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HISTORY
OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH - 1956
This document is a copy of a booklet that was published near the 100-year anniversary of St Paul's Church. Every effort has been made to insure an accurate copy, including misspellings, as were contained in the original.
This history is dedicated to those who made it - the men and women who established and cherished
St. Paul's, who left us a rich heritage and are now gone on before us.
Chestnut Hill A Century Ago
When St. Paul's church was born in 1855, Chestnut Hill was still partly a place where the old families such as the Streepers, the Yeakels, the Gravers, the Peters, lived all the year round, and partly a summer resort for city people.
When the railroad was finally put through to Chestnut Hill in 1854, the annual report of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company describes the beauties of the country between Germantown and Chestnut Hill in language worthy of the most sentimental modern advertising agent, for example "...on the summit of Chestnut Hill; it would require the pen of a poet, in the pure air of this enchanted promontory, to describe the panorama before him. The view over the extensive Limestone Valley of White Marsh..." No wonder people began to move out from town in increasing numbers.
Mr. Jesse Kneedler, who lived in town on Washington Square, used to pack his family and his furniture into carriages and wagons each spring and move to his farm on the corner of Main Street Pike and Norman Lane; and then he would move them all back to town in the fall. He himself commuted daily to his business in the city, driving to Germantown to catch the train before the Chestnut Hill line was built.
Chestnut Hill is often spoken of today as "the village." In 1855 it was truly a village. The population living in the city limits north of Cresheim Creek in 1865 was only 1229 (Lippencott's Gazeteer). The map of 1855 shows how few the buildings were, and that they were largely clustered along the Main Street. The great influx of new residents form the city was just beginning.
To reach Germantown in 1855 or to reach the city, one boarded the train where the Chestnut Hill Station of the Reading now stands. The train ran only five times a day each way on the week days and three times on Sundays. It ran by gravity from Chestnut Hill to the Germantown station at Main and Price Streets, and from there by steam to the terminus at 9th and Green Streets. A one way fare was 20c. If you missed the train at Chestnut Hill you could drive or ride a horse or walk to Germantown and perhaps catch the train there, for the trains ran from Germantown to the City ten times a day. On a week day morning the Chestnut Hill commuter took the 7:40 or the 10:10. Before the railroad was opened from Germantown to Chestnut Hill there was an hourly stagecoach service which caused some rivalry between the Chestnut Hill people and the Mt. Airy people.
Mr. George Wharton Pepper spent childhood summers at his grandmother Pepper's country place --where All Saints Hospital now stands--and later in a cottage on Presbyterian Lane, now known as Rex Avenue. He remembers that "The train-journey in the late Sixties and early Seventies was quite an undertaking. To reach the Ninth and Green Street terminal from the center of the city required a long, slow ride in a horse-car. The railroad coaches were scarcely bigger than the horse-car. There were gratings at the windows to prevent an impulsive passenger from sticking out his neck. The locomotives were funny little contraptions--with smokestacks shaped like inverted cones and bells and whistles of which the engineer made good use."
Until 1854 Chestnut Hill, though in Philadelphia County, had been part of Germantown Township and not part of the City of Philadelphia. The county had for a long time been divided into 20 different political territories, each with some power of self government. The city itself included only from Vine Street to South Street and from river to river. Germantown Township, to which Chestnut Hill belonged, took in the present city lying north of Washington Lane, west of Stenton Avenue, and east of the Wissahickon.
An act of Assembly of February 2, 1854 abolished all these subdivisions and united them into the city and county of Philadelphia. Instead of all the districts, boroughs and townships and one small city, there was now one large city with 23 wards. No doubt this distressed some of the politicians. The Township of Germantown had had officers but these were all lost in the shuffle on the new deal.
When St. Paul's was organized there were only 31 stars in the flag, Franklin Peirce was president of the United States and James Pollock was governor of Pennsylvania. The local political contests were between the Whigs and the Democrats--the American or Know Nothing Party, providing a dash of uncertainty because, for awhile, they could swing the balance of power.
Mayor Robert T. Conrad was elected on June 6, 1854 by a combination of Whigs and Know-Nothings, defeating Richard Vaux who had run on the Democratic ticket and had refused the support of the Know-Nothings because they were religious intolerants. This was the same Richard Vaux of Chestnut Hill and later of St. Paul's of whom Horace M. Lippincott records that he danced with Queen Victoria at her coronation ball and his Quaker mother, on hearing of it, David, "I do hope Richard will not marry out of Meeting."
Decision
Up to this time those who ultimately established St. Paul's Church had attended services at the Presbyterian Church or at St. Thomas' Church, Whitemarsh with an occasional Episcopal service at the Union Chapel which stood in Graver's Lane near its present intersection with Shawnee. Nearly two years before, at Mr. John Bohlen's house, he and Col. Cephas G. Childs and Mr. Charles Platt had decided to have Episcopal services as regularly as possible in the Union Chapel--and accordingly there had been more frequent services.
