FORM B -BUILDING Massachusetts Historical Commission 80 Boylston Street Assessor' number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number if *. * j V s i i . I • 6 CI 7 IM l t) Town-Winthrop Recorded by Organization- \ Edward W. Gordon Winthrop CDO+Historic.Comm Date(month/day/year) September, 1993 Place (neighborhood or village) Winthrop Center Address 222 Bowdoin St Historic Name S t J o n n ' s Episcopal Church Use: Present Church Original church Date of Construction 1888-89 Snnrpp William H. Clark's History of Winthrop Style/Form Late Gothic Revival .rectangular Architect/Builder undetermined Exterior Material Foundation High rubble stone foundation Wall wood shingle,wood trim R o o f intersecting gables and hip.asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures N/A Major Alterations (with dates) Very intact Condition good Moved [ [ yes | x [ no Acreage less than one acre Setting. cemetery Situated on well-landscaped lot across street from
Transcript
FORM B -BUILDING
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street
Assessor' number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
if *. * j V si
i . I • 6 CI
7
I M
l
t )
Town-Winthrop
Recorded by
Organization-
\
Edward W. Gordon
Winthrop CDO+Historic.Comm
Date(month/day/year) September, 1993
Place (neighborhood or village) Winthrop Center
Address 222 Bowdoin St
Historic Name S t J o n n ' s Episcopal Church
Use: Present Church
Original church
Date of Construction 1888-89
Snnrpp William H. Clark's History of Winthrop
Style/Form Late Gothic Revival .rectangular
Architect/Builder undetermined
Exterior Material
Foundation High rubble stone foundation
Wall wood shingle,wood trim
R o o f intersecting gables and hip.asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures N/A
Major Alterations (with dates) Very intact
Condition good
Moved [ [ yes | x [ no
Acreage less than one acre
Setting. cemetery
Situated on well-landscaped lot across street from
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION 1 I see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
St John's Episcopal Church is a low,rectangular church building which is covered with wood shingles. Its pointed arched windows and entrances,along with steeply pitched gables places this church stylistically within the Late English Gothic.The wood shingles and high rubble stone basement speaks to the very American influence of the Shingle Style.This church rises from a high rubblestone basement to a steeply pitched gable roof T h e Buchanan Street elevation is characterized by gable.hip and gable roof projecting segments.The gable roofed segments at either end of this facade exhibit pointed arch entrances. The batten doors exhibit hardware with a distinctive Medieval sensibility. At the center of the Bowdoin Street facade is a single large pointed arch window.At the apex of this gable is a cross. The Buchanan elevation's roof slope exhibits a pointed arch stained glass window set within a small gable roofed dormer.This church's overall appearance is that of a chapel-scale building with design roots in the English country Gothic tradition.
j HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ED see continuation sheet
Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.
St John's Episcopal Church was built in 1888-1889,on land that part of the Burrill family holdings according to the 1886 Map. As early as 1884,the possibilty of establishing an Episcopal Church in Winthrop was discussed by "Jimmy" Nelson and a few other local families. The first Episcopal service was held on August 30,1885,with 23 people in attendence. Winthrop's Wentworth family was particularly influential in bringing Episcopal services to Winthrop. The present church was named in honor of St.John's Episcopal Church in Charlestown,a church that was "dear to the hearts of the Wentworth family". The first services were held in the old Town Hall which stood on the site of the present police station at Metcalfe Square.The first Rector was Rev.John C.Hewlett of Roslindale (1885-86). The church's lot was purchased on December 1,1887. At that time.the church had 30 members.The ground for the present church was broken on August 6,1889 and the first service was held in the new church on December 8,1889. The rector at that time was Rev. Herman G.Wood.The reed organ was replaced by a new organ in 1898. The church was electrified in 1900.In 1901, St.John's was incorporated as a church,giving up its mission status.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES | [ see continuation sheet
. Maps/Atlases-1873,1886,1896 I William H.Clark's History of Winthrop (1852)pgs 214-17
^ Frost Library, Winthrop Churches file.
