly associated with the history of the state. He was the son of one of the early assistant ministers of the parish and warmly in sympathy with Grace Church and its community. He seemed eminently fitted to carry the plans for a parish house to speedy fulfillment. Mr. Perry was not to come home to Rhode Island just at that time, however. He wrote on November 22, 1909, that he was prevented by "peremptory obligations to my present parish." Those who know Bishop Perry's sense of duty know that there was nothing more to be said, and can well understand that the Vestry proceeded to look else- where for the new leader.
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Glowing accounts had come from westward of the brilliant preaching and magnetic personality of the Rev. William Austin Smith of St. Paul's Church in Milwaukee. Some years before, as an assistant at old St. John's, Mr. Smith had shown his adapt- ability to Providence ways and Providence people. He had been at that time rather widely known and where known was genuinely liked and respected. The Vestry did not know, as did few at that time, that Mr. Smith's physical strength was not equal to such a task. Fortunately, before Mr. Smith undertook what he seems to have considered a very promising and inviting work, he ascertained from trustworthy medical opinion that he must resign all active work for an indefinite period. Accordingly he telegraphed to Mr. Gardner on February 6, 1910, that he could not accept. In closing the brave and touching note that followed, Mr. Smith wrote, "May God abundantly bless the great work which I am not permitted to share."
With a heightened sense of responsibility and of the increasing difficulties of the position, the committee of the Vestry turned to that unfailing friend and adviser of a quarter of a century before. Dr. Greer, as Bishop of New York, had wide acquaintance with the qualifications of large numbers of promising young rectors. With sure judgment and unselfish spirit he almost at once picked from his own clergy a man extraordinarily well fitted for the particular needs of Grace Church at this crisis, a man of unsparing energy and determined purpose who could make friends widely and quickly and as quickly win their confidence and support. In deep grati- tude to Bishop Greer we must not complain that Dr. Crowder was a loan to Rhode Island, not a gift, and that soon after the great undertaking of the parish house was completed Bishop Greer called him back to work of the largest significance at St. James' Church on Madison Avenue in New York City.
On the 21st of February Mr. Gardner informed the Vestry that Bishop Greer had recommended in the highest terms the Rev. Frank Warfield Crowder, Ph.D.,1 of Staten Island. Although Dr. Crowder was not known in Rhode Island the Vestry took active measures to offset that difficulty. On the next Sunday five of the Vestrymen heard Dr. Crowder preach at New Brighton, and
1 Before Dr. Crowder came to Grace Church he had been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, earned in course. Brown University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in June, 1920 in the following terms:
"Frank Warfield Crowder, whose spiritual message, still echoing in the heart of Providence, is now gladly heard by multitudes in New York, combining courtesy and tenderness with fearless devotion to justice and truth."
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before he was unanimously called on March 19, 1910, three more of the Vestry had made his acquaintance.
Easter came early in 1910 and at the time of the annual meeting on March 28th the answer from Dr. Crowder had not been re- ceived, though from Bishop Greer and Dr. Crowder himself there had been most encouraging assurances.
With this situation in mind Mr. Rathbone Gardner closed the annual report of the Vestry in the following impressive fashion:
"When a new Rector comes to this parish, he will find a noble old church in the city's very centre and fitted to minister to all classes of its citizens. He will find an earnest and warm hearted people ready to welcome him and to work with him. He will be met by congregations to teach whom will be an inspiration and will lead in a dignified and beautiful service. He will find, further, hordes of little children who find Grace Church almost their only lure to a Christian life and whose presence makes the sessions of Grace Church Sunday School one of the most touching sights to be found anywhere. He will find an immense work to be done among the families to which these children belong. He will thus miss much in the way of equipment which he ought to find; he will note an utter lack of facilities for this great school, no robing room for the choir, scanty accommodation for the meetings of numberless societies and clubs, and even an undignified and crowded chancel, and he will be told that there is on our own property ample op- portunity for the supply of all these needs, calling only for the united effort and generous gifts of our people under the right leadership. Let us assure him that he will find these also."
During the interim of over six months from the middle of November until Dr. Crowder's coming on Trinity Sunday, May 22d, parochial affairs were well cared for. Mr. Walton, having worked with Dr. Rousmaniere for several years, was unusually well fitted to discharge the duties of minister-in-charge, to which he was at once appointed by the Vestry. On Sunday mornings the preachers were men from away of especial prominence and power. The many sermons delivered during this period by Dr. Henry Sylvester Nash, a distinguished teacher and preacher from the Cambridge Theological School, will long be remembered.
