USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 16
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"The altar is made of Tavanella and Hauteville marble. The three central panels are of violet Brescia marble, and they are separated by the four symbols of the Evangelists. Over them is a band of symbolic carving, the running-vine.
"The pulpit and parapet are of pink Tennessee marble, which has a remarkably good texture, and colour obtained by hand- tooling. Both are crowned by a narrow strip of floral carving. On the central face of the pulpit is carved the cross, which em- braces within its arms symbols of the four evangelists.
"The side-altar is made of Hauteville marble with a large central panel of Sienna marble. The panelling in the side-chapel is of black walnut, crowned by a narrow border of floral carving. Above the altar are traceried medallions in the panels, suggesting the similar treatment over the chancel altar.
"The floors, both in the chancel and the chapel, are laid with grueby-tiles in elaborate and harmonious designs, in which much colour has been employed."
The parish house greatly enlarged the facilities for work and worship. It provided reasonably adequate rooms for the clergy and the choir, an assembly room fully half as large again as in the old parish house, and made provision for eight organizations meeting simultaneously, instead of three as before. Accom- modations for the Church School were greatly increased. The parish house rises two stories above the high basement on the Mathewson Street side and four stories on the west, the top floor on the west being an apartment for the sexton and his family.
The consecration of the new chancel, with the dedication of the parish house, was set for Tuesday, January 7, 1913, at eleven o'clock. On the Sunday previous Dr. Charles H. Babcock, the
REV. FRANK W. CROWDER, PH.D.
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ninth Rector, preached on Sunday morning and Bishop Lawrence addressed the Men's Club at its annual service in the evening. On Tuesday there was a service of Morning Prayer at 9.30. The Consecration service itself at II o'clock was most appropriate and significant. All of the living former rectors were present, being the five immediately preceding Dr. Crowder,-Dr. Currie, Bishop Greer, Dr. Babcock, Dr. Tomkins, and Dr. Rousmaniere.
The Consecration service was followed by a sermon and the Holy Communion, and was marked by a dignity and impressive- ness quite impossible in the old church. Two bishops and some seventy clergy were assembled in the lofty chancel, the spacious beauty of which made a fitting setting for such an ecclesiastical function. The instrument of donation was read by the Senior Warden, Mr. Rathbone Gardner, after which Bishop Perry offered the Consecration Prayer, followed by the reading of the Sentence of Consecration by Dr. Crowder, as Rector. This was followed by the Communion service. The sermon of the occasion was preached by Bishop Greer, who had been the eighth rector less than thirty years before. Speaking on the text "Strength and beauty in His sanctuary," with great earnestness and eloquence, he treated of the three sanctuaries of God,-"Nature, Humanity, and Jesus Christ." After the service, immediately following the recessional hymn, came the brief service of dedication of the parish house in the choir room.
The guests then proceeded to the Assembly Room for the luncheon. Among the very welcome visitors on this occasion of rejoicing were the former assistant ministers Archdeacon Samuel G. Babcock and Rev. Messrs. Frederick J. Walton, Allen Greene, and Henry Blacklock, than whom none knew better what the facilities of the new parish house would mean to the Grace Church of the future.
The two years that followed the acquisition of the new Parish House were years of unusual activity. In Lent, 1914, Dr. Floyd W. Tomkins of Philadelphia, the much beloved tenth rector, visited Grace Church as preacher at the noon-day services. He also conducted a mission the same week, February 17th to 22nd, preaching to a considerable congregation every evening. On several Saturday evenings in March and April Mr. Lacey-Baker conducted a widely appreciated series of organ recitals,1 with talented soloists assisting.
1 These recitals were resumed in November with such success that at Easter, 1914, the Senior Warden could report that twenty-two had been held with a total attendance of over 9,000 persons.
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The congregations at the Sunday evening services were again often even larger than in the morning, moving pictures and other public entertainments on Sunday being still under legal ban.
On the first Easter with the new chancel Grace Church was repeatedly filled to overflowing. Some forty-five hundred people attended services during the day and over eight hundred received the Communion.
Shortly after Easter, Grace Church entered into an arrange- ment with a mission holding services in the Church of the Saviour on Benefit Street whereby Grace Church assumed general over- sight, with the assistant, Rev. Lee M. Dean, as vicar. This plan was in operation until January 1, 1915, when Mr. Dean resigned as curate of Grace Church to devote himself to diocesan mission- ary work, including the mission at the Church of the Saviour, which then came directly under diocesan control.
