All Souls church has a long history that is described in this section of our web site. The text that follows is taken from the 1983 booklet “All Souls Congregational Church” which recounts aspects of the history of the church and the structure and key church furnishings. The following links are supplied to make it easier for you to find various sections relating to our church history or items of interest relating to the building and its furnishings:
HISTORY:

BUILDING AND FURNISHINGS:

On Sunday, April 30, 1911, the center of Bangor was swept by a great fire that devastated 55 acres, destroyed 100 business blocks or public buildings, 285 dwellings, and 7 church edifices. Among the church edifices were those of the First Congregational Church and the Central Congregational church. First Church stood where all souls now stands, at the corner of State Street and Broadway, facing Stetson square. Central Church, with its parish house, was on the east side of French Street where the First Church of Christ Scientist now stands.

After the fire the congregation of the two churches began to consider the idea of uniting. Following a series of preliminary meetings, the union was, on March 6, 1912, formally voted. From that date the custom then prevailing in New England of having a dual organization of church and parish was followed. On February 15, 1939 was concluded the business necessary to do away with the dual organization and to incorporate the church so that henceforth there might be only one organization – All Souls Congregational Church of Bangor, Maine.

1769 – 1811:
In 1769 Jacob Bussel, a cooper, fisherman and boat builder, became the first settler of what is now Bangor. He built his log cabin on the slope of the hill just below where St. John’s Roman Catholic Church now stands. The first pastor of the settlement which grew up nearby was Seth Noble, a rough and ready character, who arrived in 1786. His salary of four hundred dollars a year was raised by subscription among the residents. When the town was incorporated in 1791 under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of which the District of Maine was a part, the name of Bangor was chosen and duly included in the engrossed petition carried to Boston by Parson Noble as delegate. The name, Celtic in origin, meaning “high choir” or “which choir” derives from the hymn tune, a favorite of Noble’s, by William Tan’sur (1706-1783), and East Anglican teacher of psalmody. It is associated with the bishopric of Bangor, Caernovanshire, North Wales. Through the years many sets of words have been set to it. In our Pilgrim Hymnal it appears with hymns 149, 159 and 284.

Parson Noble, whose eccentric character had not long endeared him to Bangor, moved in 1798 to New Hampshire. He had been town pastor and was never associated with a single church organization.

In 1803, Eliashib Adams, a gentleman of strict Puritanical views, remarked in his diary that Bangor was a mere Sodom, with Lot dwelling in it by the name of William Boyd. This William Boyd was with William Hasey, Stephen S. Crosby, and William D. Williamson, the historian, one of the prime movers in forming on November 27, 1811, the First Church of Christ in Bangor. This organization soon after became the First Congregational Church in Bangor and so continued until 1911. In 1811, Bangor had a population of 850. Other nearby towns outnumbered it: Buckstown (later Bucksport) 1403, Brewer 1341, and Hampden 1279. On September 3, 1814, incident to the War of 1812, a British naval and military expedition landed at Hampden. After routing the local militia, it proceeded to Bangor which it occupied for three days, moving into the courthouse, several schoolhouses, a tavern and several private homes and taking away twelve vessels and destroying six. (Return to Top of Page)

FIRST CHURCH, 1811 – 1911:
For its first minister the newly formed First Church chose Harvey Loomis who had been graduated from Williams College in 1809. He died in the pulpit on January 2, 1825 at the age of 39 years, following severe exertion climbing State Street hill on his way to church during a heavy snowstorm.

It was not long after the formulation of the First Congregational Church that other churches began to make their appearance in the new town; a Methodist Church in 1814 and a Baptist Church in 1815.

Services of the new First Congregational Church were held for some time in a hall over a store on Exchange Street, later in the court house which afterward became city hall. In 1816, Benjamin Bussey, a philanthropist of Boston, gave to the First Church a Paul Revere bell weighing 1095 pounds. It was hung in the Court House where the congregation was meeting and in 1821 was moved to the meting house just erected for the church on the sloping lot at the corner of State and French Streets. This was a wooden building. It was burned in 1830 by an incendiary. In the fire the bell fell and was cracked. It was recast, at the expense of Mr. Bussey, and it continued in use until April 30, 1911 when it again fell and was largely destroyed. A large fragment is now to be seen in the Museum of the Bangor Historical Society.

