Through the Years with St. Mary’s Church

A Historical Sketch to Commemorate the 125^th Anniversary of St. Mary’s Church, Manhattanville

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ST. MARY'S CHURCH, MANHATTANVILLE

(The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Anniversary)

St. Mary's Church, Manhattanville, the first free pew church in the city of New York and one of the first in the United States, has reached its 12Sth anniversary. Lawrence Street, on which the church is located, has become West 126th Street and a tapestry brick and sandstone building, erected in 1908, has replaced the original white frame structure; but throughout the scene shifting that accompanied the absorption of Manhattanville by an expanding metropolis, little St. Mary's has remained in the same location .

The earliest extant reference to Manhattanville is an advertisement in the New Y ork Spectator of July 9, 1806, which tells of its formation "in the Ninth Ward of this city, on the Bloomingdale road in front of Harlem Cove on the North River." Harlem Cove was an inlet of the Hudson River, long since filled in to form part of West 12Sth Street. In the days of the American Revolution a narrow road, referred to on Washington 's maps as the Hollow Way and mentioned in Cooper's novel The Spy. ran along the northern bank of this inlet. From some­where among the trees along this northern bank Washington's soldiers fired the first shots in the Battle of Harlem Heights, and the ground upon which the church stands was part of the battlefield.

In 1807 the New York Gazette and General Advertiser described Manhattanville as "a flourishing little town ... ahout eight miles from the City Hal1.'" The account continued, "It was first projected and laid out into streets about twelve months ago by Mr. Schieffelin and others, since which an academy was erected." The bell in the Choir Arch of the present St. Mary's church formerly hung in this academy and was presented to St. Mary's by Mr. Schieffelin. The bell differs in shape from those cast in England or America, and is believed to have been brought from the West Indies by a sea captain.

1807 is also significant as the year in which St. Michael's Church, on 99th Street east of the Bloomingdale Road, was consecrated. Jacob Schieffelin, previously mentioned as the founder of Manhattanville and destined to play an important part in the organization of St. Mary's, was a Vestryman of St. Michael's.

Mr. Schietlelin had served as an officer in the British Army during the American Revolution and. while quartered in New York, had fallen in love with Hannah Lawrence, daughter of a Quaker merchant. Mr. Lawrence, averse from the beginning to the idea of his daughter's marrying "out of meeting," was doubly horrified at the thought of having a man of war for a son-in-law. He stoutly refused to give his consent to the marriage, and even threatened to report his daughter to meeting. Miss Hannah, however, had a mind of her own, and when neither Jacob Schieffelin's suit nor paternal authority showed any sign of yielding, the two young people eloped.

At the close of the Revolution, because of his Loyalist activities, Mr. Schieffelin was obliged to leave the country and settled for a time in Canada. In 1794, however, he returned to New York and with his brother-in-law founded the drug firm of Schieffelin and Company. He built a country house at 144th Street, overlooking the river, and near him, somewhat further east. on land which he had sold to his friend, Alexander Hamilton, stood Hamilton Grange. Hamilton's widow, a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, was a pew holder in the first St. Mary's church, and a son served on the Vestry.

 Mr. Schieffelin's strong churchmanship and interest in the village of Manhattanville both led him to desire the establishment of regular religious services in the valley. St. Michael's, the only Episcopal church between St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie and St. John's, Yonkers, was not easily accessible, and even the establishing in 1819 of a stage line from near Chambers Street to Manhattanville, with coaches departing every forty minutes, did not greatly alleviate the situation.

 This concern for the spiritual needs of the inhabitants of Manhattan­ville, mostly poor people, might have remained merely a pious intention had not St. Michael's been blessed with a rector who had vision, faith in the future, and a burning zeal for the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. In 1820 the Rev. William Richmond, enlarging upon a custom estab­lished by his predecessor at St. Michael's, began to hold services in Thomas Finlay's school house. This building, which stood on the hill­side just west of the present subway station at 12Sth Street, had offered a meeting place to various religious groups from time to time.

      On November 28, 1823, Mr. Finlay died, but this hospitality did not cease with his passing. On Thanksgiving Day, held that year on December 18, his widow invited a group of interested persons to the school house for the purpose of organizing a church. The name selected was St. Mary's Church, Manhattanville, Ninth Ward, of the City of New York. Valentine Nutter and Jacob Schieffelin were chosen as Wardens, and among the first Vestrymen of the newly formed church was Richard L. Schieffelin, a son of Jacob. In 1870 a grandson, George R. Schieffelin, was elected as Vestryman, and other descendants, to the seventh generation, have maintained an interest in St. Mary's.