Ascension Day, May Ist, saw the active operation of a plan dear to Dr. Crowder's heart, namely the observance of that festival as "Grace Church Day," comparable to Trinity Sunday or the appropriate Saints' Day for a Church bearing the name of the Trinity or of some saint. Dr. Crowder had arranged with Bishop Perry to have his annual visitation and confirmation on the evening of that day. He gathered together a confirmation class of over one hundred and thirty, probably the largest in Church or Diocese up to that time and one of the largest up to the present time. Ascension Day began with the service of Holy Communion at 7.00 a.m. At 10.45 came what Dr. Crowder called "an ideal worth striving for," "a great service on Ascension Day in the heart of the city." The preacher was the Rt. Rev. Arthur S. Lloyd of New York. The full choir, assisted by an orchestra of six pieces, gave appropriate music. In the evening, as has been said, there was the confirmation. With the approval of Bishop Perry the offerings at all the services of the day were for Missions, inasmuch as, said the Rector, "Ascension Day is one of the mountain peaks of the Christian Year, and standing upon it we shall surely obtain a world-wide view, and catch something of the Lord's passion for the whole race."
For the parish meetings of the previous two years, with the annual reports, Dr. Crowder substituted in 1913 at the Evening Service on Whitsunday, May 11th, a "Procession and Service of the Guilds and Clubs of Grace Church," with a special sermon by
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Dr. Alexander Mann, rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and later Bishop of Pittsburgh. The order of procession was as follows:
I. Sunday School Choir
2. Sunday School
3. The King's Daughters (Trinity, Floyd, and Whatsoever Circles)
4. St. Mary's Guild
5. Sir Galahad Club
6 .- Girls' Friendly Society (Candidates, Juniors, and Seniors)
7. Men's Club
8. Fruit and Flower Mission
9. Altar Guild
IO. Women's Guild
II. Woman's Auxiliary
12. The Vestry
13. Parish Choir
14. The Clergy
On Trinity Sunday, the new brass altar cross designed by Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, and executed by George C. Gebelein of Boston was dedicated. On the back of the arms is inscribed:
To the glory of God and in loving memory of Edward Wheaton Hoppin, October 14, 1870-May 4, 1895. The gift of his mother, Virginia Wheaton Hoppin, 1913.
As Mr. Dean's time was largely taken up by his work at the Church of the Saviour, the parish staff was augmented about the middle of June by the welcome arrival from Cincinnati of the Rev. John H. Robinette, who, as assistant for many years at Grace Church and as Rector of Trinity Church, Pawtuxet, has won a multitude of friends in Providence and its vicinity.
That summer was as usual a busy one at Pinewood Farm, which was managed on a plan that prevailed for several summers. Eight or nine parties of about thirty each were organized and occupied the farm from Saturday afternoon until Friday night, except the choir boys, who were allowed two full weeks of outing.
The formal announcement, early in October, 1913, of the be- quest of a considerable endowment gladdened the hearts of those responsible for the financial welfare of this busy parish, which year after year with monotonous regularity showed, in its annual budget of about $30,000, a deficit running into thousands of dollars. That staunch friend, whose generosity has been referred to more than once, Mrs. Jane Frances Brown, had made Grace Church one of her principal legatees. From this bequest Grace Church in a few years received an endowment of over $170,000 and was enabled for a few years to meet current expenses, and
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even to decrease appreciably the large accumulated deficit. Dr. Crowder wrote of Mrs. Brown in the Sunday leaflet as follows: "During the summer just past a great loss came to Grace Church in the death, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, of Mrs. Jane Frances Brown . . Possessed of large means as she was, she literally gave her whole time during her de- clining years, when confined to her house by physical infirmity, to thinking of and planning for the good of others. . As a result there poured from her an astonishing stream of benevol- ence, most of which was anonymous, and much of which will never be generally known . . . In spite of her weakness and infirmity, Mrs. Brown was a remarkable force in the life of this parish, the city, the diocese, and the state, from all of which she is sorely and sorrowfully missed."
