March 2. The Rev. Pamela L. Wentz arrived as priest in charge.
Fall. Hartney-Greymont of Needham prepared the beds and planted shrubs and perennials in our garden, which was designed by Susan Doolittle. The stone paths were given in memory of vestry member Frank Rose.
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.
Nov. 23. Our former organist Lynnwood Farnam, who was head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music, died and bequeathed his papers to their library. In 1932, the Theodore Presser Co. (Phila.), published his Toccata on “O Filii et Filiae“, which he had played when he tested the “full organ” sound of the many organs he visited.
The stained-glass triptych created by Henry Wynd Young (1874–1923) was installed in the narthex (lobby) as a memorial to Emmanuel’s youth who sacrificed their lives in the Great War. Edward Hale Perry was one of them.
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:
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.
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. 
October 28. Rector Leighton Parks set up the Emmanuel Club to give young men of the parish a venue for fellowship. Samuel Taylor was its first secretary. They met several times a year for dinner with speakers or entertainment at the newly formed University Club at 270 Beacon Street. Fitz-Henry Smith Jr. was secretary during its last year in 1911. A member of the Harvard College Class of 1896, he went on to write these works about Boston:
November. The Rev. Henrietta Rue Goodwin began her service as deaconess at Emmanuel, which included distributing clothing, monitoring the Mothers’ Meeting, helping to fund choir vestments, and overseeing a Bible class and the Students’ Club. Her reports in our Yearbooks (1897-1906), give her accounting of Special Funds for distribution of aid to the poor and her other activities, which included thousands of visits to the sick and needy.
Children of Anne & Benjamin Rotch (clockwise): Aimee, Edith, Arthur & Lawrence
Work of Emmanuel House in the South End was transferred to our mission there, Church of the Ascension.
Edith Rotch, the younger daughter of Anne Bigelow Lawrence & Benjamin S. Rotch died at the age of fifty. She was memorialized by her sister Aimee R. Sargent in our Rotch reredos.
Anne Bigelow Lawrence Rotch. Portrait by Chester Harding in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Anne Bigelow Lawrence Rotch died. The daughter of Katherine Bigelow and Abbott Lawrence, Annie had married Benjamin S. Rotch in 1846 . Their daughter Aimee (Mrs. Winthrop Henry) Sargent gave our sanctuary’s Rotch reredos in memory of her, her husband, and two of their children, Arthur & Edith. They are buried in a family plot (#3004) on Bellwort Path, Mt. Auburn Cemetery.
Our first organist and music director, Silas Atkins Bancroft (1823-1886), retired after two decades of faithful service. He is buried in Lot 2607 on the Mistletoe Path of Mt. Auburn Cemetery.
B.S. Rotch (1817-1882) at time of our foundation. Photo courtesy of Boston Athenaeum.
Senior Warden Benjamin Smith Rotch died in office. A founding vestry member and warden since 1880, he was later memorialized with his wife Anne Bigelow Lawrence (1820-93) in our sanctuary’s reredos. They are buried in Lot 3004 on Bellwort Path in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. His epitaph from Revelation 2:10 reads: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Several famous botanists were connected with our church.
Rhododendron “Edward S. Rand”. Photo credit: Tijs Huisman
When Benjamin Tyler Reed retired as senior warden, Edward Sprague Rand served again as warden until 1875. His son E.S. Rand, Jr. (actually III) wrote many botanical works. An orchid and a rhododendron are named for him (or perhaps his father).
Simeon (Andrew Robeson, 1817-1874) & Anna (Mary Allen Robeson, 1819-1903) by Harry Eldredge Goodhue