Following the 1830 fire a new meeting house with vestry was erected on the site of the original building. It was dedicated on July 20, 1 831. It was a brick structure, 90 feet by 62 feet with a small wooden belfry with miniature spires rising from the four corners. The entrance was by flights of steps from French and State Streets. The architect was Charles H. Page of Bangor who among other buildings in the city also did Maine Hall (not Whittaker Hall) at the Bangor Theological Seminary.

In 1859 the First Church began an extensive enlargement and remodeling of its meeting house. During this work the congregation, at the invitation of the Central Church, met in the Central Church building on French Street. The entrance to the enlarged First Church meeting house was from Broadway (Stetson Ssquare). The extended building was of brick, using the walls of the 1830 building, with a slate roof and a steeple rising to a height of 187 feet, very high as compared with the present fleche of 100 feet on the All Souls Church which began to rise in 1912. Harvey Graves of Boston was the architect. The weak spot or Achilles heel of the 1860 building was the wooden gutters into which the flying embers from the April 30, 1911 fire cascaded down the fireproof roof, igniting the interior of the building and causing its complete destruction. The adjoining parsonage, a frame building built in 1903, escaped the fire.

Rev. Charles Herrick Cutler was minister of the First Church from November 19, 1886 to December 1, 1911 when the new All Souls organization was set up, with Rev. Charles Albert Moore, final minister of the Central Church becoming the first minister of the new All Souls Church.

The first outgrowth of the First Church was the Hammond Street Congregational Church, organized December 5, 1833. The occasion of the forming of the Hammond Street Church was the inability of people to obtain seats in the First Church.

The second outgrowth of the First Church and also an outgrowth of the Hammond Street Church, was the Central Church, rarely called the Third Church, which was organized in 1847. It was made necessary by the fact that pews were already scares in the Hammond Street Church and again scarce in the First Church. The destructive flood of 1846 had occasioned a considerable influx of building artisans with a resulting increase in the population of the city.

Following Harvey Loomis, ministers of the First Church were Swan Lyman Pomroy (1825-1848), George Barker Little (1849-1857), Edward Whiting Gilman (1859-1863), Lyman Sibley Rowland (1864-1857), Newman Smyth (1870-1875), Stephen Lewis Bates Speare (1879-1881), Nathan Harding Harriman (1884-1886) and Charles Herrick Cutler (1886-1911). (Return to Top of Page)

CENTRAL CHURCH, 1847 – 1911:
Of the group of 13 men who early in 1847 organized the Central Church, nine came from the First Church, two from the Hammond Street Church, and one from the First Congregational Church of Falmouth, Massachusetts. One of them was the same Eliashib Adams earlier mentioned.

Preaching services had been inaugurated in New Market Hall as early as February 28, 1847. New Market Hall was situated in the middle of Kenduskeag Stream between State Street and Central Street, on the site later occupied by the Post Office and Customs House, itself later destroyed in the fire of 1911. From 1850 to 1853, the Central Church transferred its services to City Hall, the same building in which, as the Court House, the First Church had once worshipped. During the summer of 1853 the services were temporarily transferred to the High Street Chapel of the Hammond Street Church.

On June 30, 1853 was dedicated the new meeting house of Central Church on French Street about where the First Church of Christ Scientist now (1983) stands. Towle & Foster of Boston were the architects. Leonard L. Morse of Bangor was the contractor. The building was on the slope of the east side of the street. The high auditorium was on the second floor over an above-ground vestry. The three portals were reached by high flights of steps. There was a four-faced clock at the base of the belfry and spire. These rose in five tiers, dominating the downtown section of the city.