One of the purposes at which Dr. Crowder constantly aimed was the invigorating and enriching of the public and private worship of the congregation. The parish calendars of those years give space continually to dignified and helpful prayers, appropriate for public and private use. He gave much thought to varying the noon-day and evening services. Towards the end of Lent, 1914, these endeavors to deepen the spirit of worship took visible shape in an interesting and useful book "Offices with Psalms and Hymns," published for Grace Church by the River- side Press, as the result of a generous gift of Mrs. Wm. S. Gardner.
Plans at this time were under way, at the suggestion of the Rector, for a worthy celebration of the eighty-fifth anniversary at Ascensiontide, 1914. The actual date of the first service (May 17th) came on the Sunday before, but in accordance with Dr. Crowder's desire to make Ascension Day the festival day of Grace Church, the formal celebrations began on that day with Holy Communion at 7.00 and at 10.00 and Morning Prayer at 10.45 with an historical address by Dr. Crowder. This address is one of the most significant of the sort of which any trace can be found in the century of the life of the parish and should be care- fully preserved in the archives of Grace Church. In the evening came the annual visitation of the Bishop with confirmation. On Friday there was a large parish reception in Churchill House, given by the Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen. The gathering was addressed by Dr. Rousmaniere, Dr. Crowder, and Mr. Gard- ner. In the course of his speech Dr. Rousmaniere described the new parish house as "the building of which I dreamed." On
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Sunday, May 24th, Dr. Charles H. Babcock, whose rectorship had ended twenty years back, preached the Anniversary Sermon.
In the evening there was a community service with addresses by the Rev. John Frank Scott of St. John's, Dr. Aucock of All Saints, and Dr. Edward S. Ninde of the Mathewson Street Church, whose most generous help in the time of crisis was still fresh in the grateful appreciation of Grace Church.
The chief event of the fall of 1914, and one of the notable occasions in the recent life of Grace Church, was the Every-Mem- ber Canvass as part of the Forward Movement stimulating the spiritual life of the Church throughout the nation in those sombre early months of the World War. Somewhat similar attempts had been made many years before and several since, but probably none was entered into with greater seriousness, with more laborious preparation on the part of some hundred workers and, in view of the strangeness of the task and the initial obstacles to be overcome, probably none ever had larger results in calls made, helpful con- tacts formed, and new pledges secured.
At the request of the Rector a large committee of Vestry and congregation was appointed early in October to undertake this canvass. On this committee representing the Vestry there were: Rathbone Gardner, Albert Babcock, Wm. A. Viall, Frank P. Comstock, Henry V. A. Joslin, Rush Sturges and Henry B. Hunt- ington; representing the congregation, Fred D. Carr, G. Maurice Congdon, Frank T. Easton, Albert L. Miller, and William Mac- Donald.
This committee appointed many sub-committees, arranged several meetings of all the canvassers in late November and early December, including a supper for the prospective canvassers, and made a most careful survey of the parish with the systematic grouping of over a thousand parishioners. Then, with carefully laid plans to increase the interest of the parish in missionary work and to secure a more hearty and general support both for the parish and for its benevolences, nearly a hundred men went out in pairs in automobiles on Sunday afternoon, December 6th. Each pair made, or attempted to make, from ten to a dozen calls upon members of the Church who had been asked to be at home to receive the canvassers.
Mr. Gardner in reporting on the canvass said:
"It is safe to say that on that evening the people of Grace Church knew each other better than they ever had before and esteemed each other more highly . . The enthusiasm with
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which it [the canvass] was carried through is another evidence of our confidence in him [the Rector] and a further proof that he knows us better than we know ourselves."
The material results of the canvass were very gratifying. A total of 608 pledges was finally secured, amounting to over $12,300 as against a little less than $9,000 the year before. Over $7,000 of the sum pledged was for parish support and of the pledges about half were new. For some years Dr. Crowder had managed to give to the Treasurer relatively small sums from the Sunday offerings fund to reduce the deficit, and the method of deficiency pledges had been fully tried. This was the first time, however, that the Treasurer could count on a considerable source of regular income in addition to the taxes on the pews and the income from the invested funds.
To the gloom of the War there was added that year much sad- ness within the official circles of the parish. The quiet heroism of the Rector throughout the long last illness of his only son, of the Junior Warden, Arthur L. Kelley, and of Frederick H. Hull, an- other Vestryman, in the pain and weakness of their months of illness, left a deep impression on all their associates. The deaths of Mr. Kelley and Mr. Hull came within one week, to be followed in the same month by that of another vestryman, Henry T. Grant.