Now in '55 it had been determined to organize a new parish of the Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. In this country neighborhood, which was destined to be so thickly settled in the next 100 years, on the evening of June 18, 1855, nineteen people made their way to the meeting hall on the second floor of the Reading station.
Ladies present were: Mrs. David Pepper, Mrs. Childs, Mrs. Earp, Mrs. Fairthorne, Mrs. Charles Platt, Mrs. Price, Mrs. Jerome, Miss Sweeney, Miss Steinbr and Miss M. W. Fobes.
Gentlemen present were: Messrs. Bohlen, Childs, Huston, C.T. Platt, Fairthorne, Charles Platt, Mason, Jerome, and Earp.
The minutes of the meeting in the railroad station are in Mr. Earp's handwriting and give the reasons for establishing the parish.
"Whereas,the increasing population of Chestnut Hill and particularly the increasing number of those who are attached to the Protestant Episcopal church, and who also may have friends desirous of obtaining residences in that vicinity; as well as a considerable number of present residents who are no stated attendants at any place of public worship, would seem to invite the formation of a Protestant Episcopal Parish, and whereas there is a call for Christian activity on behalf of the multitudes who will more and more seek temporary or permanent residence in the vicinity of the city, resolved that it is expedient to form a parish at Chestnut Hill to be known under the name of St. Paul's Chestnut Hill."
John Roglen then addressed the meeting as to the importance of this object, trusting it would be entered upon seriously and prayerfully.
An election was held for 11 vestrymen where the following named gentlemen were unanimously elected, John Bohlen, Cephas G. Childs, Charles Platt, Jos. Hl Hildeburn, Chas. Taylor, Thos. Earp, Jr., Frederic Fairthorne, Clayton T. Platt, Jos. C. Bullitt, Wm. Henry Trotter, Thomas Mason.
The organizers were of full of enthusiasm that they met again three days later to make plans for a Sunday School of which Mr. Bohlen was to be superintendent fro June to November and Col. Childs from November to June, and again on the 25th to elect Mr. Fairthorne accounting warden, Mr. Earp secretary and Col. Childs rector's warden, though there was not yet a rector.
Services were now held regularly on the second floor of the railroad station--the parish paying $200.00 a year rent. In the summer of 1856 the room was lent to the ladies of the Presbyterian Church for a fair at which the promoters reported that the receipts were "very Hudson, far beyond their expectations."
At the third meeting of the vestry on July 12, it was decided to take up a special collection for the Sunday School. This was done two weeks later and $55.46 was turned over to the superintendent and teachers to spend.
Mrs. Alicia Price and her sisters, the Misses Sophia and Anna Sweeney, conducted Mrs. Price's Female Seminary on the Main Street, and the five girls and one boy who were listed in the register as their pupils and wards probably made up a good part of the Sunday School.
The Reverand R. W. Oliver was acting as the regular minister of the congregation and, although he was still a deacon, he is spoken of in one vestry minute as "rector." Later in the fall six members of the vestry endorsed him for the priesthood and he left to be a missionary "in the western portion of the diocese." At a meeting on November 5, 1856, the vestry elected the Reverend Alexander Shiras to be rector.
Until 1822 Chestnut Hill had no church. In that year the Union Chapel was built at the corner of Shawnee and Gravers Lane. The different denominations used this chapel for services and then, one by one, built churches of their own: Baptist 1835; Methodist 1845; Presbyterian 1853; Roman Catholic 1855; Episcopal 1856; Lutheran 1860.
Each of these was originally Built where it now stands except the Presbyterian church which stood at Main Street and Rex Avenue until the present church was built in 1949, the old church being sold to the Seventh Day Adventists.
Until St. Paul's Church was organized, the nearest Episcopal churches were St. Thomas', Whitemarsh, St. David's, and Christ Church, Germantown.
Of course the next steps were to be recognized by the diocese as a separate parish and to build a church. On may 8, 1856, St. Paul's was admitted to union with the Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. The first lay members sent in 1857 were:Cephas G. Childs, Charles Platt and Thomas Earp; in 1859, John Bohlen,
in 1860 Col. Childs, Clayton T. Platt and Richard G.
A Church is Built
In the spring of 1856 the church bought two lots where our church now stands with a frontage on Chestnut Avenue of 200 feet, for $3500.00. The land was subject to a yearly ground rent of $120.00, later extinguished. The money to but the lots was contributed by members of the vestry, Messrs. Bohlen, Charles Platt, Trotter and Taylor guaranteeing the whole. This tract did not include the land on which the present rectory stands which was bought in 1914--or the land extending from the church to Bethlehem Pike, part of which was bought in 1916 and part in1944.
Almost all the money for the ground and buildings was put up by ten families: Bohlen, Bullitt, Blight, Childs, Earp, Platt, Fairthorne, Pepper, Taylor and Trotter.
The vestry had decided on March 12, 1856 that $3000 was to be the top figure for building the chapel, but the building committee reported on January 12, 1857, as deficit of "about $1700," and the members of the vestry were promptly assessed that amount. No doubt any one elected to the vestry in those days knew what was coming. In the end the total actually paid was $4847.50. The architect was J. E. Carver and his fee of $251.37 was a little over five percent of the amount paid the contractor. Does the modern architect calculate his fee to the exact penny?
