THE HISTORY OF ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
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eventually was made executive director of the Episcopal Church Building Fund. He died at an early age in the springtime of 1975.
In the year that Father Clark left, the Reverend Donald James Gardner was elected and came to Saint John’s as thirteenth rector. He continued to foster the progressive and exacting work so ably undertaken by his predecessors, especially in regard to the youth programs. A highlight each year for the children was Cathedral Day when Bishop De Wolfe invited all Sunday School children of the diocese to meet with him in Garden City on the cathedral grounds. That day always concluded with devotions in the cathedral and the bishop’s warm greeting and blessing from the main steps, at which time he awarded banners to deserving Sunday Schools for their attendance during the year. Like the Brooklyn Sunday School Union, mentioned above, this too disappeared a few years ago and is also relegated to memory.
The lovely old brownstones of our neighborhood were beginning to show signs of age and in many cases neglect by time Fr. Gardner arrived here in 1955. Many were becoming apartment buildings and rooming houses, which increased the population of Park Slope but at the same time altered the character and social life of the neighborhood. The church and rectory were deteriorating along with the other buildings in the community and were sorely needed plaster and paint and those other things that are needed to restore old buildings to their former greatness and beauty. It was with this task that Father Gardner and the vestry busied themselves. They established an Interior Decoration Fund, which eventually reached the sum of $21,000, part of which was spent on needed repairs to the Rectory while most went to redecorate the Church worship space.
On 14 April 1956 Father Gardner was married in Engelwood, New Jersey, to a Miss Janet Elizabeth Washburn. He left Saint John’s in 1958 to become rector of Saint Barnabus in Ardsley, New York and within the same year, The Reverend Clifford Allen Buck was called as the fourteenth rector of the parish in May, 1958. The work of redecoration continued as Fr. Gardner left and Fr. Buck took up his duties.
The month following his arrival, and after over two months of holding services in the undercroft while work was being done, Saint John’s opened its doors to a beautifully-decorated edifice. The building had not been painted since the parish’s 100th Anniversary, thirty-one years before. Extensive repair work to the plaster was necessary and the color chosen was green. An interesting device, owned by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, was used to determine the tones. It indicated that three shades of green would make the church look uniform throughout, the reason being that the time of day, the direction the windows face, and the colors of the glass itself made some areas appear lighter or darker than others.
The sanctuary ceiling arches, where three glorious angels are painted in oil were embellished with twenty-two carat gold leaf by two artisans from Italy. This, of course, made the sanctuary wood look much darker because of the many coats of stain and varnish that had been applied over the years. Therefore the high altar itself and its oak-wood reredos were bleached to a honey color and coated three times with heavy liquid wax. This item alone cost a week’s time and about $1,000. The most difficult task was the hand-carved panel of da Vinci’s Last Supper. The wooden tabernacle door was replaced with a golden door depicting the Lamb of God holding the Resurrection Banner, seated on the Book of Life with its seven seals, so beautifully described in the Apocalypse or the Book of Revelation by Saint John the Divine, our own patron. In each corner of the door there is a sparkling amethyst stone, again mentioned by Saint John. Then, finally, the offerings and donations made possible the purchase of new red damask cushions for every pew.
The newly renovated worship space looked great, but was also greatly in need of a new musical instrument. In 1960 a gift of $20,000 was received from an anonymous donor supplied the funds to replace the old Jardine tracker pipe organ, built and installed in 1893. A contract was made with the Hillgreen-Lane Organ Builders of Ohio for a two-manual, fourteen-rank pipe organ with two sections exposed in the sanctuary arches, a solid oak console with draw-knobs, a set of tubular chimes. The organist, Mr. Keith Verhey, agreed to play the dedication recital in true classic style, as he had been taught at the Julliard School, if money could be found and a new organ procured. He was staging and directing two night-club shows in Manhattan and had temporarily moved away from classic organ repertory. The installation of the instrument covered a span of nine months, far longer than expected, but it was finally dedicated by Archdeacon Saunders at a Sunday afternoon recital on 1 April 1962, much to our relief and joy. A careful observer will note an unpretentious little brass plaque on the console bearing this inscription: "In grateful memory, William M. Blake, R.I.P., 1963," the name of the donor who made all this possible.
In 1966 the organ console was moved from the chancel to the south transept. The choir, of course, was moved to that area also. The reasons are both aesthetic and acoustical. With the advent of plainer and freer sanctuaries and free-standing altars, it was believed that this church would be enhanced with a spacious sanctuary, one that would afford the worshipers a feeling of closeness to the altar, not separated from it by choir and acolyte pews. The music and the choir itself would be an auxiliary or adjunct to public worship and not a focal point of every service. In addition to that, the acoustics of the building, which are really quite good, would be far better utilized from the transept walls and ceiling, rather than from the sanctuary arches where the sound was in part confined.