/ I Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET WINTHROP 222 BOWDOIN ST
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued) St. John's Episcopal Church in Winthrop was designed by the Rev. Hermon Gaylor Wood (1831-1913), a prominent member of the Episcopal Diocesan Board of Missions beginning in 1887. Richard Dabrowski, in his research for St. Andrews Church, Ayer (AYE.202), has provided the following text concerning Wood's work in Massachusetts. Annotated Text excerpted from Dabrowski, "...The Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood": HERMON GAYLORD WOOD, son of Hiram and Mary (Sprague) Wood, was born 19 Jan 1831 in Camillus, New York. He was known throughout his life as either H. Gaylord Wood or simply, H. G. Wood. His father was a farmer and a miller, and for nearly 40 years Senior Warden of Trinity Church in Fayetteville, New York. He prepared for college at Cortland Academy in Homer, New York. He graduated from Hobart College in Geneva, New York in 1853 with a B.A. degree and studied theology at Hobart Divinity School under the Rev. Dr. William Dexter Wilson, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, receiving a B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) degree in 1856. He was ordained a deacon in May 1856 and a priest in June 1857 by the Rt. Rev. William Heathcote De Lancey, Bishop of the Diocese of Western New York. He was married to Mary Elizabeth Luff, daughter of Edmund M. and Eliza (Merrit) Luff of Sackets Harbor, New York, 2 June 1857 in Sackets Harbor. They had six children. On 9 May 1887, the Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood was received into the Diocese of Massachusetts from the Diocese of Pittsburg. He was assigned first as Missionary at St. Paul's Church in Beachmont (Revere) and, within a few months, assigned also as Missionary at St. John's Church in Winthrop (WTH.18). He came to Massachusetts at a time of great expansion within the diocese under the leadership of the Bishop Benjamin Henry Paddock--from one end of the diocese to the other, missions were being founded, cornerstones laid, and churches consecrated. This was a trend that was going to continue for another decade. During Hermon Gaylord Wood's first year as Missionary at St. Paul's Church in Beachmont (REV.3) in 1887-88, he initiated not one, but two, new church building projects--a new church in Beachmont was completed in June 1888 at a cost of about $3,000, followed by a new church in Winthrop in December 1889 at a cost of about $5,000. In each case, he credited another architect with the design--for Beachmont, William P. Wentworth (1839-1896) of Boston and for Winthrop, Willard M. Bacon (1860-1947) of Winthrop. According to parish records at St. John's Church in Winthrop, these architects did not actually design the structures; they drew up the plans to Wood's specifications for building permit purposes. The Boston Daily Globe reported at the time: One of the prettiest church edifices erected for some time in this State is owned by the Episcopalians of Winthrop, and which
is now almost completed and ready for occupancy...and is of the early English style of architecture. The roof of the church is open timber work, ceiling above. The interior walls are plastered and frescoed with float finish.
The ground floor consists of nave 24x50; chancel 24x20, and chapel, 16x29, inside measure. The extreme height of the nave is 25 feet from the floor. The chancel has a side archway opening into the chapel. The chapel
opens into the nave by two broad archways. The entrance to the chapel is by a porch, 6x10. The entrance to the nave is through the base of a side tower, 11.6x11.6. The edifice is lighted by groups of windows on either side, and a large west window and windows in the roof. The choir stalls are within the chancel, and have a seating capacity for 16 choristers. The entire seating capacity is 280.
What is remarkable about this description of St. John's Church in Winthrop is that it applies almost exactly to St. John's Church in Athol, completed October 1890 (ATH.112); St. Andrew's Church in Ayer, completed December 1892 (AYE.202); Emmanuel Church in West Roxbury, completed December 1893 (BOS.10723); St. Peter's Church in Jamaica Plain, completed February 1894; and All Saint's Church in Belmont, completed April 1897 (BLM.118) --each one designed by the Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood. He also designed nave and chancel additions for Church of the Good Shepherd in Clinton (209 Union St, Clinton), completed June 1892 Responding to the needs of very small rural parishes, he created a series of smaller fieldstone church buildings in the Gothic style with a seating capacity of about perhaps half of St. John's in Winthrop--St. Anne's Church in North Billerica (14 Treble Cove Road), completed 1889; St. Mark's Church in Foxboro (41 South St), completed November 1893 (FOX.101); St. George's Church in
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET WINTHROP 222 BOWDOIN ST
Maynard (62 Summer St.), completed August 1895; Trinity Church in Canton, completed September 1897 (CAN.86); and St. Paul's Church in Hopkinton, completed December 1898 (HPK.595). In addition, Wood designed his own home in Winthrop (now 62 Temple Avenue, Winthrop), built by Charles P. Stowe of Winthrop and completed in July 1890. It resembles a church in appearance and its tower is capped by a curious feature--a pyramid. According to the centennial history of St. John's Church in Athol, the Diocesan Board of Missions was "invaluably active in guiding the little church in Athol in both the practical and more esoteric avenues of its existence." Board of Missions Treasurer John S. Blatchford attended parish business meetings, recommended the purchase of a larger parcel of land than the parish had originally agreed to purchase, and arranged for the Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood, described as an "architectural consultant from the Diocesan Mission Board," to prepare plans for the proposed building. In addition, Blatchford facilitated a $1,750 loan for the project, about half the cost of the building itself. Most interesting, "the building committee reported at a church meeting...that the bid of Mr. C. P. Stowe of Winthrop has been accepted to 'erect, build, and completely finish up on the church property a church in accordance with the plans and specifications adopted by the parish.'" If the Board of Missions provided this level of assistance with building projects in other parishes, it could explain how these geographically diverse church buildings came to be nearly identical in form, fit and finish--inside and out. In the Diocese of Massachusetts, 13 churches have been positively identified as the work of Hermon Gaylord Wood. The Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood died 9 July 1913 at his daughter's home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, read the burial service at Wood's home, after which his body was taken to Fayetteville, New York for burial there in the Wood family lot at Fayetteville Cemetery. Obituaries subsequently appeared in The Church Militant and in various scientific and religious journals, each one emphasizing a different aspect of his multifaceted life. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (continued) Dabrowski, Richard C. "St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Ayer, Massachusetts... Parish History... The Rev. Hermon Gaylord Wood,"
http://www.standrewsayer.org/parish-history/hermon-gaylord-wood/index.php, accessed 8/9/2010. [Dianne Siergiej in her research on St. John's Church in Athol (ATH.112), identified this reference.]
RECEIVED
AUG 09 2010
MASS. HIST. COMM.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston
Community:
id io^rtH 3 * M A
Form No:
Property Name: 222 Bowdoin St
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