The building was taken down early in 1902 and a new building erected on the same site. This building was dedicated on January 11, 1903. It was in the form of a cross, 108 feet in length by 48 feet in width and 65 feet at the transepts. There was a square belfry. The building was of red Magaguadavic granite, some of which still exists in the lower courses of the All Souls Church building. The style was modified English gothic, a sort of English country parish style. There were twelve stained-glass windows, three by Horace J. Phipps & Company of Boston and nine by Louis Tiffany & Company of New York. Adjoining the church was a parish house, half-timbered in Tudor Style. It was dedicated on November 4, 1900. Fank A. Browne was the architect and Howard C. Chamberlain that of the parish house. The whole of this plant was destroyed in the fire of April 30, 1911. Salvaged from the ruing and used in the construction of All Souls Church was some of the red granite, the framework of the two State Street doors, and also the framework of the French Street door (no longer used) of All Souls.

Rev. Charles Albert Moore was installed as minister on November 23, 1905. Upon the formation of All Souls Church he became its first minister. Earlier ministers of Central Church were George Shepard (1847-1856), George Shephard and Samuel Harris, both of the faculty of Bangor Theological Seminary, alternated in the pulpit from 1856 to 1863, George W. Field (1863-1892), Emil B. Bary (1892-1894) and John Simpson Penman (1894-1905). (Return to Top of Page)

ALL SOULS CHURCH FOUNDED MARCH 12, 1912
The new All Souls Congregational Church, formed in 1912 and consisting of the united congregations of the two former churches, comprised a total of 576 members of whom 427 were resident and 149 non-resident. Today the church membership is XXXXXXXXXXXXX. The church school enrollment is XXX plus another XXX in the Senior High Fellowship group.

There are at least three types of church names: those based on location (Central Church), those based on chronology (First Church), and those based on a religious idea. It was decided that the new church should represent the third type. A member of the committee to recommend the name said of the choice, “All Souls stands for the ideal of democracy in religion.”

Charles Albert Moore, D.D., the pastor of the new church, and who had also been the pastor of Central Church, was a leading member of the building committee. His excellent taste was imprinted on all the accomplishments of the committee.

Chosen as architect for the new building was the medievalist Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), then well established in a career that brought him to preeminence among American church architects. He waas already famous for his work at Princeton University and at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He later became architect of such great churches as the East Liberty Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, PA, and the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. His firm was then Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, of Boston; later Cram and Ferguson; and now Hoyle, Doran and Berry.

Chosen to create the stained glass that was to become such an important feature of the sanctuary was Charles J. Connick (1875-1945), of Boston, leading exponent of the revival of stained glass in the manner of, but no tin the imitation of, the medieval French Gothic. He was then well embarked on a distinguished career that was to include, to name only a few examples, the great Western rose window in the cathedral of St. John the Divine, windows in the chapel at Princeton, and windows in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City. The philosophy of his art is comprised in the title of his authoritative book (1937) Adventures in Light and Color.

With the completion of the South transept window in 1981, there are 26 stained glass windows in All Souls. The first fifteen, installed at various times between 1913 and 1944 represent nearly the entire development of Connick’s career. Since 1945, Connick’s firm, Charles J. Connick Associates, has carried on the style and manner of his work. The seven windows acquired in 1947, the three acquired in 1976, and the South transept window of 1982 are their work. The All Souls windows, together with the 26 Connick or Connick Associates windows at St. John’s Episcopal Church and Bethlehem Chapel on French Street, two in the Hammond Street Church, and four in the Universalist Church, comprise a great treasure for a single city.

Ground was broken on Monday, May 20, 1912 for the construction of the church building. The cornerstone was laid on Tuesday, August 20, 1912. The first service to be held in the building was on Sunday, November 16, 1913. The dedication service was held two weeks later, on Sunday, November 30, 1913.

The church site is a lot of 328 front feet on the west side of Broadway, facing Stetson Square. It has 170 feet on York Street, 287 feet on French, and 188 on State. The parsonage is an eight-room house with garage at 214 Broadway, occupying a lot of 52 front feet and 121 feet deep. The church building were valued at $2,368,000 in 1983, including $168,000 for the windows and $70,000 for the parsonage. The original cost of the church building alone was $110,000. The church lot was appraised in 1983 by the city for $70,100 and the parsonage lot for $5,200.