The director of music at the time was Mr. Steve Empson, whose pleasure with the new arrangement inspired him to seek any means possible to enlarge
the size, tone, and scope of the fairly new organ. To that end he applied his talents and most generous and painstaking labor. Ambitious specifications were drawn up. The two largest factors contemplated were the erection of a third division or housing which would utilize a large section of the sacristy above head level and become the "swell" or "enclosed" organ. The chancel organ could then be divided into two divisions, one called the "great organ" and the other the "positif." This in turn necessitated the re-doing of the console, from which the music is played. Three divisions in an organ require three keyboards or manuals. Fund for this project were provided from the Book of Remembrance, some from quiet individual donations, and an additional $10,000 was donated by the Reverend Clifford Buck, then rector of the parish, from funds he had received as a personal bequest.
No company name can be attached to the present organ, for it represents a compilation of many sources, and though it is unique for that reason alone, it is nonetheless one of great beauty. A series of Sunday afternoon recitals with guest organists from such divergent places as Rochester, New York, and Liverpool, England, was presented almost hi-monthly for a span of two years. All of this led the rector and vestry to contemplate for Saint John’s and its people a major renovation, creating, hence, an expanded sanctuary area.
Also in the 1960’s three stages of redevelopment were planned for the undercroft. In Father Clark’s time that part of the church was modernized with up-to-date kitchen facilities, which for the most part are still in use. The main room was painted and decorated with murals, the then existing stage was supplied with theatrical curtains, and handsome easy chairs, folding chairs, and tables were procured.
Nearly every undertaking has a pitfall or two, and the undercroft renovations were no exception. In creating the new stairway and door to be found near today’s restrooms, a very large boulder was found in excavating and breaking through the original thirty-six inch foundation wall. After three days of attempting to break it up with air hammers, the workmen gave up and instead dug a hole great enough to bury it below the needed space. In all it required six working days of three men! The auditorium was divided into three sections with Philippine mahogany accordion folding doors. The entire undercroft was provided with recessed lighting, tile flooring in every room and the hallway and choir room were covered with pecan wood paneling. The total cost was nearly $40,000.
Along with all this building and repair activity, in 1960 Park Slope suffered a great tragedy only a few steps from the entrance to Saint John’s Church. In December a United Airlines and a TWA jet collided in mid-air over Staten Island on a dreary icy morning. The United jet made it to Brooklyn, perhaps heading for a clearance in Prospect Park. It nose-dived, however, into the Pillar of Fire Church, which was located on Sterling Street directly behind St. John’s Church. One hundred and fifty people were killed in the crash which destroyed the Church on Sterling Place as well as a brownstone funeral parlor and three stores. The Reverend Harry Stirling, an elderly Curate at St. John’s, was finishing an Ember Friday Mass when the explosion hit, and thought at first that the boiler had blown up. He rushed to the scene, and attended in his characteristic fatherly and gentle way, the only survivor, who was a young boy from Illinois. The news media made much of this incident and followed it to its sad conclusion, when the lad died twenty-eight hours later.
Repairs and renovations to our buildings continued during these socially turbulent years. In 1963, the beautiful old rectory was in need of immediate repair. The kitchen floor was dangerously weak, so much so, in fact, that the contractor advised that the clothes washer not be used for fear of its dropping to the cellar! The metal ceiling had rusted and given way in places, and immediate attention was absolutely necessary. A bequest of $10,000 from William Greve was earmarked for that purpose. After six months of extensive remodeling, Saint John’s Rectory had a new and completely modern kitchen complete with panel walls and appliances. In 1972 a new heating boiler was installed in the Rectory, bathrooms were modernized. Like so many other repairs to our historic buildings over the years, this was accomplished by means of an unexpected and very generous legacy, about which there is a brief but interesting story.
The first funeral conducted by Father Buck, a few days after he arrived in 1958, was that of a man in the parish who was survived solely by his elderly wife. Her circumstances thereafter seemed so meager, both socially and financial, that he encouraged her to become actively involved in parish activities, especially in the Women’s Auxiliary, and she was invited to call at the rectory any day at noontime to share a bite to eat and a bit of socializing. After a year or two she disappeared, and the church knew nothing of her circumstances or her whereabouts. Fourteen years later a lawyer contacted the rector, asking for his services in the burial of Mrs. Agnes Brown. It was then revealed that her monetary assets had been bequeathed to Saint John’s. This $27,000 inheritance was used in good part in the renovation of the rectory, which had been offered to her so long before as a place of respite.
Nearly every year has brought with it a need for repair or improvement to this property but few years have seen the needs met by such generosity and from such an unlikely source! In 1971 the former altar was moved forward and crowned with a polished marble slab, and placed on a re-designed floor of blue carpeting. The center of attention or focal point of a church is always the altar. Behind and above our altar is placed a nine-foot crucifix of the Risen Christ, carved of linden wood and fashioned in Oberammergau, Germany, in the year of the Passion Play, 1970. The figure is slightly highlighted in pastel