 The first meeting of the Vestry was held on December 29, 1823, at which time Mr. Richmond was chosen as rector. At this meeting, too, the Vestry decided that all male persons of full age who contribute the sum of fifty cents annually for the support of the church should be members of the congregation and entitled to vote. They also provided for the establishment of a school, for the support of which a claim for $2500 was made on the trustees of the Harlem Commons Fund. This, the first free school in New York, actually antedates the free church, since St. Mary's did not abolish pew rents until 1831, In 1824 the school was opened to children of all denominations.

 Jacob Schieffelin donated the plot of land on which the church stands, and the frame of the original building was up by October 26, 1824. Financial difficulties prevented its immediate completion, but finally, an October 23, 1826, the church was consecrated hy Bishop Hobart.

      Thomas T. Groshon, who acted as lay reader under Mr. Richmond, held Sunday morning services and also assembled a Sunday school of sixty children. On August 3, 1825, ]\If r. Richmond resigned as rector. Mr. Groshon, who continued to act as lay reader, was called to become rector as soon as he could receive Deacon's Orders, but he died before this came to pass. He and his brother, Henry M. Groshon, M.D.., were victims of a severe epidemic that swept the city in the fall of 1828. With the death of Mr. Croshon. Mr. Richmond again took over the rectorship of St. Mary's, and the Rev. George L. Hinton was engaged as his assistant. The church was unable to pay Mr. Hinton's salary of $150.00 a year because of financial difficulties, so he resigned on April 30, 1830 and went to St. Andrew's parish in Harlem . He was rector of St. Andrew's at the time of his death in the horrible cholera epi­demic of 1832. So terrifying was this great plague that all who could left the city, abandoning the sick. The city put the whole upper part of Manhattan under Mr. Richmond's care with authority to order at his discretion and at public expense whatever supplies might be needed to alleviate the distress of the famine stricken and suffering poor. Mr. Richmond went everywhere, entering where others feared to go. He was accompanied on his errands of mercy by a Mrs. Reid who gave her services as a nurse wherever they might be required. The Rev. T. M. Peters, D.D., a former rector of St. Mary's, wrote, "Her stand­ing; Churchwise, was not good; her position  socially inferior; her edu­cation and mental culture entirely neglected; yet, what Christians would not do, Mrs. Reid did. She practiced, in time of sore trial, what they were slow to do -- the religion which visits .those in affliction."

Mr. Richmond's activities during the plague are typical of the many services St. Mary's has performed during its century and a quarter of existence. The Free School of St. Mary's, at first open to girls as well as boys, later, to boys only, has been mentioned before. In the 1850's, in an effort to minister to the many German speaking residents of the neighborhood, the Rev. Thomas McClure Peters insti­tuted services in German, and hired an assistant for this purpose. Still later, during the hard times that followed the panic of 1857, Dr. Peters was made almoner for out of door relief for the whole upper West Side of the city: He instituted a public works project which consisted of breaking stone for the macadam used in the first street paving in the neighborhood.

The Rector and Wardens of St. Mary's were also organizers of the old Manhattanville Library which occupied a brick building somewhat to the northwest of the church, on what is now Old Broadway. For many years St. Mary's maintained a strong interest in and a close relationship with The Sheltering Arms, a home for destitute and friendless children, and the meeting to organize the Manhattan Day Nursery was held in St. Mary's rectory under Dr. Hiram Richard Hulse who was rector of the church during the construction of the new building. The Gold Cross, an organization for raising money for mission supplies, also originated in the parish, and has since spread throughout the country.

In later years St. Mary's at one time offered the use of the church to a Greek Orthodox congregation for its Holy Week and Easter services and, under the present rector, Dr. Charles Breck Ackley, many Spanish-American families living in the neighborhood have been en­couraged to make this their church home.

In the mission fields St. Mary's has been represented by its first rector, the Rev. William Richmond, who spent a year as a missionary in Oregon; by the Rt. Rev. Hiram Richard Hulse, missionary bishop to Cuba; Rev. Francis Brown, missionary in the Virginia mountains; and Rev. Frederick W. Goodman, missionary to northern Alaska.

Two names prominent in American literature appear in the history of St. Mary's Church. The Rev. Clement C. Moore, author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (" 'Twas the night before Christmas") was one of the first contributors. Much later, Marguerite Wilkinson, poet and anthologist, attended St. Mary's and gave some bookshelves still uscd for the church library.

The Rev. James C. Richmond, second rector of the church, at one time fought with the armies that won Greek independence from the Turks a little over a century ago. Parishioners of St. Mary's have also played their part in our own country's battles. Sixty-one names appear on the Honor Roll of W orld War I, and eighty men and women from St. Mary's had service records in World War II.

Forty years ago, in the last sermon preached in the old church, the Rev. John P. Peters, son of a former rector, gave a message that might well be a motto for a church, proud of a century and a quarter of service, but not content to rest on past laurels. He said, "Hold fast the things that have been good in your past, and so develop and trans­late them into the terms of present needs and present conditions that men shall say of you: 'Here truly the religion of Christ is taught and preached-and lived.'”