The parsonage of First Church, built in 1903, stood at 8 Broadway about where the Arlan A. Baillie building now stands. It was undamaged in the fire of 1911, and it continued to be used as the parsonage until, on August 11, 1943, it was so severely damaged by an internal fire that it was later torn down. The present parsonage (1983) was acquired in 1944 from Rodney C. Warner and his wife, Elizabeth S. Warner, members of the parish.

The church building is modified French Gothic in style. It is of red Magaguadavic granite from St. George, N.B. and Long Beach, ME. The stone portions of the attached Arlan A. Baillie building, erected in 1953, are built of nearly matching red granite from Deer Isle, ME.

About a third of the material of the walls of the church was taken from the ruins of First Church and Central Church. The most conspicuously red granite is the Megaguadavic from Central Church. (Return to Top of Page)

THE BUILDING LAYOUT:
The ground plan of the building is the Latin cross traditional in Gothic architecture. The narthex (vestibule), nave, and chancel with ambulatory passage, provide the body and head of the cross. The transepts provide its arms. The orientation is approximately east and west, with the portal at the east and the chancel at the west; the right transept, viewed from the entrance, being north and the left, south. That this orientation is directly opposite to what is conventional in Gothic churches appears due to the position of the lot and the necessity of having the entrance at street level on Broadway rather than at the top of the high bank on French Street.

The extreme outside length of the building, buttress to buttress, is 126 feet, 7 inches. The inside length from the narthex screen to the rear wall of the chancel is 100 feet, 7 inches; the width of the nave is 37 feet, 8 inches; and the width of the whole at the transepts, 64 feet, 4 inches. From floor to ridgepole inside is 42 feet 8 inches. The height above the ground of the summit of the fleche, the arrow-like spire, is some 100 feet. The seating capacity now totals 739, 390 in the nave, 237 in the transepts and transept galleries, 54 in the choir, 23 in the chancel choir, and 35 in the chapel.

The face of the east front with portal and rose window is framed in heavy buttresses. The narthex gables protrude at either side. The south narthex gable is divided by a tower with a pointed roof. In it hangs a bell whose rope drops into the well of the stairway leading to the choir loft. There is no internal access to the tower. A bronze plaque near the bell rope reads: “The bell in this tower was given in loving memory of Deacon Daniel Arthur Robinson, MD, and his wife Lettie Harlow Robinson by their children, October 2, 1966”. Before the installation of the bell this tower served as a ventilating shaft.

On the north side a flight of 25 steps from the sidewalk leads to a timbered portico with entrance into the north transept. To the west of this portico is a door, like a postern gate, at terrace level, admitting to the vestry. Over this door is a stone with the words “One is your Master”, from Matthew 23:8. A path on the same level leads along the French Street face of the building to a large doorway with double panels. This is permanently walled over inside and no longer serves as an entrance. All three of these stone door frames were salvaged from Central Church.

In an outside well on the south side are service stairs leading to the furnace room. In the angle between the nave and south transept is an ornamental chimney serving the heating plant, an incinerator, and the fireplace in the vestry. The entire roof is of heavy slate. The building is softened by a fine growth of Boston ivy (Ampelopsis Tricuspidata). Until the installation of 1982 of the south transept window, an area of brick appeared to the roof of the peak of the south transept. This is where the original plan with a parish house (activities building) of three stories would have been attached. On the left of the entrance walk is an identification board with hours of services. This is suspended from a bracket supported by a heavy column of pink granite blocks.

The tower, or fleche, without interior access, that rises some 55 feet from the crossing of the nave and the transepts, is of steel and copper, naturally weathered green. Reminiscent of the fleche of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, it is embellished with crockets, conventionalized leaves. It is surmounted by a conventionalized fleur-de-lis approximating a cross in appearance and symbolic of the human nature of Jesus, or variously, of the Holy Trinity.

