St. James's Parish Cambridge

ST. JAMES'S PARISH CAMBRIDGE FORTY YEARS OF PARISH HISTORY 1864=1904 By EDWARD ABBOTT FOURTH RECTOR OP THB PARISH AND RECTOR EMERITUS WITH MBMORIALS ON THE AUTHOR CAMBRIDGE 1909 REVEREND EDWARD ABBOTT. D.D. PREFATORY NOTE THE substance of the following sketch was first pre sented to the congregation of St. James's, Cambridge, in four discourses, on the Sunday mornings of Advent; i,904. A number of circumstances combined to invest that year with a distinctive anniversary character. On the evening of Christmas Day, I 904; it would be just forty years since the first service of St. James's Mission was held in Atwill's Hall. On the evening of Saturday, the 31st of December, I 904, it would be just forty years to the day of the 'Yeek, as well as the day of the month, since·the rector came to live in Cambridge, taking up his pastoral work in another quar ter of the city, in another denominational relation. On the 22nd of December, 1904, it would be just twenty-five years since canonically -a..i:id by title he became rector of the Parish. On the 8th of January, I 904, it was just twenty-five years since his ordination to the Diaconate. For personal reasons, there£ore, as well as parochial, the year I 904 had an anniversary character for both people and pastor. And the four commemorative discourses were so tim_ed that their conclusion was made coincident with the formal opening of the " Edw~rd Abbott Porch," at the west end of the Church, which the appreciative affection of the Parish had caused to be erected during the year as a me morial of the ministry of their fourth rector. I I DANA STREET, CAMBRIDGE, OCTOBER 5, A.D., 1906. CONTENTS ... PREFATORY NOTE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••• • •• 111 I. CAMBRIDGE FoRTY YEARS Aoo..................... 3 II. THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. ]AMEs's. • • • • • • • • • • • . • . • • • 11 The Diocese forty years ago ................ .' ..,.'. 13 III. THE FIRST RECTORSHIP. • . • • . • . • • • . • • • • . • • • . • • 17 The Croswells and the Christ Church Laymen. I 9 The Huntington Movement. 21 The First Service. .. 24 Some Personal Recollections. 2 7 The Bank Chapel . .. 29 Reminiscences of the Rev. Dr. Tomkins . 30 Early Glimpses . 32 IV. THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST CHURCH. • . • . • • • • • • • • 33 The Mission's Growth. 35 The Second Rectorship. .. .. 38 The Consecration . 39 V. THE THIRD RECTORSHIP. • . • • •. • . • . • • • • . • • . • • • • • • 41 • The Rev. T. S. Tyng. • . 43 Mr. Newton's Letter. 47 VI. THE FOURTH RECTORSHIP. •·· • • • • • • . • . • • • • • . • • • • • • 49 A Tran.sition . 51 St. James's, West Somerville. ... 57 A Parish House ............................ • • 59 The Corner Lot. 62 The New Church. 6 5 \TI. THE FOURTH RECTORSHIP-Continued. The Paddock Memorial . .- . • . 69 A 1\1:issionary Parish. 70 Organizations . .. 7 2 Annals of the Ladies' Missionary Society. ... 73 Parish Life . 84 Parish Funds ................, . .. 86 A Laymen's Parish . 88 Wardens and ·Vestrymen . 89 Helpers of Our Work. 98 Assistant Ministers . 99 Mrs. James Greenleaf ......................... 101 VII. A FIFTH RECTOR .••••••••.•.••••..••.•••••••••••• 103 VIII. THE DEATH ·oF DR. ABBOTT ••••••••••••••••••••••• J.07 IX. MEMORIAL SERMON •••••••••••••· ••••••••••••••••• 115 X. A LAYMAN'S TRIBUTE . ..........................•. 129 PRINCIPAL DATES IN THE HIS-TORY OF ST. JAMEs's PARISH •••• 135 COMPARATIVE STATISTICS oF ST. JAMEs's PARISH FROM 1865 TO l 904, . BASED ON THE CONVENTION REPORTS. Prepared by L. H. Whitney .................... 137 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS REVEREND Enw ARD ABBOTT, D.D•.•.•••.•.•.•.•••. • Fronti,piece OLD MARKET BANK BUILDING ••.••.••••..••••• • Facing page 13 THE FIRST CHURCH • • . • • . • • • • • • • . • . • • • • • • • . • • . • • • • • • 33 NAVE AND CHANCEL OF ST. ]AMES's CHURCH ( The First Church) . • . • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • 43 THE CORNER LoT. 61 CHART SHOWING THE CANCELLATION OF DEBT ON CoRNER LoT FOR CHURCH. • • • . • • . • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 65 ST. ]AMEs's CHURCH (Southerly Exposure) .•..•.•••••••••.• 69 MRS. LUKE H. WHITNEY. • • • . • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • . • • • • • 73 ST. JAMEs's CHURCH (Westerly Exposure) ..•.•..••••..• : •• 85 MRS. MARY LONGFELLOW GREENLEAF .••••••••.••.••.••••• IOI NAVE AND CHANCEL OF ST. ]AMEs's CHURCH •••••••.•.••••• 109 ST. JAMEs's CHURCH ( In Winter) •••••••••••••••.••.