The chapel had thirty-two pews holding five each and three unenclosed seats. There were a communion table which cost $25.00, a font, two chancel chairs, a melodeon and candles. Outside were sheds for horses and carriages as was the custom for many country churches of that period. The chapel stood where the southwesterly corner of the parish house now is, and part of the present wall of the parish house was the wall of the chapel.
The chapel was consecrated by Bishop Alonzo Potter on Tuesday, September 15, 1856. Tickets were bought for 24 attending clergy and there were seven singers. It was probably an evening service, for the parish paid the Railroad Hotel $12.00 "expenses of quire," which suggests that they came up on the last train, and spent the night at the hotel which stood where Dwyer's Coal Yard now is. Another entry in the account of the day of the consecration is "J. Nice carriage to bring 3 music up--$1.25 and toll.20." Evidently three of the choir were driven up from south of Chestnut Hill and paid toll at Main Street and Evergreen Avenue.
In the early days the parish relied chiefly on the vestry for financial support. The plate collections were small. The first entry in the cash book was $8.89, the collection taken on Sunday, July 1, 1855. During the whole year beginning with that Sunday the amount received for current expenses was only $1227.49, and $825 of this came from members of the vestry. The largest ordinary Sunday plate collection by the end of 1858 had been $22.69 and the smallest had been $1.05 on February 28, 1858 which we hope was the day of a great blizzard.
The earliest record of a contribution to work outside of the parish is of $81.00 collected on September 9,1855 "to send to Norfolk, Va. on account of the sick." "The sick" people had yellow fever which had been brought from Africa on the steamship Benjamin Franklin. Two thirds of Norfolk fled and a third of those left behind died--among the Catherine T. Hale, grandmother of our parishioner Merritt t. Cooke.
On September 2, 1858, there was a collection of $72.76 "for Africa."
Mr. Shiras was rector of St. Paul's from November 5, 1855 to September 1, 1860. There was no rectory and he lived at first in a cottage belonging to Col. Childs for which the parish paid $325.00 a year rent. In the spring he moved to Dr. Jacoby's house on Germantown Avenue where Mrs. Richard Chamberlain, a member of our parish and our choir, now lives. Mr. Shiras' salary was $800.00 a year plus the rent of the house, $250.00 a year.
During his rectorate he baptized fifty-one persons, nine of whom were adults. Those whose names may be recognized by some of this generation were Garret R. Hinckle, Cephas G. Childs, described in the register as "the originator of the church services at Chestnut Hill," John Christian Bullitt, Josephine and Sophia Thayer, daughters of Judge and Mr. Thayer, Susan G. Snyder, Mrs. Mary A Corson, and Miss Sarah Jane Corson. Miss Snyder was the daughter of Daniel Snyder--one of the old residents of Chestnut Hill--and the great grandfather of Mrs. Charles G. Ashbridge who is a member of St. Paul's today.
The change of thought in a hundred years is illustrated by this note in the Baptismal register of 1860, concerning two babies:
"Both these children illegitimate, but the mothers being deeply penitent and promising their best efforts for the Christian training of their children it was not felt that the baptism asked for them could be withheld."
The first funeral service recorded by Mr. Shiras was that of Mrs. Cephas Childs who lived only a year after the organization of the parish. The register contains a warm eulogy of her character and speaks of the important part she played in the establishment of the parish.
There were at that thin two missions of the parish. One at the village of Marble Hall and one on Springfield Avenue near Cresheim Creek, where there were textile mills. Both closed during Dr. Harris' pastorate. When the mills closed and their workers moved, those who remained and those from Marble Hall joined St. Paul's
When Mr. Shiras resigned in 1860, to go to a church in Virginia, the parish had been incorporated, had been admitted to union with the Diocesan Convention, had acquired its land on Chestnut Avenue, had built its first church building and had started on its way to strength and usefulness. The vestry resolution about him describes him as "a Christian gentleman, scholar and divine" and takes satisfaction in the growth of the parish.
Too Young
Mr. Shiras left September 1, 1860 and during the succeeding months, while the vestry were looking for his successor, the affairs of the nation went form bad to worse. The Southern states seceded, Fort Sumter fell, and President Lincoln called for volunteers. Chestnut Hill, like every community in the country, north and south, must have been profoundly stirred. The first company of volunteers organized from Chestnut Hill under Captain Jos. T. Owen, encamped near the present Wyndmoor R.R. Station, where a little later the Mower General Hospital was built. But there is no hint of all this tumult in the parish records. Fort Sumter fell on Sunday, April 14, 1861. and on the next day the vestry met to receive the acceptance of young Wm. Hobart Hare to be rector of the parish, and to take charge on Whitsunday, May 10, 1861. He was just 22 and said in his letters of acceptance that he was "very young, too young to be a priest." He had studied at the Episcopal Academy, the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Divinity School and had then assisted as deacon at St. Luke's Church, 13th St., Philadelphia.