At the east entrance, from a walk at street level, three granite steps lead to the portico. The metal door of the coal hole is at the right of the steps. The stone door jamb, arch, and tabled with superscription all came from Central Church where they had not been destroyed by the fire. They, and the walls of the portico, are of Indiana limestone. The inner frame is decorated with carved stalks, leaves, tendril, and grapes of the vine, symbolic of Jesus and his followers (John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.”) The outer frame carries a larger leaves devoid of symbolism. The corbels of the arches are decorated with angelic childlike winged figures, called cherubs, clasping books. At the peak of the arch is a large fleur-de-lis-like, and with the same symbolism as that of the fleche. This symbol also appears in the chancel window where it crowns the canopies of the Evangelists.

The heavy double door of oak with six lancets of amber leaded glass id decorated with wrought iron bosses and heavy handles. The bronze lamp hanging from a chain in the portico is decorated with capital crosses in outline and is similar to the lamp in the narthex and others elsewhere in the church. The superscription reads: “Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise” from Psalm 100:4.

The cornerstone is in the base of the buttress at the right of the entrance. It is the cornerstone of Central Church, re-cut internally to contain two copper and zinc boxes. The larger box contains, among other things, the printed histories of First Church and Central Church, and calendars of those two churches, and of the early services of All Souls. The contents are listed in full in column 3, page 12 of the Bangor Daily News of August 20, 1912, which may bee seen at the Bangor Public Library. The smaller box is the one that was placed there on June 16, 1902, when the cornerstone of Central Church was laid. It was not opened before being placed in the cornerstone of All Souls. First Church had no cornerstone. When its building was remodeled in 1859 a box containing printed matter and manuscript was placed in one of the supporting columns. This was destroyed in the fire of 1911. One the front of the cornerstone of All Souls is the date 1912. On the south side are two dates: 1830, when the second meeting house of First Church was built, and 1859, when the building was remodeled and enlarged. On the north side are two dates: 1852, when the first meeting house of Central Church was built, and 1902, when the second building replaced the original.

Higher on the right buttress is a bronze plaque with the wording: “All Souls Church (Congregational) 1912 Uniting the First Church 1811 The Central Church 1847”. The actual corporate name of the organization is All Souls Congregational Church. In 1961 All Souls became a member of the United Church of Christ.

The narthex (vestibule) is separated from the nave (main auditorium) of the church by a narthex screen of 21 panels of oak and amber leaded glass, pierced by a central door of two leaves and two single, side doors. The depth of the narthex from portal to inner doors is 14 feet, 9 inches. There are four cylindrical hanging lamps of bronze with capital heraldic crosses, similar to the portico lamp. Storage closets lead off the narthex in the front wall on both sides of the main door, and from one staircase leads to the choir robbing room, the furnace room, and the vestry. A third closet, at the north end, occupies the space originally planned for a staircase to the gallery which in 1970 became the choir and organ loft. It now contains storage space and the air intake for the organ. At the south end, behind a leaded glass screen is a true staircase to the gallery. The narthex is furnished informally with benches, coat racks, literature racks, and a table carrying a guest register. The table was made by Albert E. Westin, a member of the congregation, and presented by the Six-Thirty Club upon its disbanding.

On the east wall of the narthex are six frames of pictures and information about the building of First Church and Central Church. These were gathered by James Reid, clerk of the church 1939-1941.

Also on the east wall of the narthex are two framed, hand-lettered scrolls entitled “Honor Roll of European War”. These are honor rolls of the church for the First World War. They contain, in the two panels, a total of 74 names, of which 6 are women and 68 men. They indicate that two of the men died, having been killed in action. These were John Elliott and John C. Spooner. One frame carries an inscription in Latin which in translation reads, “Let us fight for our people and for the city of our God.” The other carries an inscription in Greek, which is from John 15:13, and translated means “Greater love hath no man than this.”

Between the Nativity window and the Peace window in the nave is a bronze plaque worded: “In memory of the six young men of this church who fell in World War II: Robert A Brautlecht, Richard B. Jones, Austin R. Keith, W. Carleton Orr, Fields S. Pendleton III, John, F. Steinmetz: and in thanksgiving for the safe return of the others who went from this parish to serve in that war.”

