The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-03-18
BY Guy 7. Viskniskki.

Shortly after the close of the Civil wal
Baptist preacher. who wac then located
In q village In the northeastern part OF
Chemung county. New York found Il
necessary to drive to Horse Heads, also
In Chemung county. He took with him
his elder son, then about years old
Having finished tho business that called
him to Horse Heads he drove q few
miles further, TO Elmira. principally be-
cause he was anxious to SEQ tho church
there which had billiard table. a bowl
ing alley and some cooking apparatus in
Its basement These Innovations widely
heralded. had stirred up no end OF con
troNeTSy among laymen and clcrgymen
all through that portion of New York
Arrived at the church. man and boy
hitched the horse, found the church doors
locked, and had to content themselves
with an outside view OF the structure and
what gllmpses they could get of lte in
terior by peering In the basement win
dows. Then they regained their buggy.
and as they started off tho father CON
hced TO his son that he had thought long
over tho innovation at first had been de-
cidedly opposed TO such methods but now
was convinced that they were conceived
In wisdom
The, pastor of this then remarkable
church was the Rev Dr. Thomas K
Beecher. a half-brother OF Henry Ward
Beecher. II was he who had placed the
billiard table, the bowling alley and tho
coOElnR In the CnuTCn'S S base
ment, and he who. in the words OF Ly-
man Abbott built up an institutional
church before the institutional church
bad been heard Of. and it remains to this
day one of the best conceived In It's
equipment. of any of It's class"
The Original Institutional Church.
Singular as 1t may seem. the institu-
tional church was not heard of until
twenty-thrcc years after the visit of the
Bapist preacher and his son TO the Ell
mira Congregational church
In 1888 Berkeley temple. Boston, adopted
distinctively new methods OF work. Presl-
dent William j. Tucker of Dartmouth col
lege came To the temple to deliver an ad-
dress, and In the course OF 1t spoke of
the new work as institutional. There was
a bright reporter present, the definition
stuck In his mind. and the next morning,
when his paper appeared, IL was found
that he had called Berkeley temple an
institutional church" Thus, through an
unknown writer's faculty for catchy
phrase-maklng. Berkeley temple became
the original institutional church, So
called.
Berkeley temple, however simply
adapted to It's uses methods that had al
ready gained Il considerable vogue, not
without much opposition, however, in sew
eral cities. Under the Rev. Or. w 8.
Rainsford st. Georges, New York. had
in 1888 started institutional work, which
speedily proved to be the church's saliva
ton The year following the Judson Me
mortal. also Of New York, began similar
work. In 1856 the Tabernacle. Jersey City,
now famous for It's Peoples Palace. fell
into line; the next year the Pilgrim
church. Worcester, Mass, started the orig
inal Boys club. and by the time Berke-
ley temple was designated as an institu-
tional church, perhaps a score cf
churches throughout the country were
deep In institutional work, Trinity church.
Boston. in 1866 had founded an industrial
society which cut out clothing, to be
made by poor women; but this work. like
that at Elmira, was looked upon as spo-