The parish was saddened by the sudden death on February 14, 1910, of James Lewis Peirce, who had been a leader in parish affairs since his first election as Vestryman in 1856, in which office he served, though not consecutively, for nearly fifty-two years. His utterly devoted and remarkably effective service as Treasurer for
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forty-eight years carried the parish through many dark and diffi- cult days. His name stands among the first of the devoted laymen to whom Grace Church today owes much of its strength and influence.
Before the end of Lent, Arthur W. Ryder sent in his resignation as organist and choirmaster to take effect after Easter. The position was naturally left vacant until the wishes of the new rector could be consulted. On his recommendation the office was filled in the fall of 1910 by Arthur Lacey-Baker, who had previously been organist at Calvary Church, New York.
Early in October a meeting of the Vestry was held to hear the plans of Dr. Crowder for the administration of the parish. He particularly recommended that the House of the Intercessor (Grace House) be made into an active center of parish life by fitting it up as a residence for the new curate, the Rev. Henry Blacklock, and for Deaconess von Brockdorff, and later Deaconess Payne, Dr. Crowder's secretary. In this way the house, which had been almost a source of embarrassment to the parish, became for many years, under Deaconess von Brockdorff and her suc- cessors, a most attractive home, to which many of the parishioners, especially the young women, resorted with pleasure and profit.
At Dr. Crowder's request the Vestry at this time provided a movable platform and pulpit for use in the center aisle for the week-day services, thus enabling the minister to be at no great distance from the assembled congregation, however small. The Rector also urged the Vestry to arrange to be represented every Sunday at the evening service. Accordingly, the Junior Warden -and later the Clerk-was instructed to assign two of the Vestry, designated in rotation, to attend the Sunday evening services. Dr. Crowder also prepared special forms of services for use on Sunday evenings and at the noon-day services.1
It was largely due to the spirit prompting such practical measures that the congregations at the occasional services were soon espe- cially large. The attendance at the autumn noon-day services averaged ninety-eight, and during Lent increased to an average attendance of 353. The number who received Holy Communion on Easter, 1911, is recorded as 753, while the aggregate attendance on that day was about 4,000.
Especial attention, however, was given at the Vestry meetings that fall to forwarding the plans for the new parish house, in which Dr. Crowder was interested heart and soul. Working drawings
1 These began that year on November 7th and continued until Easter.
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were authorized for a building to cost not over $150,000. These were explained and discussed by Ralph Adams Cram of the distinguished firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, of Boston and New York, at a meeting of the Vestry held November 29, 1910. At this meeting a building committee and a finance committee were appointed by the wardens as follows:
BUILDING COMMITTEE
Messrs. Frank P. Comstock H. N. Campbell William A. Viall The Rector ex-officio.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Mr. Rathbone Gardner, Chairman The Rector ex-officio
Messrs. Albert Babcock Henry B. Huntington
Albert A. Baker
Arthur L. Kelley
G. Alder Blumer Robert Knight
Fred D. Carr James Richardson
John F. Cranshaw
George M. Smith
Jeffrey Hazard Rush Sturges
George Humphrey
Louis P. Tower
As the work of construction progressed, it was recognized that the interest and vigilance of Mr. H. Nelson Campbell marked him as the one especially to represent the Corporation in the supervision of the building. Summer and winter he kept himself informed of all that took place in remarkably careful fashion. Mr. Gardner in the annual report of 1912 paid him well deserved tribute when he wrote, "The parish is under great obligations to the building committee, and especially to Mr. Campbell of that committee, for unremitting attention to every detail of a most complicated undertaking."
It was decided that, though the parish house would be the larger part of the enterprise, an enlarged and dignified chancel should be one of the first considerations in the new building and that the church should be redecorated on a more quiet and simple design to harmonize with this new chancel.
An elaborate illustrated booklet of some twenty pages on the new parish house, with a stirring introduction by Dr. Crowder, was distributed and by Sunday, January 22, 1911, all was ready for a formal appeal. This took the form, after impressive and stimulating words from the Rector, of a thoughtful, convincing, and inspiring address1 by the Senior Warden, Rathbone Gardner
1 A printed copy of this remarkable address is preserved in Volume D of Grace Church Records.
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In this address he very effectively carried out the two principles laid down by Dr. Crowder,-that all the parish should know just what was proposed and should be given a definite idea what the individual subscriptions must be if the desired sum was to be raised.
