Tag Archives: Emmanuel Memorial House

1918

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Albert Williams Snow replaced Lynnwood Farnum as organist.

January 20. The Anthony Memorial Organ in the West Gallery was dedicated, honoring Silas Reed Anthony (1863-1914), who served as Parish Clerk (1887-1898), Vestryman (1898-1906), and Junior Warden (1906-1914). The organ was a gift of his widow, Harriet Weeks. who later became Mrs. Randolph Frothingham.

March 22.  Bishop William Lawrence and Rector Elwood Worcester officiated at the funeral of Andrew Robeson Sargent, who at the age of 42 died in his sleep. After graduating from Harvard College in 1900, he had followed in his father Charles Sprague Sargent‘s footsteps and worked as a landscape architect with his brother-in-law Guy Lowell.  His wife Maria de Acosta Sargent, daughter of the writer Mercedes de Acosta, had been painted by his third cousin John Singer Sargent. His mother Mary Robeson Sargent and sisters Henrietta, Molly, and Alice Sargent gave in his memory our hymn boards and the carved doors to leading from our sanctuary to the “Bride’s Lobby”.

See also:

  • His letters to his father Charles Sprague Sargent in the archives of the Arnold Arboretum.
  •  “Andrew Robeson Sargent, Class of 1900.”  The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, 1918.
  • “Andrew Robeson Sargent Dies.” The New York Times, March 21, 1918.
  • “Many Friends Mourn Andrew R. Sargent.” The Boston Daily Globe, March 23, 1918.

August 26.  Col. Cranmore Nesmith Wallace, who had served on our vestry from 1896 until his death, died at the age of 74.  His widow Eunice Sprague Wallace gave 2 lancets in our sanctuary (#18: Adoration of the Magi) in his memory

November 2.  The Churchman (p. 518) reported that the Emmanuel Memorial House was serving as an emergency shelter for children made homeless by the influenza epidemic.  Nurses and workers from the Children’s Aid Society and the (Episcopal) Church Home Society were supervising children housed in its “clubrooms” until they could be placed with families by “the usual placing-out services”.

Aimee Rotch Sargent (born 1852) died. She had married at Emmanuel in 1874 Winthrop Henry Sargent (1840-1916). In 1893 she had given funds to create our sanctuary’s reredos in memory of her parents Annie & Benjamin S. Rotch and her siblings Arthur and Edith Rotch.

1912

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The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester established a Free Legal Bureau, which was set up at the Emmanuel Memorial House in the South End under the direction of the Vicar of Church of the Ascension, The Rev. William A. Brade.  He reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish  (pp. 168-70):

Some cases have required but a word of counsel, others have required time and care to adjust, and only in extreme cases has recourse been had to our courts….the wrong has, in many cases, been righted and the oppression removed as quietly and expeditiously as possible and at no expense. 

1905

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Tuberculosis Class, organized by Joseph H. Pratt MD and Lesley H. Spooner, MD., reached 308 patients in its first year.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel McComb (1864–1938) became Associate Rector. Raised in Belfast, Ireland, with a doctorate from Oxford University, he had taught church history at Queens University, Ontario, and served as a Presbyterian minister in England and New York City before his ordination in the Episcopal Church. He became a spokesman for the Emmanuel Movement during its active years.  See also 1909 and his many works available on Amazon and full text from Hathi Trust.


November 23.  Emmanuel Memorial House was dedicated.  Given by Harriet Pitts Weeks (Mrs. Silas Reed) Anthony in memory of her father Andrew Gray Weeks, whose widow gave its playground.  It was located at 11 Newcomb St. around the corner from 1906 Washington St., where our diocese maintained a mission in the South End, Church of the Ascension (now Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church).  Through the Emmanuel House Committee, Emmanuel parishioners helped with the kindergarten and summer play school for neighborhood children.  They also ran homemaking and other classes and a gymnasium for Ascension parishioners. Emmanuel Memorial House567

1903

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June 26.  Andrew Gray Weeks died. Having been born in Portland, Maine, in 1823 and confirmed by Dr. F. Dan Huntington, he served on our vestry (1879-82 & 1884) and as junior warden from 1885 until his death.  Having become a successful merchant, Andrew was generous to our church and those less fortunate.  In 1905 his sister Harriet (Mrs. Silas Reed) Anthony gave in his memory the playground for the Emmanuel Memorial House, which his widow Alice gave.  She also paid for a brass memorial plaque for their son Kenneth, who fell at Givenchy, France, in 1915. 

1895

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The Rev. James Yeames, Superintendent of the newly-established Emmanuel House, reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish that two rooms and a hallway were combined to create a meeting space for about a hundred people on the first floor.  Its treasurer Walter Baylies reported that $1778 covered the expenses for its first year.

June 16.  The first service of Evening Prayer with hymns was held there and weekly thereafter.  Throughout the next two months, a Summer Play School was held by the Episcopal City Mission for about a hundred boys & girls.

September. A Boys Club of about sixty members began meeting on Tuesday evenings.  A Children’s House was held on Fridays at 6:30.