At a meeting in early May, Frederick D. Carr, Gilbert Maurice Congdon and Arthur Livingston Kelley, Jr. were elected to fill the three vacancies. To have three new members added at once was a situation rarely paralleled in the annals of our Vestry, except for that notable meeting in 1865 when it took seven new members to fill the vacancy created by the resignation from the Vestry of Bishop Clark. At this meeting of May II, 1915, William A. Viall, who had been vestryman since 1905, was elected Junior Warden.
Early in 1915 the flags of Nation and of State were hung from the choir loft in the rear of the church, the gift of Lyra B. Nicker- son. In accordance with the desires of the Bishop, Mr. Robinette resigned as curate to become on April IIth the rector of Trinity Church, Pawtuxet. His place was taken by Mr. Philip Ayres Easley, who had recently left the Methodist ministry. Mr. Easley was ordained deacon in Grace Church on November Ist and advanced to the priesthood in the following May.
There had been considerable anxiety more than once in regard to a residence for the Rector. Only by good fortune had 38 Cush- ing Street, on the Northwest corner of Brown Street, been origin-
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ally secured and its tenancy maintained. When an opportunity came, therefore, to purchase the attractive and conveniently located house at 85 Cooke Street which had been for many years the home of the Senior Vestryman, H. N. Campbell, the chance seemed quite too good to be missed. As the cost of the house, including a few necessary changes and repairs, would be somewhat less than $20,000 and considerably less than the sum held as a Rectory Fund ever since the sale of the old rectory on Greene Street, the Vestry had no hesitation in making the purchase. Since Dr. Crowder removed thither, in the fall of 1915, 85 Cooke Street has been the appropriate and hospitable home of three Rectors of Grace Church.
One purpose strongly in the minds of the Vestry in this acquisi- tion was destined to speedy disappointment. It was earnestly hoped that the rectory would tend to keep the Rector from lending an attentive ear to calls from other parishes. In February, 1916, however, a call to St. James' Church on Madison Avenue, New York, with the urgent desire of Bishop Greer for its acceptance, appealed to Dr. Crowder with such force that he felt that in "the interest of the larger Church which we all are pledged to serve" he had no right to decline. His resignation was presented on February 29th, to take effect on April Ist. Of Dr. Crowder's work the Vestry in accepting his resignation bore witness, in part, as follows:
"With tireless energy he has added to the number of services held in the church and has made them more attractive and effective for good Through his efforts the general appreciation, on the part of the community, of the service rendered to it by Grace Church has been deepened. More than all he has, week after week, preached to us with rare power and force the simple word of God and made an impression upon many lives which will never be effaced."
Thus again Grace Church had to bear the disappointment of a short rectorship and the loss of a beloved leader in the fullness of his vigor and influence.
The Vestry appointed the curate, Mr. Easley, a man of wide experience and unusual devotion, as minister-in-charge. By a very advantageous arrangement the Rt. Rev. Frederick Courtney, D.D., D.C.L., the retiring Rector of Dr. Crowder's new church, was secured as preacher for four Sundays in April. Later Professor Hughell E. W. Fosbroke, then at the Cambridge Theological School, occupied the pulpit on several Sundays.
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A committee of the Vestry at once began an earnest and thorough search for Dr. Crowder's successor. Several calls were extended to clergy in distant parts of the country, but they felt unable to leave the work in which they were then engaged. At length Messrs. Gardner and Sturges made a visit to St. Peter's, Morris- town, New Jersey, to hear the Rev. Philemon Fowler Sturges. So impressed were they by his marked fitness for our work that they interviewed him after the service and ascertained that he would be able to consider favorably a call from Grace Church, should such be made, and so reported to the Vestry. The Vestry at once followed up this action of its committee and on June 20, 1916, unanimously called Mr. Sturges to the rectorship. Mr. Sturges came to Providence on June 27th, took luncheon with the Senior Warden and nine other members of the Vestry, and promised an early answer to the call. This answer in the affirmative came on July 9th. The approval of the Bishop having already been secured, Mr. Sturges was formally elected rector on July 14th, to take up his duties on October 1, 1916. At this same time, Mr. Lacey-Baker having resigned, it was arranged that Mr. Sturges should bring with him from St. Peter's as organist and choirmaster, Mr. John Sebastian Matthews.