So prompt and generous was the response to these appeals that in two weeks $100,000 of the $125,000 asked for had been pledged. At the morning service on March 5th it was announced that, without any personal solicitation, pledges of upwards of $126,000 had been received, representing the gifts of nearly three hundred people,1-gifts which varied in amount from $1.00 to $25,000.00.
Bishop Greer, on hearing the news, sent the following characteris- tic message from New York:
"Words cannot express my pleasure and satisfaction for the splendid way in which the Grace Church people have responded to the appeal for the new chancel and parish house. I wish I could have been present when the announcement was made to the congregation, that I might have participated in your common joy. At some convenient time tell them how much I love them, and how greatly I rejoice with them in this unmistakable evi- dence of their loyal devotion to Grace Church and the great work which it represents both in the city and in the diocese."
The Corporation at the annual meeting on Easter Monday joyfully gave formal approval to the plans of the committee for the immediate building of the new edifice, and for installing new heating and lighting throughout.
When the difficulties ahead of Grace Church became known, our friendly neighbor, the Mathewson Street Methodist Epis- copal Church, offered Grace Church the free use of its plant, when- ever this was possible without interfering with its own services. As a result of this offer, gladly accepted in the spirit in which it was made, the use of the Mathewson Street Church helped out greatly on several critical occasions and in numerous ways lessened the strain on those responsible for providing places of meeting and worship.
During the summers of 1911 and 1912 services of Grace Church were suspended,2 in consequence first of tearing down the old
1 The list of donors so far as known is printed in the Appendix.
2 There were no services in 1911 from July 8th-September 10th and in 1912 none from June 30th-September 29th inclusive. The main service on September 17 and on September 24, 1911, was held at four p.m. in the Mathewson Street Methodist Church.
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parish house and putting what proved to be a very practicable and effective temporary partition inside the chancel arch to protect the nave against the cold and weather. In the summer of 1912 the omission of services was necessitated by the redecoration of the church and by the installing of a new and greatly improved lighting system. In both these summers, however, members of the staff were almost continuously on duty and no important obligation of the Church was left unprovided for.
On the first Sunday in October, 1911, the Sunday morning ser- vice in the church was resumed with the protection of the temporary wooden wall. The movable pulpit was used for most of the services and a Lord's Table was placed at the head of the East aisle. For a short time the early Communion Service and the Sunday School were held in the Methodist Church and four evening services in September and early October were held in the Providence Opera House. Communion services on week-days were held at the noon hour and the series of noon-day services was begun in Novem- ber, as in the previous year. Early in February the middle of the innermost partition was moved forward and a reasonably con- venient chancel arranged, the choir, however, continuing to sing in the organ loft. Communion services at ten forty-five o'clock, which had been omitted since July, were then resumed and were held on alternate Sundays throughout the Lenten season.
The parish office was established at Room 610 in the Lapham Building across Mathewson Street. There and more particularly in the rooms of the Methodist Church most of the societies and organizations of the Church held their meetings. As in previous years "classes for religious instruction" for some of the children of the East Side were held on Sunday afternoons in Froebel Hall on Brown Street under the efficient supervision of Mr. Blacklock and Deaconess Von Brockdorff. The latter's class for older girls carried on for several years in Froebel Hall will long be remembered by those who felt its inspiring and enduring influence.
Mr. Blacklock, being called to Christ Church, Westport, Conn., resigned early in 1912, the resignation to take effect on March 15th, at the time of the annual confirmation. That the devoted labors of the staff kept the somewhat disordered condition of the church and its services from affecting the vitality of the work carried on that winter is evidenced not only by the large attend- ance at the noon-day services in Lent, the increased number of communicants on Easter Day (849), but especially by this con- firmation class. Of the eighty-four members of the class of 1912
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thirty-eight were men and boys, and twenty-eight, adults. On the third Sunday after Easter, 1912, the Rev. Brayton Byron and the Rev. Lee Maltbie Dean joined the staff as curates.
Among the noteworthy events of this trying year there should be chronicled the impressive service in Grace Church on the evening of Sunday, April 21, 1912, as a "Memorial Service for Those Who Perished in the 'Titanic' Disaster," and also the second of the parish meetings to hear reports of all the organiza- tions connected with Grace Church, held on the evening of Monday, May 6th, in the auditorium of the Mathewson Street Church.
