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St. John’s Gloucester
the History as Reported in Local Newspapers
Compiled from contemporary newspaper accounts:
Gloucester Telegraph
Gloucester Telegraph & News Cape Ann Advertiser
Gloucester Daily Times
Gloucester Daily Times And Cape Ann Advertiser
Gloucester Daily News
Gloucester in the early 1860s was a town in transition. Magnolia Hall — a public lecture and entertainment venue — was struggling. Churches were closing their doors to public lectures, Town Hall was chaotic, and the city’s cultural life was fragmenting.
Into this vacuum stepped a small but growing Episcopal presence. Services were held in borrowed spaces, attendance grew, and Magnolia Hall — once a civic hall — became the de facto worship space.
This is the pre‑history of St. John’s: a parish forming before it had a name, a building, or legal status.
Who needed the ministry of this missionary church? From the late 1850s to 1914, at any one time there were 2,000 unattached fishermen living in Gloucester boarding houses between voyages. The majority were Anglicans from Nova Scotia and the other Maritime Provinces. There was also a large contingent of Scandinavian Lutherans. They flocked to communion as often as possible, preparing themselves spiritually for the rigors of the North Atlantic fisheries. The young rectors–and there were seven between 1863 and 1892–ministered to them as best they could and petitioned the diocese to set up a real mission on the waterfront.
In 1891, this mission became a reality when the Fishermen’s Institute was founded, endowed, and given a suitable building by members of the summer colony. It was not just Episcopalian, but all the established members of St. John’s helped out.
VIDEO HISTORY: Part 3, The Reverend Mister Cooper
Part 3, “The Reverend Mister Cooper” covers the period between 1908 and 1936, when Joseph H. C. Cooper was minister. World War 1, the 1918 flu pandemic and the Great Depression are discussed with an emphasis on the interesting and dedicated parishioners from this time. Among these were John Hays Hammond Sr. and his son the inventor John Hays Hammond Jr., the actor Leslie Buswell (who with A. Piatt Andrew began the American Field Service in World War I) and Ben Pine, a fisherman from Newfoundland who was integral to the schooner racing competition with the Canadians. St. John’s parishioners Bill Chapin and Sereda Feener tell depression era stories. A refreshed version of Part 3 with many enhancements was posted on March 13, 2020.
Gloucester had been a summer destination since the 1870s, but the really rich Episcopalians began to build sumptuous houses and attend St. John’s beginning in the 1890s. The most generous of these was John Hays Hammond, mining engineer, who gave both the parish house and the rectory. At the same time, the hordes of unattached dorymen disappeared with the invention of a reliable marine engine and World War I. Many thousands of men from the Maritimes were choosing not to go back, but settle in Gloucester, marry and raise families. These families became the core of the parish. They did not forget their roots, but supported the unfortunate fishing families, particularly through the Grenfell Mission and the Newfoundland Society. The most famous parishioners among them were Captain Ben Pine and Howard Blackburn.
During the 1920s, the parish prospered with the rest of the country, then ran into problems during the Depression, and World War II, but throughout kept the faith alive and the services and education programs going. With the post-war prosperity, St. John’s sprang to life again.
In recent years, the parish has moved from identifying itself with the Canadian Maritimes and with the summer people, and has attracted a new group of devoted parishioners. Fewer in number, St. John’s is moving ahead proudly in its one hundred and forty-ninth year. It is particularly distinguished by its music and art programs and the imaginative forms of its liturgical practices. True to its roots, it participates in a bewildering number of social service outreach programs.
St John’s has long had a relationship with St. Mary’s Church in neighboring Rockport. Beginning in 1872, sporadic services were conducted by the rectors of St. John’s. In 1886, this was regularized and the parish, dependent upon a diocesan subsidy, was put under the spiritual supervision of St. John’s. On February 5, 1960, it was formally incorporated as an independent parish.
Mary Rhinelander McCarl, Parish Historian
VIDEO HISTORY: Part 4, The War Years
Part 4: “The War Years” covers the decade from 1936 to 1946. The 75th Anniversary of the parish, the run up to World War II, and the war years are covered. Parishioners interviewed in 2015 tell personal stories of their involvement during this time. You’ll hear an eyewitness account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the experience of being at the helm of a Destroyer Escort during a horrific storm in the North Atlantic and other interesting stories of how the church and the parishioners dealt with this tragic time. As always, the soon to be booming fishing industry continued to be a source of tragedy and loss for the people of Cape Ann.
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