The evening world., 1888-09-08
LET SAINT JOHNS REMAIN.
80 TIE OLD CHAPEL AND ITS AssOolA.
TlONs SILENTLY PLEAD.
The Church Has seen Eight Decades Of Use.
fhiness aud IL Not Through Yot-somc-
what Crowded by the City's Business, IL
still Gives Kindly Aid TO Rarth's Way
farers-A Glance About It.

what Crowded by the City's Business, IL
stnl Gives Kindly Aid 10 Rarth's Way
farers-A Glance About It.
Old st. Johns Chapel, in varick street,
above Beach, will continue to stand. in all
probability. after its eight decades of exist
ence, though the inroads Of business have
somewhat impaired its usefulness as q
church. At least. the incumbents of st.
Johns were ignorant of any design looking TO
the demolition of the stately old landmark.
=" have seen it in the papers. but officially
l know nothing about the proposed demoli-
ton of st, Johns" said Rev. Philip A. II.
Browne, the present rector of the church, to
an EVENING WORLD reporter.
1t would almost be vandalism to lay low
the dignifed old edifce, which is the third
bantling of old Trinity. and was consecrated
by Bishop Moore in 1907. Additionally.
st. Johns Chapel, as it is modestly styled,
can, in one or two features. hold its W
with anything in New York, even to-day /;
and at the time Of its erection 1t must have
seemed magnificent. The features of the ma
terial church are the -four massive Corinthian
columns of brown stone, which are before
the entrance to the building. They are beau
tifully proportloned and compare favorably
with any architectural detail of the kind in
the CITY.
st. Johns has undergone alterations and
improvements three times, the principal
change being an enlargement of the chancel
about seventeen years ago. The organ and
choir were brought forward to the chancel
then. But in its exterior the old edifice looks
as it looked to the pari hioners of half a
century ago, when st. Johu's Park spread
before it, and the neighborhood was a quiet
residential quarter, free from the hustle and
turmoil of worldly interests.
Now, where the park was, stands the huge
depot of the New York Central Railroad.
The freight cars are still checked "St. Johns
Park when they are destined for their
term nus, the furthest possible remove from
anything savoring of q park.
Tit ornate iron work and pretentiouf
newels of some of the houses in the neigh.
borhood of the church show the quality OF
old-time gentry who used to come of a Sun.
day and sit in the pews of the chapel to sleer
decorously under the PASTORS dominica
homily.
The congregation still furnishes from 81,
to eight hundred communicates, though itt
field OF labor is confessedly that of missior
guilds directed to the spiritual. and physical
sucoor of humanity. There is the Sunday.
school, the Industrial School, the Parish
School, the Dorcas Society, the st. Johns
I poIlCtNt tbo VI St. Oohh thC ENhhSC-
list, the Guild of the Iron Gross. the Altal
Society, the Leake Dole of Bread, which
dispenses weekly loaves to poor women; the
st. Cecilia Society: ana the work of the Sis
terhood of St. Mary, which is subdivided
into a Mothers Aid Society, the Guild of the
Holy Faith. of the Holy Childhood, and the
general mission work Of the parish.
All these batteries of beneficenoe are under
the general command of the two pastors, the
Rev. William II. Cooke, who was appointed
rector in 1867, and his assistant, Rev. Philip
A. H. Browne, who was appointed to the
chapel in 1874.
Rev. Mr.. Cookies predecessor in the in.
cumbency of st. Johns pulpit was Rev. Johr
f. Young, who served the church from 1851
to 1869, under Rev. Sullivan 81. Weston, WHIT
was the rector of the old church for forty
years from 1S47 to 1887, his death occurring
year ago the coming October.
Before him Jonathan Mayhem Wainwright
d. D., q Trinity pastor connected with st.
Johns, served the needs of the church til
1854, when he died. A. simple memoria
tablet of DR.. Wainwright, a plain white
marble slab, is let into the wall at ther 1gh'
of the chancel.
The interior of the chapel is not as ~satisfac
tory as the exterior, with its imposing portiet
of Corinthian columns and its towering spire
A gallery rum around the church anG
Corinthian columns support this. They arr
surmounted by hideous square continuation
set upon upon their capitals, which mus
give a twinge of agony to every soul with
sense of architectural propriety.
The frescoing is done in light colors, thu
dominant notes being a pale sea green and
light pink. Colors more unecclesiastica
could hardly be devised.
The altar stands in a semicircular curve