There is nowhere on view in the building a full listing of all the parishioners who were in the service during the Second World War. In a corner of one of the First World War frames is inserted a partial list of Second World War service men and women. It is a printed list that appeared in the church bulletin of Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. It names the two women and ninety-five men who had been enrolled up to that time.

In the nave the pews are divided alternatively, with single, raised arms, into sections seating three or five persons. There were also originally, when pews were privately owned, partitions from floor to seat at the locations of the arms. As they prevented circulation and the full use of the seating capacity, they were later taken out. The carving on the ends of the pews is a quatrefoil, which appears also in the chancel lamps and at other places in the detail of the church decoration. It is variously symbolic of the four Gospels or of the four evangelists.

Demi-barrel vaults with fluted ribs support the rails of the rear balcony and the transept galleries and overhang the aisles. There are an interesting detail. Niches with flat arches are inset into the walls under the nave windows. They originally contained radiators. Now the heat enters through grills in the floor of the niches. Larger arches of the same shape support the transept galleries.

Lighting in the nave is by incandescent electric lamps in ten chandeliers that take the form of royal crowns enclosing white glass inverted bowls and suspended by triple chains. In the upper part of each transept are two lamps of similar design, and in the lower part of each, three lamps.

The trusses and the timbering of the auditorium command attention. The trusses, supported on huge, stone corbels projecting from the walls at the exterior buttresses, curve upward in fine Gothic arches, not to the ridgepole, but below it. On the peak of the arches rest cross timbers that support vertical members that reach to the ridgepole. The rafters, closely spaced at eighteen inches on the center, are intersected by purlins (lengthwise members), that coincide with the bows of the trusses, so that the entire roof is sustained at many points. Sprinkler pipes parallel the principal members, but they are nearly invisible and do not detract from the rich appearance of the timbering.

The dry pipe sprinkler system, installed by The Grinnell Company in 1952, extends to all parts of the church. At 5:10 a.m. on January 16, 1962, the sprinkler system gave alarm and initial control of fire that, originating near the chimney pipe close to the ceiling of the boiler room, burned through the floor of the nave at several points along the south wall. Lesser fires occurred at the same location on April 8, 1969 and in May, 1970. Following the latest of the fires the smoke pipe was relocated to avoid any further chance of overheating. The church school building, opened in 1954, had sprinklers installed throughout during the course of its construction. (Return to Top of Page)

THE LECTERN LAMP:
The lectern lamp is a focus of interest, but its full meaning becomes apparent only with close study. It is supposed to date from the fifteenth century and to have at that time been plundered by barbarians from some Greek Catholic church. The material is brass. The only lettering upon it is Arabic. The style is Moorish or Byzantine, intricate design, repeated infinitely, and all worked in tiny perforations and incised lines. The design is really a series of pictures. This shows that the lamp is Christian, for if it were Islamic the detail would be design only. The principal theme of the pictures, repeated over and over, is the martyrdom of St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris and patron saint of France, his head in his hands. He was martyred by beheading in 275 AD. The name Montmartre reminds us of this event. Tradition says that the martyr walked two miles to his grave, carrying his head. Here and there among the pictures are executioners with axes and also two other men, perhaps his companions in martyrdom, Rusticus and Eleutherius. The secondary theme is a series of deer in the thick foliage of a forest, perhaps illustrating Psalm 42:1: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” With them, occasionally, are other animals and birds. The lamp was brought to America about 1870. It was given to All Souls Church by Mrs. Albert H. Thaxter. (Return to Top of Page)

THE BAPTISMAL FONT:
The baptismal font, which is below and to the left of the pulpit, is of carved oak, like the chancel woodwork. It stands on a base of one step. Its column and rim are decorated with the same carved roses and vine elements that decorate the chance. Its cover is a carved spire surmounted by a twisted wrought-iron loop handle. The font bowl itself is of pewter with folding handles. The font was given to Charles D. Crosby in memory of his wife, Miriam Robinson Crosby (1862-1926). Also in the nave is a stand which on Sundays contains the church’s Book of Remembrance that at other times is found on a special shelf in the chapel. The stand, constructed by the Rev. Edward G. Ernst from the wood of a pew formerly in the church, was given by Dr. and Mrs. Richard E. Durst in honor and memory of his three brothers, Ralph, Kenneth, and Arden Durst.