A year after his coming to St. Paul's he was ordained priest. By this time he had married Mary Amory Howe, daughter of the rector of St. Luke's. His only son, Herbert, was born a year later and was afterwards a well known physician in Philadelphia.
By the fall of '61 the church had grown so much that it was necessary to buy camp stools, and the decision was made to build a larger church. Its cornerstone was laid October 25, 1861 and this was the church which stood until it was replaced by our present church. The contract price for the building was $6250.00 "not including one tower and spire" which were estimated at $1500.00.
The congregation was still largely a summer one. The budget was small. For instance, for the year ending March, 1862, the total expenses were $2317.26, which included funds passed on to objects outside of the parish. The rector's salary was $100.00 a month. About half the parish income came from pew rents.
In a little over two years, Mr. Hare baptized 33 persons and presented 27 for confirmation. Six of the latter were attendants at the cottage meetings on Springfield Avenue and one was Senator George Wharton Pepper's father, George Pepper. There were 5 funerals during his rectorship, one of them that of Wm. Platt, Sr., whose sons Charles and Clayton had attended the first organization meeting and were members of the first vestry.
In June, 1863, Mr. Hare was granted 6 months leave of absence to take his ill wage west in search of health. It was there that he came face to face with the Indians whose untiring and devoted bishop he was later to become. Mrs. Hare died in 1866 and after a few years as Secretary and General Agent of the Foreign Committee of the Board of Missions he was elected missionary bishop of Niobara, an enormous district covering several big Indian reservations.
The story of his service to these Indians is one of the treasures of our church. They named him Zitkan Duzahan--Swift Bird, and President Grant said of him "he has done what the whole U.S. Army could not do. He has conquered the Sioux." The middle carved figure on the right side of the reredos is a portrait of him.
Temporarily--For Fifty Years
When Mr. Hare received his leave of absence, his young friend, the Rev. J. Andrews Harris of Germantown was engaged "to assume the duties of the parish temporarily--one month's notice to be given him by the vestry when they may wish him to relinquish hes position." This temporary appointment was the beginning of a remarkable rectorate of more than 50 years.
Just before it began, the battle of Gettysburg was fought, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday--July 1,2,and 3. News travelled slowly then so that it was not until Saturday, July 4, that President Lincoln announced there were indications of a great success to the cause of the Union, and not until Sunday the 5th did Gen. Meade's dispatches, and the first wounded men from the battle, reach Philadelphia.
That was the Sunday when Mr. Harris came up from Germantown to begin his duties. He said of it later,
"It was a day that well never be forgotten. Nobody knew where the Army of the Potomac was;there were all sorts of rumors. You know what an awful hush there is sometimes before a blasting thunder storm--everything quiet, event the birds cease twittering. There was just that sort of fog hanging over everything here. 'What next?', people were saying, and as I came along walking partway along the railway from Germantown to the Main Street, there were groups of men standing along the railroad talking. They were not talking in voices louder than I am using just now; you could not hear what was said, but there they were waiting--waiting, some of them trembling, and it was thro' an atmosphere of this sort that I came here for my first service."
The news that Gettysburg was won and Lee was in retreat was not generally known until 9 o'clock that Sunday evening, "the time of the night services in the city and there were Te Deums galore all thought."
When it was found that Mr. Hare could not return, the vestry on January 26, 1864 unanimously elected Mr. Harris rector. His well known writing appears in the parish records even before this.
Among the first such records is:"Confirmation May 8, 1864, Matilda Campbell and Ella Brock." and after the record Dr. Harris wrote, "these two young ladies are intimate friends--a very pleasant cementing of their affection." Ella Brock was the mother of Miss Julia V. Sinkler and Miss Elsie Brock Sinkler who are parishioners of St. Paul's today. Matilda Campbell became Mrs. John Markoe, later so well known by all in the mission field.
When Dr. Harris became rector on January 20, 1864, four of the original eleven vestrymen were still in service--John Bohlen, Charles Platt, Thomas Earp, Jr., and William Henry Trotter. The other vestrymen at that time were Richard C. McMurtrie, William C. Makle and Russell Thayer. Mr. Platt was rector's warden and Mr. Earp was accounting warden and secretary.
The new church begun during Mr. Hare's rectorate was still under construction. On October 25, 1865, the debt on the building having been paid off, it was consecrated by Bishop Stevens. It was an especially happy occasion for there were present clergy from both the north and south--representatives from the general convention of the reunited church meeting in Philadelphia for the first time after the war. The church measured 90' x 47', not including chancel and vestibule and would have fitted into the nave of our present church. Its interior was very bare and rather depressing--in fact Dr. Harris remarked that it should have been named not St. Paul's, but St. Barn-abas'. The beauty that was added to it in the following years came as expressions of the love and experience of parishioners. A special gift by Edwin N. Benson made it possible to add a new chancel as well as a window. The architect of the new chancel was James P. Sims who died the day before it was first used.
