History of Harvard-Epworth

Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church

George Bird, a Cambridge resident and member of the congregation, donated $10,000 for the initial church building. However, it was through the generosity of Federick H. Rindge that the congregation was able to construct a building that would stand as a landmark on the edge of the Harvard College campus. Rindge also enabled the city of Cambridge to build its city hall, library, and technical training school during the same years. Of the $73,000 necessary to build and furnish the church building, he contributed a total of $53,500.

The cornerstone of the building was laid on October 3, 1891 and the church was dedicated on February 22, 1893. With the construction of the church finished, the board voted to change the name to the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church.

Harvard Street Methodist Episcopal Church

A class of seven people, mostly members of Trinity Church in Cambridge, organized in Cambridgeport in 1838. This formed the core of the Harvard Street Church, which was formed in 1839. The congregation improvised preachers and venues for its earliest years. A small room was arranged for worship in the upper part of Fisk's Block, Main Street, in 1840. The congregation grew so quickly that within a few months a new location was needed.

The first preacher appointed to serve the congregation by the New England Conference began work in 1841. It took up location in the town hall, then located at the corner of Harvard and Norfolk Streets. A small wooden building was built on Harvard Street and occupied in 1843. Expanded once, the church burned on the night of November 26, 1857.

Overcoming the difficulties of the financial panic of that year, the congregation rebuilt a new wooden building on the same site in 1858. After being occupied less than 3 years, this church also burned to the ground on March 15, 1861. The cornerstone for another church building on this site was laid on October 19, 1862. This building served the Harvard Street congregation until 1943, when Harvard Street merged with Epworth to become the Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church. St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church now worships in this building.

The church building

The building in which Harvard-Epworth worships was designed by A.P. Cutting of Worcester and constructed by Cutting and Bishop.

The structure is built of Southville red granite, with East Longmeadow sandstone trimming. The style is Richardsonian Romanesque; the tower is 110 feet. At the front of the church is the vestry, which originally functioned as a chapel. Above the vestry is a three-sided gallery which originally served as seating for the chapel and as Sunday School classrooms. Separating the vestry from the sanctuary are large, wide sliding glass and wood doors --- reputedly the largest in the Boston area.

The sanctuary was originally organized in the form of an amphitheater, in the egalitarian style of the day. In the 1940's, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the church building, the congregation remodeled the sanctuary, moving the pulpit to the short wall of the auditorium, creating a center-aisle nave. At the time a ceiling was dropped down, obscuring much of the stained glass that was once behind the altar. In the early 1990's, during the congregation's centennial celebration, the ceiling was removed and the glass exposed once again. (The most prominent stained glass window in the auditorium commemorates Miss Mary A. Reed, a step-daughter of George Bird.)

On the main floor of the building is the church's parlor, originally used by the Oxford Club, a student organization. Just off the sanctuary is a small room that now functions as a handicapped-accessible bathroom, but originally served as the pastor's study. In addition to the chapel gallery, the second floor of the building houses a second parlor that now serves as the church office and Sunday School classroom. Next to that is the small room that originally housed the Sunday School library.

The organ was built by George S. Hutchings of Boston and inaugurated in a concert in May, 1893. The sanctuary experienced a major renovation in the 1940's, as part of the 50th anniversary of the structure, and another renovation as part of the centennial celebration of the building.

Pastors

In the Methodist tradition, pastors are appointed to local churches by bishops, and not "called" by congregations, as is the norm in many Protestant churches. Since the uniting of the Harvard Street and Epworth congregations in 1941, 15 pastors have served Harvard-Epworth: