Timeline of History at Emmanuel

We’re interested to learn of significant dates and events involving Emmanuelites past and present. Please email archivist@emmanuelboston.org about the details of your Emmanuel timeline. To jump back by decades in this chronology, please select one of these years, and then move up or down by years:

1865 | 1875 | 1885 | 1895 | 1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 |

1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995 | 2005 | 2015 | 2020 | History page.

1951

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Pauli Murray, whom Emmanuel would eventually sponsor for the priesthood, compiled and edited a seminal work for the civil rights cases:  States‘ laws on race and color: and appendices containing international documents, federal laws and regulations, local ordinances and charts (Cincinnati: Women’s Division of Christian Service, Board of Missions and Church Extension, Methodist Church, 1951).  Her fight for civil rights had begun in 1938, when the NAACP unsuccessfully sponsored her for admission to the University of NC.  In 1940 she was arrested in Virginia for refusing to sit in back of a bus.  For a timeline of her struggles and achievements, see Duke Human Rights Center’s Pauli Murray Project.

See also our guide to her legacy and Timeline entries about her: 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1987, 2012 & 2015.

 

1949

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  • 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.

1946

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  • 16 Jan. The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters, who had served as a Navy chaplain during World War II, became our sixth rector.

    Pauli Murray ae. 36

    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.

–Thanks to Julian Bullitt for researching these topics in our archives.

1945

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  • 8 May. Germans surrendered, leading to the end of World War II in Europe.
  • 15 July.  The Rev. Dr. H. Robert Smith, formerly of Grace Church, Newton MA, accepted the position of Minister-in-Charge and served 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.
  • 28 November.  The vestry assigned the church’s reading rights at the Boston Athenæum to rector-elect, The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters.

1944

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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

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The Rev. Robert Gifford Metters became rector.  For more about the Metters years please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.

  • 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, wife 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

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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.

1939

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  • Priscilla Rawson Young (1909-2000), benefactor of our series of Bach Cantatas

    Our benefactor Priscilla Rawson (Young) studied music with Stanley Chapwell at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Craig Smith, founder of Emmanuel Music, who also had studied with Chapwell, kept this portrait of her on his desk. See also 1909, 1942, 1971, 1973, 1994 & 2000.

  • January.  A funeral was held at Emmanuel for our organist Albert Williams Snow, who had recently retired and died at the age of sixty.  Having studied under Wallace Goodrich at New England Conservatory of Music, he had become organist at Church of the Advent, Boston, before he replaced our organist  Lynnwood Farnum in 1918.  During his tenure he taught at NEC and served as organist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  His memorial plaque (#G4), reconstructed by Ted Southwick in 2021, can be seen behind the chancel organ.

 

1936

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December 13. Celebration of our 75th Year

Bishop Wm. Lawrence

The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Photo credit: WikiCommons

Our fifth rector, The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endicott Osgood, said in his sermon:  “We are stewards of an inheritance, interpreters of a tradition”.  Organist Dr. Albert Snow composed an anthem for the service.  Bishop Emeritus William Lawrence praised our first four wardens:

  • Edward Sprague Rand (1st senior warden), a trustworthy, public-spirited lawyer
  • William Richards Lawrence (1st junior warden), who had bought the land for our church. was his uncle.
  • Benjamin Tyler Reed (2nd senior warden), who founded in Cambridge the Episcopal Theological School, which became the Episcopal Divinity School
  • Enoch Reddington Mudge (2nd junior warden), who later built St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn

For more detail, see Boston Globe, Dec. 14,1936, p. 4:  “Bishop Lawrence in Tribute to Early Emmanuel Wardens. Services Celebrate 75th Birthday of Church. Dr. Osgood Views Future”.

 

1935

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Walter Cabot Baylies (1862-1936)

 

Walter Cabot Baylies, our greatest benefactor and longest-standing senior warden, retired. He had served faithfully with three rectors:   Elwood Worcester, Benjamin M. Washburn, and Phillips Endicott Osgood.

See also:  1888 & 1907.

 

 

 

In October, the Rev. Lloyd Gillmett, who later became dean of Los Angeles’ cathedral church,  was succeeded as curate by the Rev. Ivol Curtis, who left in 1937, thereafter held many posts including rector of St. John’s, Jamaica Plain, and became Bishop of Olympia (WA) in 1964.  Gathered in our Emmanuel Room is Dr. Osgood seated at his desk with the Rev. Albert Coursin Morris, Vicar of Church of the Ascension, on his right. Behind them (left to right) are Gillmett, Curtis, and the Rev. John Bradner, Curate of Church of the Ascension.  Thanks to Julian Bullitt for his research on our clergy.