PARK STREET CHURCH on the writtenFreedom by Elizabeth Lohnes Trail The Granary, built in 1729, in addition to being a location to store grain, was also home to the “There is one, and but creation of the sails for the U.S.S. Constitution before finally serving as a petting zoo. After the purchase of the land in 1809, its timbers were one living and true God, moved Commercial Point in Dorchester (the site of the Boston Gas Tank), where it served as a ship subsisting in three persons, equipment storehouse and, at the time this photo- graph was taken in 1873, was being used as a hotel. The Father, The Son, and formerly-unchurched crowds were looking for a chased a plot of land on the corner of the site The Holy Ghost; and that home. A small group at the Old South Church, of the old Granary building, but after construc- keen on both preserving the doctrine of the tion began, Kollock decided not to come. trinity and promoting revival, resolved to es- these three are the one God, tablish an uncompromisingly orthodox church It was a disappointing and embarrassing initial in the very center of the Boston peninsula. blow for the small congregation, which had They were inspired by a visiting minister, Rev. raised $70,000 to build what was plausibly the 3 the same in substance, equal Henry Kollock from Savannah, GA, and invited grandest church in the city at the time. Seat- him to be their first shepherd. Rev. Kollock was ing over 800, the building had been designed in power and glory…” inclined to accept, but said he would not move by Peter Banner in a style similar to that of until a church was organized and a building Christopher Wren. The steeple was erected 2 around a strong and flexible ship’s mast, and at With those words the founders of Park Street constructed. The committee immediately pur- Church pronounced the standard upon which they could not compromise: Jesus Christ was no mere messenger sent from God—He was God himself. This stance on the divinity of Jesus had fallen out of favor in the early 1800s, in favor of the doctrine of unitarianism. Unitarians believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher rather than being one with God TRINITY — One Himself. The election God who exists in of Henry Ware, a three persons: God firm unitarian, to the the Father, God the chairmanship of Har- Son (Jesus Christ) and vard Divinity School God the Holy Sprit. in 1805 confirmed the momentum of the “Unitarian wave.” At its founding, Park Street Church found herself only one of only two churches out of 17 in Boston that still rigorously adhered to belief in the tri-personal nature of God.1 The revival period of the Second Great Awakening was underway, and suddenly large "Park Street Church and Park Street about 1812." Colored frontspiece from a fireboard in the collections of the Bostonian Society. BRIMSTONE CORNER — Often 217 feet made Park Street the tallest building attributed to fiery preaching, the nickname in the United States for 36 years (until the “Brimstone Corner” actually originated construction of Trinity Church in New York) from gunpowder stored in the basement and in Boston for 57 years (until the construc- during the War of 1812. Nevertheless, tion of the Church of the Covenant).4 The M. A. DeWolfe Howe found a name like large, brand-new sanctuary now sat without that was too good not to catalog with a minister or congregation, and to some critics witty poem (published in Boston Common: the fledgling endeavor already seemed like a Scenes from Four Centuries in 1921.) failure.5 Despite initial setbacks, the congregation’s A Legend of original Brimstone Corner commitment had not been The Devil and a Gale of Wind superficial. Danced hand in hand up Winter Street. The group The Devil like his demons grinned invited Edward To have for comrade so complete Dorr Griffin, A rascal and a mischief-maker a professor Who’d drag an oath from any Quaker. at Andover Theological The Wind made sport of hats and hair Seminary, to That ladies deemed their ornament; be their pastor. With skirts that frolicked everywhere He agreed, and The ordination service for the first American missionaries on February 6, 1812 in Salem, MA. Park Street Church's Away their prim decorum went; his ministry left an indelible mark of doctrine first minister, Edward Griffin, offered the opening prayer. And worthy citizens lamented and missions on the church. After pastoring The public spectacles presented. Park Street, Griffin became the president of Williams College. from Park Street to Mokuaikaua Church on the “Before God, I must say The Devil beamed with horrid joy, recent celebration of their 195 anniversary. that such a glaring contradiction as exists The establishment of the American Board of Til to the Common’s