••••• 135 " When I go back to the services which I frequently held for Mr. Croswell in the little building now used as a bank, I think, on the other side of the street, the expansion of St. James's seems to me the most remarkable instance of Church growth in the Diocese." The Rev. Professor A. P'. G. Allen, D.D., in a letter to the Rector, under date of November 20, 1896, on the occasion of the Twenty-fifth Anni versary of the consecration of the first church on Beech Street. I CAMBRIDGE FORTY YEARS AGO " By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted." - Pro~erbs XI: 11. HISTORY OF ST. JAMES'S P.ARJSH CAMBRIDGE FORTY YEARS AGO MAP of Cambridge as it looked forty years ago presents substantially the same geographical con A tour and topographical aspect as to-day, but it is hardly more than an outline of the scene to which we have become accustomed. The· territory is here, and the thief localities are unchanged, but there is a great contrast in the distribution of population. The four precincts into which the city then, as now, was divided ( Old Cambridge, Cambridge port, East Cambridge, and North Cambridge) were far more distinct in fact and far more apparent to the eye than they are to-day. Only Old Cambridge and Cambridgeport had really grown together, and a considerable part of " The Port " was undeveloped; East Cambridge, to a great degree, was cut off from its companions by unoccupied marshes, and North Cambridge was an outlying neighborhood of strag gling and unkempt appearance, stretched out along the country highway, leading to what was then West Cambridge, now .Li\rlington, and the historic towns beyond. Then, as now, the college buildings were the feature of the town; but the Lawrence Scientific School was the only building of im portance outside the College Yard. So removed was the institution from the familiarity of the public of the ·time, that on one reputable map it is put down as " Harvard's College." The Cambridge of 1864 had a population of a little above twenty-three thousand, taxable property of only $22,000,000, one High School and only sixteen other public schools, and only twenty-five churc~es. Of the churches, five were Unitarian and only two ( Christ and St. Peter's) Episcopal. St. John's Chapel on Brattle Street, and its academic companions, were not; the Shepard HI 8 TORY . 0 F 8 T. JAMES' S PARISH Church building on Garden Street was not; the Baptist Church building on Massachusetts Avenue, below Harvard Square, was not; the Baptist Church building at Central Square was a wooden, edifice; St. Peter's Church was on Prospect Street, near Harvard, a wooden edifice now trans £ormed into a double -dwelling-house; the City J3uildings at Central and Brattle squares were not; the present City Hall was not; the Public Library was not. Yellow horse-cars were running on ten- or fifteen-minute time between the Old Elm and Town Pump at Harvard Square and _B.oston, on .the one hand, and Mount Auburn, Watertown, and West Cambridge, on the other, every half hour; but it had been only a few years since the only public conveyance between the Square and the city yonder across the Charles was an omnibus, once an hour. As late even as I 8 64 omnibuses were running once an hour on this route " well filled." Cambridge, in short, was a quiet, rural, suburban town, largely overshadowed by Boston, but distinguished by its venerable university, its historic traditions, and literary ~s sociations, chiefly the memories of Washington and the loyalists of Brattle Street, and the names of Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes, but displaying little,· if anything, of the enterprise and activity that mark its life to-day. Perhaps outside the college precincts no part of the city presented greater contrasts to the Cambridge of to-day than that in the center of which St. James's Church now stands. The "North District," it used to be called, long, long ago. Coming up from Harvard Square along what was at first " Menotomy Road," or " W e~t Cambridge Road," or· "Lexington Road," only vulgarized at a later day with the name of "North Avenue," there were no cross streets or buildings to speak of on the right-hand side above Sacra mento Street until Forest Street was reached, and none on the left above Linnrean. Just beyond Linnrean Street, Mr. Rule, an English gardener, carried on the business of a Horist,-his small grounds prettily laid out with box-bordered walks and plantations of flowering shrubs and fruits. The 6 HISTORY OF ST. J .J. MES' S P .J. R \JS H handsome modem quarter, now known as " Cambridge Heights," was then a bare and bleak and wind-swept hill. What is now the No~h Avenue Congregational Church was then a Baptist meeting-house, standing near the site of the present Law School, and our Congregationalist brethren, a small and feeble folk, were worshiping in a little wooden chapel, called the Holmes Chapel, on Arlington Street, then but the opening adventure of a street leading up the hill. The railroad crossed the avenue under the old wooden bridge, with the old wooden station hard by; passing which the avenue settled down into the commonplace character of a primitive country

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