A rectory at 10 Chestnut St. on Beacon Hill was bought for the Metters family.
Monthly Archives: March 2013
1949
- 13 October. After its Planning Committee led by Misses E. Louis Seymour and Elsie L. Jones had laid the groundwork, the Business & Professional Women’s Club held its first meeting. Alberta Pond and Adele Herrick became its first president and secretary, respectively. They held monthly suppers after which members worked on projects or enjoyed entertainment.
1948
The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters
In connection with its stewardship campaign the vestry ran a survey that revealed a reduced congregation of 375 communicants. With his associate priest, the Rev. Dr. H. Robert Smith, Rector R.G. Metters began holding Healing Services on Wednesday mornings. He was president of the Mass. Association for Mental Health for several years and a longtime member of the National Association.
1947
Redington Mudge DeCormis (1884-1967), son of the Rev. Dr. Louis De Cormis (1846-1916), became Jr. Warden and then served as Sr. Warden from 1948-53, during the tenure of Rector Metters. His father, the Rev. Dr. Louis De Cormis, was priest of St. Stephens, Lynn, when he named his son after Enoch Redington Mudge, patron of the beautiful church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1881. E.R. Mudge had served as our Jr. Warden from 1865-72. Having been vice president of the Second National Bank since 1923, R.M. De Cormis retired in 1955, when it merged with State Street Bank and Trust. Correspondence of his second wife, Charlotte (Lotten) Augusta Lenander, a Swedish physician whom he had married in 1944, have been archived.
1946
- 16 Jan. The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters, who had served as a Navy chaplain during World War II, became our sixth rector.
Pauli Murray became 36 in November, 1946. Photo credit: Library of Congress; Conde Nast Publications
- Mademoiselle awarded Pauli Murray its Merit Award for Signal Achievement in Law.
- Albert W. Rockwood, Chairman of our Property Committee, contracted with Chester A. Brown at the architectural firm of Cram & Ferguson to draw up plans for renovations for our:
- Basement
- A concrete floor was poured.
- Bathrooms were installed.
- Alternating current was installed to control two huge boilers, which were converted from burning coal to oil.
- A boys’ choir room was created.
- Sanctuary
- Carpeting in the nave was replaced with brown, vinyl-asbestos tiles.
- Pews were repaired.
- Brides’ Lobby was redesigned.
- Parish House
- The kitchen was renovated.
- Cold-water service was replaced.
- A separate heating-zone was probably established then.
- Basement
–Thanks to Julian Bullitt for researching these topics in our archives.
1945
- 8 May. Germans surrendered, leading to the end of World War II in Europe.
- June. Rector P. E. Osgood preached his last sermon at Emmanuel.
- 15 July. The Rev. Dr. H. Robert Smith, formerly of Grace Church, Newton MA, accepted the position of Minister-in-Charge to serve until a new rector could be called.
- 6 & 9 August. US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japanese surrender a week later.
- October. After many years in charge of our Church School, Elizabeth Varney departed, and Nancy Currier took over.
- 28 November. The vestry assigned the church’s reading rights at the Boston Athenæum to rector-elect, The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters. For more about his tenure, please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.
1944
Pauli Murray Roots & Soul Mural, Durham NC
credit: Brett Cook & Pauli Murray Project
Pauli Murray, first African American woman to attend Howard U. School of Law and later a vestry member of Emmanuel, received her J.D.. For its sesquicentennial Howard is hosting a TEDx conference on 9/15/1917: Singing of a New American”: Pauli Murray’s Legacy and Justice in the 21st Century.
See also:
1943
- 17 September. The Rev. Henrietta Rue Goodwin died. She had retired from the faculty of the National Cathedral School to live with her sister Helen Goodwin French, widow of Hollis French, who was warden here from 1914-1940. After her burial from the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem PA, which the Goodwins had helped to found, a memorial was held at Emmanuel. For a discussion of her ministry here, see also: 1897.
1942
10 August. Our benefactor Priscilla Rawson married Henry Melvin Young in Kent CT. They had known each other since he had attended Kent College there before going to Trinity College, Oxford. Known as Dinghy Young, he had been awarded Britain’s Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Killed returning from a 1943 RAF bombing raid on dams in the Ruhr Valley, Squadron Leader Young of was played by Richard Leech in the 1955 movie The Dam Busters. For a more technical description of 617 Squadron’s achievement, see this documentary, which mentions him at about 39 minutes. See also 1909, 1939, 1971, 1973, 1994 & 2000.
1941
- Nov 6. The Rt. Rev. Dr. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927), died. Born in 1850, he was the nephew of our founder William Richards Lawrence (1812-1885).
- Nov. 23. Rector P.E. Osgood preached a sermon in his memory.
- Dec. 7. Japanese bombed the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor.
- Dec. 8. U.S. Congress declared war on Japan.