On Sunday, November 10th, Grace Church was able to put its new chancel and chapel into use, and gradually its officers and organizations were established in their new quarters in the parish house. The small chancel organ built by the Hutchins Company and given by Mrs. Jane Frances Brown to supplement the gallery organ, though expected earlier, was actually not ready until February. The Woman's Auxiliary, which had been meeting in the Lapham Building, had its first weekly meeting in Guild Room Number I on November 2Ist. After the services on Sunday, the 24th, the Parish House was open for inspection and large numbers of the morning and evening congregations availed themselves of the opportunity to see the new building.
The formal opening of the new quarters took place on December 10th and IIth under the auspices of the Women's Guild assisted by all the other women's societies of the Church. Luncheons, a supper, and a children's entertainment netted the sum of about $1,000. After the supper on Tuesday evening an informal recep- tion to the clergy and deaconesses was held.
In the midst of these rejoicings the parish paused to mourn the loss late in November of one of its oldest friends and staunchest sup- porters in the person of Robert Knight, who had been actively connected with Grace Church for nearly half a century. Mr. Knight had been a vestryman for thirty years, from 1881 until failing health caused him to resign early in 1911. Even then his invaluable advice and counsel and his interest continued. Many of the parish missed at this time the familiar figure of Frank Drummond, who had been sexton for nearly ten years and re- signed in view of the greatly increased activities necessitated by the new building.
As was natural the expenses involved in the new construction and in needed repairs to the main part of the church exceeded the estimates, receipts had considerably fallen off, and the deficiency
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pledges had been allowed to lapse. As the great work drew near to a close it was evident that nearly $30,000 should be raised that the Church might close the fiscal year with a balance on the right side. At this juncture Mrs. Jane Frances Brown, who had already been one of the most liberal subscribers, offered to give $15,000 on condition that the other $15,000 was speedily raised.
On Christmas Day, 1912, there was opened for the first time the handsome Triptych,1 with its large and conspicuous painting in representation of "The Great Commission" of Christ to His Apostles, and its outside panels with angels symbolizing the Church throughout the world-one with lotus, the East; with papyrus, the South; with the lily, the West; and with the rose, the North.
The constant use of the aisle pulpit during the period of con- struction had brought the realization both of its great value and of the possibility of marked improvement. As a result, late in 1912, the Trinity Circle of King's Daughters gave to the Church the present movable pulpit in loving memory of Elma Smith, who had recently died.
The new chancel was a structure of great dignity and beauty. It extended back to within a few feet of Chapel Street, going to a depth of forty-two feet. The width was the same as in the old chancel, thirty feet. Its handsome furniture and equipment are described by the architect as follows:
"The new furniture recently installed in the chancel of Grace Church is of oak, wax-finished in dull brown shades, and designed and executed after the manner of the best Gothic traditions. But the furniture, though possessing the charm and quality of ancient woodwork, is wholly modern in character.
"The decoration, with innumerable carved bosses of various designs carved out of the solid on the vertical and horizontal members separating the manifold panels, gives the entire work a sparkling quality exceptionally agreeable and altogether unique.
"The most important detail of the woodwork is the great trip- tych above the altar. This takes the place of the customary reredos in modern churches. It is sufficiently above the altar to allow the traceried panels to come between the bottom of the triptych and the top of the altar. Borders of rich carving, con-
1 This original triptych and also the beautiful and more simply appropriate one for which it was exchanged in 1929, together with the Altar and its hangings, were given as a memorial to Mrs. Eliza Harris Hoppin by four of her children. Her husband, Francis E. Hoppin, was Vestryman, 1850-52.
.
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taining the symbolical grape-vine, frame the triptych. Its doors are decorated externally with elaborate gilded wrought-iron hinges, internally with delicate traceries and floral devices.
"The running-vine pattern appears in other parts of the chancel to emphasize certain important divisions of the woodwork. The bishop's and priests' sedilia and the credence are also very rich in symbolic carving. . At the entrance to the choir the organ-cases, clergy-stalls, and the ends of the choir-benches merit especial attention, as they are all carved with exquisite details. The carved canopies over the clergy-stalls and sedilia, as well as the panelling on the east-wall of the sanctuary, are crowned with ornate cresting. Just below the cresting runs a decorative inscription in black-letter containing verses from the canticles of the daily-office.
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