The two hymn boards are carved with nodding stalks of wheat framing a Latin Cross. The inscription is “Presented by C. Winfield Richmond in memory of his mother, Clara Richmond 1857-1903.” C. Winfield Richmond was organist of the church from 1918 to 1945. (Return to Top of Page)

THE CHANCEL:
The chancel is approached by three steps. The oak floor is of key-plug construction – that is, the heavy planks of the floor instead of being nailed in place are held together by wooden plugs so cut as to draw them together and to prevent any possibility of cracking through shrinkage. The lectern is carved with various ecclesiastical symbols: a whorl of flames (inspiration), Greek and patee crosses (Our Lord), and roses (the Messianic promise of Isaiah 35:1 – “…and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”) There was formerly attached to the lectern an adjustable shelf and bracket to hold a vase of flowers. Upon its breaking off it was not replaced. Brass bowls in wrought-iron stands, located in front of the lectern and pulpit, now serve to contain the flowers that on many Sundays are provided through several specifically designated funds.

Until 1970 when the Moeller organ was installed in the east end of the church, the columned screen at the right of the chancel enclosed a space for the organ console, organist, and a quartet. The organ chamber was behind the organist in the space now occupied by the chapel. It was fronted by large, speaking, yet decorative organ pipes and by a carved screen embellished by medallions containing crosses whose terminal suggested trumpets. One of these now forms the back of the bookcase in the chapel.

To the left of the chancel is another columnar screen behind which are pews for a small choir. Both screens are decorated at the top in carving with the vine (Our Lord) in flamboyant patters, with grapes and leaves of the vine (“Ye are the branches…”) and with Messianic roses. This same symbolism and carving is carried to the pulpit, the canopies of the seven chancel seats for the minister and deacons and the communion table, to which are added quatrefoils (the evangelists). The heavy pendentives of the chancel seats terminate in large carved roses. The pendentive over the entrance to the choir from the chancel carries a small smiling face and other decorations not found elsewhere. These are a sort of signature of the individual woodcarver himself.

Occupying the space above the central deacon’s seat is a cross, continuously illuminated, that was dedicated April 1, 1979, a gift from the Woman’s Association in memory of Lucy H. Crane. It was crafter by Clark Fitzgerald. It is of oak, framing a gilded metal stem with shining leaves, continuing the vine motif that runs throughout the chancel carving.

An ambulatory leads from the small choir space, behind the deacons’ seats to the chapel. The north transept gallery is reached by stairs hidden in the east wall of the transept.

It is interesting to note how extensively the device of architectural canopy like that of the deacons’ seats is carried out elsewhere in the building. It appears, to name a few places, over the five central figures and the five base panels in the Chancel window, above the archangels in the north transept window, in the Nativity window, and in the Resurrection window. In church buildings canopies were first used outside to keep the snow and rain from the heads of the carved saints. Later they came inside, where they have no use, over the same saints in the windows.

The high pulpit is reached by six steps from the chancel floor. The pulpit desk is supported by a wrought iron cross visible only when a ray of sun enters from the open front door. Ross and Company, of Cambridge, MA, was responsible for most of the chancel woodwork and fittings. (Return to Top of Page)

THE COMMUNION TABLE:
The communion table, characteristic of New England Congregationalism, is of Gothic pattern to harmonize with the building in general. Upon it are two memorial candlesticks and a memorial bible stand, incised with a Maltese cross, which carries a King James pulpit Bible bound in red leather on the cover of which are the words All Souls Congregational Church in Memory of Wesley Worcester. Another pulpit Bible, rescued from the First Church, is now held in the archives. A ministerial chair made from portions of pews 33 and 56 is at the right of the chancel, behind the lectern. Pulpit and lectern hangings of violet are used for Lent and Advent, green from Pentecost or Trinity to Christmas, and white during the rest of the year. (Return to Top of Page)