rim they came, between our creed and practice the annals of Foreign Missions is deeply intertwined with Dr. With Park Street’s zeal for the spread of the Then chuckled, “Wait you here, my boy, six thousand years cannot parallel. In view of it Griffin and Park Street Church. “[T]his relation Gospel throughout the world, it did not neglect For duties now my presence claim I am ashamed of my country. I am sick of our which has existed between us is not a relation its own neighborhood. In subsequent years In yonder church on Brimstone Corner unmeaning declamation in praise of liberty and alone between one organization and another. numerous improvement societies originated Where Pleasure’s dead and lacks a mourner; equality, of our hypocritical cant about We were born together, as has been said, the there, including the American Education the unalienable rights of man. I Board and Park Street Church, the children of Society, the Boston chapter of the “But play about till I come back.” could not, for my right hand, one mother…” 6 Although individual support NAACP, the Animal Rescue League, With that he vanished through the doors, stand up before a European for missions was common at the time, Griffin’s the Prison Discipline Society, and And since that day the almanac assembly, and exult that I church-wide backing of some of the earliest the American Temperance Society.7 Has marked the years by tens and scores, am an American citizen, and missionaries sent out from the United States William Lloyd Garrison gave his first Yet never from those sacred portals denounce the usurpations of a is believed to be a first.On October 15, 1819 antislavery address from that pulpit Returns the Enemy of Mortals. kingly government as wicked at Park Street Church, fifteen people bound on July 4, 1829. Two years later a and unjust; or, should I make for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) were given children’s choir performed the hymn And that is why the faithful Gale the attempt, the recollection official recognition as the “Sandwich Islands “America” (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee) Round Park Street Corner still must blow, of my country’s barbarity and Church.” The relationship between Park Street set to music by Park Street’s own Waiting for him with horns and tail— despotism would blister my lips, Church and the resulting Mokuaikaua Church director of music, Lowell Mason. At least some people tell me so— and cover my cheeks with burning in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, has continued to this None of your famous antiquarians, blushes of shame.” day, with correspondence and congratulations In 1862, in answer to President Abraham But just some wicked Unitarians. (William Lloyd Garrison, in his first Anti-Slavery Address at Park Street Church in Boston, July 4, 1829.) ~ M. A. DeWolfe Howe In 1868, the church installed William Henry Harrison Murray—“unquestionably the most unique individual ever to pastor Park Street Church.”9 Dubbed “Adirondack Murray,” he lectured on Sunday evenings about the Ad- irondack wilderness of New York, and published Adventures in the Wilderness, or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks the year after he was hired. (This publication is credited as the pivot from the British usage of the word “holiday” to the adoption of the American term, “vacation.”10) A hot-blooded and zealous preacher and ad- A.L. Stone and son Frank the day before they left A. L. Stone, chaplain of 45th MA infantry, 1862 camp at Readville, MA, 1862. venturer, he felt constrained by the aristocratic and intellectual personality of the members of Park Street Church.11 Murray intensely desired Lincoln’s call to arms, 80 men from the pews of graph of the sanctuary draped in yards of black that the church focus on the poor and outcast Park Street Church joined the 45th Massachu- mourning cloth preserves the grief the church around them. Finally, his differences with the setts Regiment. Pastor Andrew Stone agreed felt at the announcement. Park Street deacons having become irreconcil- to serve as chaplain. Several heartbreaking able, he resigned in 1874, only to immediately wartime letters to the congregation live today open his “New England Church” a stone’s throw in the archives at the Congregational Library: away in what is now the Orpheum Theatre.12 “Let your prayers hover constantly over the pillows of our sick and wounded. The touch of loved fingers is far away, but your intercession may be as the shadow of an angel’s wing to faces growing white under the signature of death.”8 He returned home after eight months of service to a motivated church. The Woman’s Benevolent Society contributed bandages, socks and food items for soldiers.