A baptistry was built in memory of two brothers, Harold and Alexander C. Humphrey, the sons of Alexander C. Humphrey, who had long been accounting warden of the parish. The older brother took his bride and his younger brother, a boy of 12, for a trip up the Nile. In some unaccountable way the boy fell overboard. His brother leaped in to save him and both were drowned. There is a commemorative tablet in the present baptistry. Memories like this are part of the riches of a parish.
In 1870 stoves were bought to heat the church and in '72 a furnace was installed. In '68, a rectory was built at 20 E. Chestnut Ave.'thus securing for the rector of the parish a commodious and elegant residence." This house was torn down in 1938 and we have our lovely lawn in its place.
A parish building was made possible by a legacy from Mrs. Tobias Wagner, and it was furnished in '89.
Growth
The congregation had grown so much by '98 the need for a larger church seemed pressing. The proposal was considered and shelved, however. The country was in the midst of the Spanish War and it was generally thought that Admiral Cervera might "attack atlantic city, march across New Jersey, and fall upon Philadelphia, utterly destroying business and the whole monetary system." At any rate, th $30,000 considered necessary for the new building, was not likely to be raised at such a time and the enlargement waited for many years. It seems that "the good old peaceful days" had their own anxieties and perplexeties which must have required just as much Christian fortitude as those of today.
The parish at about this time lost some of its most valued members. John C. Sims died in '01. He had been a vestryman since 1880 and was accounting warden and secretary - "His very presence brought sunshine with it." (vestry minutes). He had been, in the 80s' one of the quartet who served as choir.
Wm. C. Mackie died in '05 and "St Paul's Church lost its oldest member in time of service. He was elected to the vestry in 1861 and accordingly served 44 years. Except during occasional absences from Chestnut Hill or when he was ill, he was always in his place on Sunday mornings at church. He constructed all the buildings in the church grounds and thus leaves on the spot an enduring monument." (vestry minutes).
Edward S. Buckley died in '10. He had been a vestryman for 36 years, and rector's warden for 30 years, and he had been most liberal toward every good work in the parish and in the church at large. Mrs. Buckley gave the parish the rectory at 18 E. Chestnut Ave. in his memory.
Many of us today may not be surprised to read in the vestry minutes of January, '09, that it was "resolved that the music committee inform the choir master that it is the desire of the vestry to have the music simpler and more congregational." The chior master resigned the following autumn!
The need for a larger church had continued to be pressing and accordingly in 1910 Arthur E. Newbold moved that an architect be employed to draw up plans. THe firm of Zantzinger, Borie, and Medary was retained and Clarence Zantzinger presented plans for enlarging the church in February, 1911.
In '14, Dr Harris presented his resignation which was sorrowfully accepted and he was elected rector emeritus with full salary. The Reverand John H. Chapman was elected rector and served until 1917 when he was chosen by the bishop to serve as Chaplain in the Army during the war and was given a year's leave of absence with salary to join Jefferson Base Hospital. A year later he wrote from abroad requesting that his salary be discontinued, but Mr Buckley was authorized to write him "that we consider it a privilege to continue to pay Mrs Chapman the full salary for as long a time as possible." He returned to the parish in 1919, when there was a great gathering of parishioners to welcome him and remained until 1924, when he resigned on account of health. The vestry minutes finally accept his resignation say that during his rectorship the parish has grown with the community; grown in numbers, in equipment and in giving ability.
During the War years one hundred and thirty members of the Parish, as well as Mr Chapman, were away in service, many of them overseas. Four did not return:
Major Franklin Pepper
Lieutenant Brooks Lister
Sergeant Clement Cresson Kite
Private Leon Miller
Benjamin Franklin Pepper, a vestryman, was killed on Armistice Day in France; and in the same year the Parish lost Charles Platt, 3rd, also a vestryman.
The processional cross, carried today every Sunday was given in Franklin Pepper's memory, and the needlepoint cushions at the altar rail were made in memory of Charles Platt.
Arthur E. Newbold died in 1920, having been a vestryman for 19 years. The vestry minutes speak of their admiration and affection for him, and "his generous expenditure of himself and his means in good works. No task was too small to engage his earnest attention and in the midst of great responsibilities he constantly found time to labor for others." The first unit of our present Parish House was built in his memory in 1823. His son, Arthur E Newbold Jr, was elected to the vestry in his place.
The old carriage sheds on the church grounds - the equivalent of the present day parking lot - were removed in April 1919.
At this time the vestry minutes, a model of tact, remark (evidently in reply to some pressure group) that "the vestry considers it inexpedient to present our appeal for a united offering (for a special object) although the idea had our heavy approval in an individual way." It was also decided that although plans for building the new church had long been prepared it would be inexpedient to begin now on account of the present high costs. Pledges for the new church were in hand for $67,180.50 of which half had already been paid in.
Other memorials were the cross, vases and candle sticks, still used in memory of Mrs george Willing, one of the most active and beloved members of the parish whose children and grandchildren are with us.