During the winter of 1916 a second attempt had been made to enlarge the membership in the Corporation, which had previously been limited to the men owning pews or hiring pews from the Corporation, with a few other men by right of substitution. The chief purpose of the agitation was to secure equal rights to women, especially as members of the Corporation. In this there was success, though only after repeated meetings and adjournments. The particular cause of delay was due to the feeling of a large number that the time was not ripe to throw open to women positions on the Vestry and the offices of Secretary and Treasurer. This sentiment finally prevailed, and membership only in the Corporation and in the delegations to convocation and convention was extended to all communicants of either sex, twenty-one years of age or over, who hired sittings-not merely pews-or were designated by the owner as occupants-and annually expressed in writing their desire to have the privilege. The Rector, at this time, was made a member of the Corporation and the Vestry ex-officio. These changes were ratified by the legislature and took effect after Easter Monday, 1917. At the annual meeting of 1918, Miss Mary B. Anthony, daughter of John B. Anthony who had rendered such distinguished service to Grace Church
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in past years, was elected by the Corporation as alternate in the delegation to the diocesan convention and later as delegate.
Mr. Sturges preached his first sermon on Sunday, October I, 1916. Deaconess Payne had left in the late spring, but Deaconess von Brockdorff and Mr. Easley remained until their vacations toward the end of the summer.
Mr. Sturges brought from Morristown, besides his organist, a soprano soloist, Miss Edna M. Wolverton, who also acted as secretary to the Rector. The opportunity thus afforded led to the addition of four women altos to supplement the seven boy altos in the reorganized choir. Since this time the choir has always been enriched by having women's voices as well as those of boys and men. Miss Ruth Dean also came from Morristown as parish worker for the first winter and spring. Mr. Charles H. Ricker had been ordained deacon on April 25th and gave valuable service during the interregnum from April to October as well as serving as Mr. Sturges's assistant until July, 1917, having been advanced to the priesthood in March.
Mr. Sturges maintained in general the policy of Dr. Rousma- niere and Dr. Crowder of having a strong and experienced staff. In November he secured the services, as deaconess, of Miss Georgia L. V. Wilkie, who served until September, 1918, when she left to take up Settlement House work in New York. In September, 1917, the Rev. Percy G. Kammerer, a man of considerable ex- perience and unusual intellectual force, came from St. Stephen's, Boston, and served as assistant minister until October 1, 1918, when he went to Emmanuel Church, Boston, to share in the remarkable work being done by Dr. Elwood Worcester. This vacancy was filled, on November Ist, by the return of Mr. Robin- ette, who had a hearty welcome from the many friends in the parish whom he had won in his service under Dr. Crowder from 1913 to 1915.
That fall of 1918 saw many other changes. In September, Miss Gertrude Tucker began her valuable official connection with Grace Church, taking Miss Wolverton's place as Rector's Secre- tary for a time and then assuming her present duties as Parish Secretary early in Mr. Lawrence's rectorship. The first Parish Secretary, however, was Miss Agnes C. Langdon, who, after efficient assistance for years in the group organization and the canvasses of the parish, was given official recognition in February, 192I and served until June, 1922.
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It was also in November, 1918, that Miss Wilkie's place as parish worker, was filled by Miss Madelaine Appleton from the Church of the Messiah, Glens Falls, New York, who took up her residence in the "House of the Intercessor," which about that time was named "Grace House." Miss Appleton renewed there the traditions of social intercourse and widespread hospitality of Deaconess von Brockdorff. The death of this latter faithful and beloved friend of Grace Church on November 17, 1918, was a cause of sadness to hundreds in the parish. A beautiful memorial window in her memory, made by James Powell and Sons of London and bought through subscriptions raised by Miss Alice Brownell and others, was later placed in the west wall of the church.
Miss Frances B. Boone rendered helpful service during the long illness that preceded Miss Appleton's resignation in 1925. The staff was greatly strengthened in October, 1924, by addition of Miss Alice K. Potter, a graduate of St. Faith's Deaconess School in New York, who undertook much of Miss Appleton's work and also became director of the Church School. Miss Searle joined the staff in the summer of the following year and took up her residence at Grace House. A second curate was added to the staff in June, 1922, with the coming of a brother-in-law of Mr. Kammerer's, the Rev. Truman Heminway, who after varied experiences in ranching in Alberta, had decided to enter the ministry, and was just graduating from the Cambridge Theological School.
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