I present more from Mrs. Marjorie H. Gillette's 1967 church history presentation.
This section of the history shows the church in the new Beacon Street building along the Charles River. I present a small selection of newspaper notices from this period as well as a few photographs...I have many more to share from my collection as the blog grows over time.
In 1905, Dr. Albert Parker Fitch was called to be the third minister of our church. He was a man of scholarly background and expressed himself forcefully and eloquently. He organized our Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor. He remained with us until 1909 when he was called to become the President of Andover Theological Seminary, in Cambridge. He resigned from this position in 1917 and became professor of History of Religion at Amherst College. From 1928 until his resignation in 1933, he was minister of Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. He was author of several books of fiction and non-fiction. He died in 1944.
The Reverend James Austin Richards, minister of Mount Vernon Church from 1909 to 1918, was born in Andover, Massachusetts, March 27, 1878. He was graduated from Phillips Andover in 1896 and from Harvard University in 1910. For a couple of years, he took graduate work at Harvard and worked in a church extension project in Cambridge. In 1904 he was graduated from Union Theological Seminary. He served in parishes in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, before coming to Mount Vernon in 1909. In 1907 he married Hazel Temple Read, who was of great assistance to him. Leaving Mount Vernon Church, he went to the Winnetka Congregational Church in Illinois. He received an honorary degree of D. D. from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1926, and in 1932 an honorary degree from Oberlin College. His last pastorate was at the First Church in Oberlin, Ohio.
The Reverend A. Sidney Lovett, minister of Mount Vernon Church from 1919 to 1932, was born in Boston on January 30, 1890, - the son of Augustus and Elizabeth Russell Lovett. He was graduated from Yale in 1913 and the Union Theological Seminary in 1917. In 1932 he received his K.A. from Yale. At Yale, Mr. Lovett was University Chaplain, but he was also the Pastor of the University Church of Christ, and the Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature. In 1937, he was awarded an Honorary Degree of D.D. from Dartmouth College. In 1953, President A. Whitney Griswold appointed him Master of Pierson College, one of Yale's undergraduate residential colleges.
Following his retirement at Yale, he and Mrs. Lovett spent a year in Hong Kong, where he served on the board of Yale in China. Many of our present members had the rare privilege of being guided by Uncle Sid, when we were members of the Mount Vernon Young People's Society, during his pastorate. He was instrumental in establishing the Boston City Missionary Camps for young girls and boys which were originally in Andover, Massachusetts, but were later moved to Lake Winnesquam in New Hampshire.
At present, Dr. and Mrs. Lovett are well and enjoy their summers on Squam Lake in Holderness New Hampshire, and in the winter they remain in New Haven.
During the year of 1928--1929, Mr. Lovett took a sabbatical leave from Mount Vernon Church to study at Oxford, England. The Reverend Harold 0. Jones served as acting minister during his sabbatical.
When Mr. Lovett resigned as our minister in the spring of 1932, the Reverend Edward E. Aiken, Jr. served as minister until the Reverend Carl Heath Kopf became the minister in 1933.
More to follow...
Charles:-)
charles65ofboston@yahoo.com