Springside School Alumnae gave the Litany Desk used today, in memory of Miss Susan Jones, principal of the school. Arthue E. Newbold, Jr., gave the bell in the Church School Building, now our parish choir house, in memory of his father, and it was first rung by him for the Christmas Midnight service.
In 1940, the little park opposite the driveway on Bethlehem Pike, was given in memory of Nina L. Benson Cooke, "as a sanctuary for the public." Its trustees are the Rector, Rector's Warden and the Accounting Warden of St. Paul's Church.
Christopher Hart, sexton of the church, resigned in 1919 after 21 years of service, and was succeeded by James McElhinney.
Dr Harris came to us originally by arrangement with his vestry on a monthly basis, James McElhinney also came to us on a monthly basis - not arranged with the vestry, but in his own mind. He has now been with us more than 36 years.
In December, 1922, Dr Harris died, "a leader in community service, defender of the weak, upholder of every righteous cause even if he had to stand alone" (vestry minutes). He loved his people and was dearly loved by them. The roadway from Bethlehem Pike to the church is a memorial of him and the lowest right hand carved figure in the reredos is a portrait of him.
The man who held the parish together and shepherded the flock during Mr. Chapman's absence and after his resignation in 1924 was the Reverend John M. Chattin. The Parish Leaflet says of him: "He has releived us in want, tended our sick and comforted our bereaved. He has baptized our children, married our sons and daughters, and buried our dead. He has patiently heard us in our distress and rejoiced with us in our happiness."
The New Church
Meanwhile the Reverend Malcom E. Peabody had been elected rector and took charge on april 27, 1924. He had served in the Phillipine Mission field under Bishop Brent and in the mill district of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Although so much had changed since Mr. Harris's first arriving in Chestnut Hill, Mr Peabody also met at once a situation in regard to a new church building - plans had been long discussed, often presented, and often deferred. They were now at last brought to fruition. The vestry recommended to a parish meeting that the building be undertaken. The meeting agreed, and in February, 1928, the vestry at their monthly meeting decided to begin construction at once.
The last service in the old church was held on June 10th and the cornerstone of the new church was laid on July 8, 1928.
All that summer Mr. Joshua Ash Pearson stayed at home to supervise the building activities with Mr. Mackie, the contractor, who was a vestryman, and who had worked on the building of the old church. Mr. George S. Roth, also a member of the parish, whose son is a member today, was the foreman.
Services were held in the recently completed parish house until the opening day of the new church, Whitsunday, May 19, 1929. All the offerings at all the services on that day were sent to the Hare Industrial School in South Dakota, an expression of gratitude for our early association with the church's great missionary, Bishop Hare, the young deacon who had come to us sixty-eight years before.
Other links with the earlier days were kept in the lectern, which is dedicated to the memory of Clayton and Charles Platt, two members of our first vestry. The pulpit was given in memory of Francis McIlhenny and the chapel in memory of Albert A. Jackson. Names inscribed on memorial tablets in the old church are preserved in the two metal bands in the vestibule of the new church.
A more modern organization of the parish was soon begun. Our first Director of Religous Education, Mrs A. H. Brown, came to us in 1926 and was succeeded in 1931 by Hilda Shaul, who brought to the life of the parish a new vision of purpose and capacity.
She was full of creative enthusiasm and deep concern for individuals as they were and as they might become. Many organizations as well as the Church School shared in her ability to inspire adults as well as girls and boys with the joy of working together and with a growing sense of christian responsibility towards all human beings. Most of all we recognized and responded to her single-minded devotion to Our Lord which shone through her living among us and still shines in the memories of those who knew her.
It is impossible to give the names of the many leaders and teachers in the Sunday School through the years. It was the first parish organization formed three days after the election of our first vestry in 1855.
One well known and much appreciated teacher in the parish was Mr. Isaac Starr who for 15 years taught a bible class of 90 men, as well as a class of boys and girls.
He resigned from the vestry in 1930 after 35 years of service, 29 of them as accounting warden - Mrs. Starr was the mathematician of the family and did all the arithmetic for him. He had also been Warden of the Server's Guild and a member of innumerable diocesan committees and boards - a tower of stregnth to the parish.
In this same year the parish, the vestry and all of Chestnut Hill suffered a great loss in the death of Dr. Radcliffe Cheston. He was the best friend of a great many people in the parish and in Chestnut Hill. St Paul's Leaflet says of him, "What he did for each of us, for the Church and for the hospital will make Chestnut Hill a better place forever. Future generations may possibly forget his name. They will never lose him as an integral part of their tradition."
When Mr. Peabody was elected Bishop Coadutor of Central New York and left us in September 1938, the parish had enjoyed under his leadership fourteen years of steady growth.
He had brought us new vigor and fresh vision, as well as modern methods. (For the first time the minutes of the vestry minutes were tyoed instead of appearing in long hand.) The Sunday School had blossomed. Religious Education in the parish was greatly enriched and had become a pattern to which other parishes m the diocese looked for help. Lay participation in the planning and work of the parish had been greatly increased.