THE ORGAN:
The original organ, installed when the church was built, was by Kimball, Small and Frazee of Boston. By 1970 it had worn out and was removed. The new pipe organ, comprising 25 ranks, was designed and built by M. P. Moeller Inc., the world’s largest builder of pipe organs, located in Hagerstown, MD, with a tonal design in keeping with the acoustics of this church and the requirements of the church services. There are 1419 pipes, 12 couplers, 19 pistons and 4 reversible pistons. The Unenclosed Positiv is to the left of the Rose window, the Unenclosed Great to the right of the window, and the pedal Division id behind either of these organs. Two Swell division are placed on either side of the balcony with individually controlled swell shades operated from a pedal at the console. A three horsepower blower supplies wind to operate the electro-pneumatic action and the pipes with 3 and 3½ wind pressures. A three manual draw-knob console, incorporating the latest in action design, places the entire instrument under the control of the organist. The fine Degan chimes, given to the church in 1958 by Dr. Robert M. McQuoid and used with the old organ, are now installed with the new action in the right Swell chamber. The casework also built by Moeller, encloses the mechanics of the organ, but allows for a good projection of sound into the auditorium.

The Book of Remembrance is to be consulted for a description of the several communion sets, offering plates, candlesticks and other ecclesiastical equipment and lay service utensils either with memorial inscriptions or without.

The public address system was installed in the chancel early in 1978. It is of Rauland Spectrum-Master manufacture, put in place by Maine Sound and Intercom Company. The speakers are inconspicuously located in the chancel screens close to the hymn boards. The control mechanism is at the rear of the nave, housed in a cabinet built by Rev. Edward G. Ernst, a member of the parish, using wood from a pew formerly used in the church. Paired individual receivers for the use of the deaf members are located in pews 9, 11 and 74. The microphones are on the pulpit and the lectern. (Return to Top of Page)

THE CHAPEL:
The chapel, dedicated on November 27, 1976, is spanned by a fine arch that was revealed when the Frazee organ was removed. It occupies the former quarter space, console space and organ chamber. Its entire equipment was furnished by individual memorial gifts, each identified by appropriate memorial plaques and detailed in the Book of Remembrance. The door by which the chapel is entered from the north transept was cut through the wall of the one-time organ chamber. Several pews were moved to storage from the north transept to give an approach aisle. (Return to Top of Page)

THE WINDOWS:
The twenty-six stained glass windows that comprise so great a treasure are, it was the pride of their maker, true windows. To the outside of the church, through the texture of their leaded lines and the patina of the glass, they give a texture that blends with the stonework and the ivy. They are weather-tight. They are far less liable to breakage than a window of large panes. The lead lines make them flexible, yielding to gales or to mild shocks. A blow by a stone or falling branch breaks only one small piece of glass, not more than a few inches in size.

They meet that high test of a work of art: to reveal something new to the beholder each time he views them. This is not only because of their wealth of detail, but even more because of the way that their colors vary with every hour of the day and with every season. Before sunrise they begin to feel the coming sun. The whites prevail before sunrise and after sunset. As the sun begins to come, or is nearly gone, the greens strengthen and, with the light blues secondary, they succeed the whites. Then, as the sun grows stronger, the greens brighten. All darkness leaves them. The reds spring out suddenly, with the yellows secondary. The strong blues assert themselves and, with the reds, shout in royal purple. Quiet when the sun is low or the day lowering, the windows are hot, exciting, triumphant, when the clear sun is shining on them.

This cycle is visible in all windows. The eastern window share in it but adds to it. By moonlight it is radiant with new colors not seen at all by day. (To see the section of All Souls’ web site that features information on the windows, click here: The Windows). (Return to Top of Page)

Date of last Update: 04/17/03

October 2, 2003: Report by Marilyn Soper