Another moving scene.
In a former issue the Register alluded to ‘some unusual moving scenes,’ one, that of an old meeting-house through the town.
We are now
moved to note another, of historic interest:
More than a century ago a market-house resembling Faneuil Hall was built in
Boston, at corner of Washington and Boylston streets, and called by the latter name.
Its architect was the noted
Charles Bulfinch.
A two-storied steeple surmounted its roof: the first contained a one-dial clock, the second (open) a bell.
We are told this was not built at the market's first erection but a little later.
After about sixty years, to more fully utilize the valuable land, the structure was moved somewhat, and of course, the steeple with it. This was its
[p. 37] first moving experience, and in those days to move a brick building was considered a marvel.
In 1888 increased land value caused its demolition, but taking another journey across
Boston, the old steeple, clock and bell found a resting place on the
Van Nostrand brewery near Sullivan square, until the spring of 1921.
Then came its third removal, witnessed by people along the route through
Somerville and
Medford.
The way to
Arlington was along the ‘line of least resistance,’ longer but more level and also ‘crooked.’
Each story was carried separately by a six-horse team, crossing the river by Auburn street and
Usher bridges to the new edifice of Calvary church (Methodist Episcopal) on Massachusetts avenue. There by means of a big spar derrick it was reassembled upon the church tower.
This new structure, although of wood, in form and outline resembles
King's Chapel of
Boston.
The latter, erected before
Bulfinch's time, never had any surmounting turret or spire.
But it is said that
Bulfinch designed one for it, and also the colonnade around the tower which was later added thereto.
A colonnade is a feature of the new Calvary church.
At somebody's suggestion, the owners of the brewery, interested in its preservation, presented it to the church society, and according to the architect's plan it now forms a part of a pleasing and harmonious design.
It is said that a suitable tablet giving its history is to be placed on the new structure.
There should be one.
An ‘old saw’ reads something like this:
All things come to them that wait.
Arlington (centre) has waited long for a church,
i.e., meeting-house, of this particular denomination.
Fifty years ago its adherents made a beginning, holding services in the town hall, continuing such for six years. (The writer has distinct remembrance of preparing plans of a somewhat smaller structure than the present in 1875.) The effort was unsuccessful and the society disbanded two years later.
[p. 38]
Forty years later the effort was renewed and success made possible by a co-operation not existent in the older days.
Then ‘every tub had to stand on its own bottom,’ and in this case cited, the bottom insecure.
Today the ‘Methodist Centenary’ and ‘City Missionary and Church Extension Society’ are helpful factors not to be lightly esteemed.
Eight thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars is quite an assistance in a church building enterprise—we have the authorized figures before us.
Incidentally we note the recent material growth of the section where this church is located.
Beyond and below it, twenty years ago, was an area badly affected by malaria.
The building of Cradock dam across the
Mystic at
Medford changed all that, yet there are still those that grumble about the state tax.
The world moves, but it is uncommon for church steeples to do so three times as has this.