We had grown with his help in our acceptance of responsibility for the whole program of the whole church. We are grateful to him also for his vision and efforts in the building of the new church.
New Horizons
In January, 1939, the Reverend George A. Trowbridge, our present rector, came to us from All Angels Church, New York, where he had been rector for ten years. The son of a distinguished physicist and Dean of the Graduate School of Princeton, Mr. Trowbridge had graduated there and studied also at Oxford, England. He was on the Varsity track team in both universities. He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1924.
His college years w ere interrupted by nine months' service in France with the American Ambulance Service before the United States entered the First World War, and some months in Offiicers Training Corps at Camp Humphries, Va. He had taught for a year at St. Paul's School and been Chaplain for two years at Yale before he went to All Angels.
One of the first important happenings after his coming was the consecration of the new church. The last of the debt was finally cleared and on May 24, 1942, Bishop Peabody and Bishop Taitt con- secrated the new building.
And now our country was at war. 291 young men and women, mem- bers of the parish, were in the armed forces. The rector and his as- sistant, with a group of laymen, met daily at 7:30 a.m. to pray for them by name, the group being led sometimes by the clergy and sometimes by the laymen.
In 1948 the Martyr Window in the church was dedicated to the memory of the men of the parish who gave their lives in World War II: Peter Benson Robert Cresswell James Starr Farnum John Dick Gardiner Alder Blumer Howe Walter Hughson, Jr. Howard Blackwood Liggett, III George Deward Monroe Stephen Decatur Wright This is the first window east of the side door.
The window next to it is dedicated to the memory of James M. Henderson and his daughter. Mr. Henderson was a member of the parish for many years. He was baptized at St. Paul's by Dr. Harris in 1886, confirmed there by Bishop Whittaker in 1894 and was a vestry- man at the time of his death in 1949. Another memorial of him made by members of his family is the set of metal flower holders on the window sills of the Baptistry.
The music of our services at St. Paul's has gone through many variations through the years. At first a few paid women singers led the music. Then there was a choir formed of boys from the Church School-"the children not to be dressed in surplices."
Later still, in the eighties a quartet was seated at the head of the left-hand aisle and red curtains were hung about them and drawn bacl: whenever they sang. One of them remembers that the tenor and bass, with ostrich-like feelings, read their newspapers during the sermon. Dr. Harris sent them word not to crackle their papers.
In 1893 a vested paid choir of men and boys was formed-the traditional English choir, which was customary in Episcopal Churches in the United States and persists even today in many of our larger parishes where it is possible to meet the expense of a professional choir.
In 1949 our country was deep in the Second World War and it became very difflcuk to raise the budget needed for ourselves and for our share of the mission work of the Church. Our choirmaster was leaving, boy singers were hard to find, and more important stilL our rector and many others felt that a volunteer mixed choir from the parish would be a great contribution to the parish life.
A music committee was appointed and, supplemented by a large number of parish members, met to discuss these problems. It was found that our music was costing 20% of our budget and that St. Paul's was, fortunately, well equipped with a large number of people who were well endowed musically. Some had sung professionally, a great many had sung seriously as amateurs and others were suffi- ciently familiar with music to be capable sight readers.
It was ultimately decided to get the best musical leadership ob- tainable and to form a choir of men and women volunteers from the parish.
This is the choir of today, whose members are so faithfully in their places every Sunday.
Another change in parish affairs came a little: later. The Women of St. Paul's had been organized to combine into one, all the parish women's activities. Encouraged by a vestryman, Shippen Lewis, the Women of St. Paul's in 1949 sent a resolution to the vestr`,r recom- mending such alteration in the Charter and By-laws of St. Paul's as would permit any baptized and confirmed member of the parish, over twenty-one years of age, to be elected a member of the vestry.
Accordingly, a new Charter and By-laws to that effect were pre- sented to the vestry bv Mr. Lewis who had drawn them at the re- quest of the vestry. They were unanimously adopted and in 1951 the first two women were elected to the vestry: Mrs. Benjamin Pepper and Mrs. Rene Ruegg.
Shippen Lewis was also at that time gathering the material on which all the early part of this story of the parish is based.
In the following year another amendment was adopted, providing for rotation in vestry membership. Anyone other than the Accounting Warden who has served for five or more consecutive years may now not be re-elected until a year has passed.
One who had served for many years as Accounting Warden was Joshua Ash Pearson who died in December, 1950. The parish will long remember his ever present eamestness and willingness to shoulder the burdens of his parish, his diocese and the community at large.
No history of the parish could be written without mention of its women members of the past, who from the day of the first meeting for organization, carried so much responsibility and added so much inspiration to the work of St. Paul's. It is in great measure to them, as well as to the vestry who supported them, that we owe our con- stantly-maintained interest in the missionary work of the church, both at home and abroad. Their spirit and devotion have added much to our spirit and our vision today.
St Paul's has always been concerned in work outside its boundaries. At this moment our rector is Dean of the Germantown Convocation and members of our parish are carrying the following responsibilities: Member of the National Council and Delegate to the General Convention, President of the Women's Auxiliary of the Diocese, Chairman of the Diocesan United Thank Offering. One of our young members is giving a year of service in the mission field in Alaska.
One Hundred Years Of Change
The face of the land in Chestnut Hill has changed extraordinarily in the one hundred years of St. Paul's existence. There are still remains of old times, for instance there are as yet no sewers in some sections of Chestnut Hill, but there have been great improve. meets.
Horse cars came to Germantown Avenue in 1859. They were evidently overcrowded, for a printed complaint of the time says that "There should be room for all admitted, and no gentleman should be allowed, much less expected, to yield his seat upon the approach of crinoline." Fares in 1859 were 5 cents for the first mile or less, S cents each additional mile. Trolley cars replaced horse cars in 1894.
A year after the horse car's arrival, an extraordinary event took place. Railroad fares to Germantown were reduced from 15c to 12 1/2c or 10c, if paid in the station! Chestnut Hill tickets, originally 20c, must have been reduced in proportion.
The Pennsylvania Railroad took over the Schultz Farm to build its Chestnut Hill Station and ran the first train to Chestnut Hill on June 11, 1884.
Toll gates were still operating on Germantown Pike at Hunting Park Avenue, Rittenhouse Street and Evergreen Avenue-the charges being: for one horse and two wheels, 6c at each gate, for each chariot coach or phaeton, 12c if two horses, 20c if four horses, 3c a horse for sleighs. If you were on your way to church on Sunday you shouted "church" to the toll gate keeper and passed through free. At night poles or pikes were turned to lock the gates (hence turnpike).
However, there was an ordinance that tolls need not be paid if roads were not kept in order. Accordingly in 1871, a body of citizens pointed out:
"56 places where the pike is defective between Wayne and Chestnut Hill. The whole road is covered with loose stones, some of them weighing several pounds. All the good stretches put together would not amount to one mile in length. The gutters are filled with dirt and stones. The water is collected in the center of the road, covering the crossing to a depth of several inches-" After much litigation the city bought the pike for $9O,000 to free it of tolls. It was paved from Tenth Street to Chestnut Hill with granite blocks which, when they were worn smooth, were lifed and reversed.
In 1920 it was paved for the use of automobiles. Of fifty cars made by Ford in 1901, one was sold to a Chestnut Hill resident for $1,400.
Gas had replaced kerosene and candles during the 1850s. Electric lighting reached Chestnut Hill in 1890, but many of us remember gas street lights in the 1980's.
The first telephone in Chestnut Hill was installed in 1883: Gtn 127.
The Post Office, established in 1828 at the toll gate at Evergreen and Germantown Avenue (the Keeper was Postmaster), moved several times into shops nearby. It became a Sub-station of Philadelphia in 1864 and had one carrier. It moved to its present site in 1923 and now has twenty carriers.
The Library was opened in 1872.
In 1885 Mr. William Bucknell gave his country seat on Stenton Avenue to the Protestant Episcopal City Mission for the use of its hospital for tuberculosis patients-All Saint's Hospital-already started in the city.
St. Martin-in-the-Fields held a service to dedicate the beginning of its building on June 11, 1888, Mr. Harris as well as many others being present to rejoice with them.
The Chestnut Hill Hospital was opened in 1914 at 27-29 West Gravers Lane and moved to its present site in 1917.
Springside School was begun in 1879, Chestnut Hill Academy in 1895, and Chestnut Hill College in 1924.
Miss Zara's School opened in 1919 in St. Paul's Parish House, was housed there for 14 years and moved to its own building in 1933, joining with Springside in 1954.
Challenge
At three special times the people of St. Paul's have gathered themselves together to meet their increasing opportunities:
In 1856 when the first church was built, in 1861 when the need for a larger building was met, in 1929 when our present church was built.
Today we face the same opportunity which our first organizers saw, when in 1855 they stated their reasons for forming a parish to be, "because of the increasing population of Chestnut Hill" and "because there is a call for Christian activity on behalf of the multitudes who will more and more seek temporary or permanent residence" near the city.
We too see the population of Chestnut Hill increasing rapidly and about to increase even faster.
May we find among the newcomers many to help us, many to share our Christian heritage, many to bring us an increased Chrisffan Fellowship.
Currates Of St. Paul's
1892-1897Rev. J. Clayton Mitchell
1900-1901Rev. Robert Benedict
1901-1914Rev. J. Ogle Warfield
1916 -1925Rev. John M. Chattin
1925 -1934Rev. Malbone H. Birckhead
1933 -1937Rev. Matthew M. Warren
1937-1941Rev. Robert G. Metters
1942 -1944Rev. John Newton Peabody
1944 -1946Rev. William B. Schmidgall
1947-1948Rev. Alvin H. Hanson
1948 -1951Rev. Hubert S. Wood, Jr.
1952-1954Rev. Conrad H. Goodwin
1955 - Rev. Robert M. Wainwright
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