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July 20, 2007

St. Paul’s opens doors, vaults to the public

Nick Pinto

NEWBURYPORT — The Yankee Homecoming festival has always been an opportunity for the city to cast an eye at its legacy. This year, members of the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will add another layer to the mix with a series of tours revealing the church’s own history of nearly 300 years.

“People drive by this church every day, or attend services Sunday, without knowing the wealth of history or the stories of the people who lived through historic times that shape our present lives and community,” said Bronson de Stadler, a member of St. Paul’s congregation who is helping organize the tours.

The congregation of St. Paul’s came into being in 1711, in a little wooden chapel near the current location of the Port Plaza shopping complex. This makes St. Paul’s the second-oldest congregation in Newburyport, after the First Parish Church. Even the Old South Church is more than 30 years younger.

At the request of colonists in the new Anglican congregation, a chaplain was dispatched from England to minister there. As the area’s merchant population grew, the congregation relocated to its current location on High Street, and the original building fell into disrepair and collapsed. But the weathervane from that original church, nearly 300 years old, is on display near the church entrance.

Another historic artifact at St. Paul’s is the bell that sits nearby. Though cracked and no longer suitable for ringing, the bell is one of only 23 surviving bells made by famous patriot Paul Revere. Better known as a silversmith, Revere and his sons shifted their focus to casting bells in a North End foundry when the post-revolutionary economy put silver out of reach for most Americans.

One of the most compelling figures in the history of St. Paul’s was the Rev. Edward Bass, who served as rector of the church from 1753 to 1803. Bass had to tread a difficult line during the Revolution, as the leader of a Church of England congregation in open rebellion against the king who headed their church. Indeed, most Anglican churches in Massachusetts closed their doors during the Revolution, with only St. Paul’s and Trinity Church in Boston staying open throughout.

Bass’ commitment to keeping the church open was not well-regarded in England, however. The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the organization which oversaw Anglican churches in the American colonies, cut off Bass’ salary and charged him with collaborating with the “rebels.”

As the Rrevolution reached a boiling point, St. Paul’s was swept up in the new patriotic sentiments. The Declaration of Independence was read aloud from the pulpit, and at the urging of the leading members of the church, Bass altered his prayers and services, using his quill to strike out any reference to King George III or the royal family.

After the revolution, Bass was elected Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and eventually New Hampshire. He continued to serve as the rector of St. Paul’s, however, making it the first bishop’s church in Massachusetts.

Bass wasn’t the only new American associated with St. Paul’s to reach national prominence. Tristram Dalton, who attended the church and is buried in its graveyard, was elected as a Massachusetts senator in the first congress. Dalton was friends with George Washington, entertaining him at his Newburyport home, attending his presidential inauguration and ultimately squandering his fortune on Washington’s advice to invest in real estate in the nation’s new capital.

The church has suffered its setbacks — the communion silver given to the congregation by King George III was stolen, Revere’s bell cracked, and in 1921, the 1800 wooden church building burned. But the congregation soon rebuilt on the same site, using a design by William Graves Perry, the architect behind the recreation and restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.

“There’s just a lot here,” said Patsy Brown, the parish historian. “These are the people who created Newbury and Newburyport. The history of the church is also the history of the city. People are going to come away from this tour saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’”

Historic tours of St. Paul’s Church will be held from noon to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 29. Tours will last about 50 minutes and will start in front of the church at 166 High St. on the half-hour. For more information, visit www.stpauls-nbpt.org.



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