Walter Burley Griffin, Beverly, Chicago, (and More!)

So here’s a question:

If you are an architecture fan, and you have a few hours extra to spare while in Chicago, where will you go?

That is not an easy question to answer. Chicago is perhaps the foremost city in the world for great architecture. For a lot of different reasons. One can see the entire development of the skyscraper, simply by walking around the Loop.  I encourage you to do that if you have the opportunity. 

Or go directly west to the first suburb after the city limits, Oak Park, and you can bask in a collection of buildings from the prime era of the Prairie School movement, and even tour inside several buildings that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Walk about, or press your nose to the glass of your vehicle, as you drive past many others. It’s sort of the architectural version of DisneyWorld. All quite beautiful, and a bit overwhelming.  

Or, just a smidgen to the west, is the sister suburb of River Forest, where you can see more of the same. And I should say in addition to the architecture that came out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, you can also see wonderful work by many of his contemporaries. Some of them worked with him for a time--such as Isabel Roberts (who was in fact an architect), William Drummond, and John Van Bergen. Others did not.

If you want to see the most innovative school of the mid 20th century, then you want to see the New Trier High School.

You could do an all Joseph Lyman Silsbee tour of the city, or an all Mies van der Rohe tour, or an all Louis Sullivan tour, and barely scratch the surface.  Don't forget about beloved Uncle Dan Burnham...

If you want to see one of the first planned suburbs with meandering streets anywhere in the world, then you want to go out to Riverside, where you will enjoy works by a number of notable architects, all residential. Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park in New York City was the genius behind Riverside.  It is still a suburb in great demand, more than 125 years later.

If you’re thinking that this is about a week's worth of architectural sightseeing (and you haven’t quite got started yet), you are correct.

In the midst of all of that Chicago Architectural Wonderland is a little street that sometimes gets overlooked. People say to themselves, "We don’t have time to go there and do that and see that and so forth". I understand that. Over the course of many years of visiting in Chicago, I never got there. Until a trip to Chicago that had absolutely nothing to do with architecture provided me with a few extra hours to do as I pleased. In Beverly is a cluster of homes designed by Walter Burley Griffin, one of the architects working with Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, who contributed to the development of prairie style architecture.

There’s a street in Beverly that is like a miniature Oak Park with many a home designed by Walter Burley Griffin, in full collaboration with with his wife Marion Mahony Griffin, also an "alumni" of the Oak Park studio. 

The photos that I made that day, are without question, the highlight of my visit to Chicago four years ago. 

Quite apart from the reason for going to Chicago, I spent a very pleasant several hours strolling past these various Walter Burley Griffin designed houses. And photographing them from the public sidewalk, which I always encourage people to do when they go to see architecturally significant homes, because most of the homes are still private residences and lived in by people who, though they may be very appreciative and take good care of them, are not actually thrilled to have people tripping across their lawn, peeking in their windows, coming up on the porch, and so forth. Trust me, you don’t want to do this. Even if you think to yourself, "Well other people have surely done it." Let me say again: Don’t.

The impression that one gets when visiting these Walter Burley Griffin homes is that they are modest. They are definitely middle class homes, anything but pretentious. So they would not appeal to people who are impressed by vast square footage and a superabundance of dubious glitz. They sit comfortably on their lots, but they don’t announce themselves dramatically. If one were to drive down the street knowing nothing whatsoever about architecture, one might notice there’s something different in their style from other homes that one sees, but there is nothing that would make one's chin drop open and say, "Wow look at that place!"

As I say, the houses are mostly modest. They whisper or hum; they do not shout.  

They’re mostly stucco. And they tend to have dark brown wood trim. Those who have studied prairie style architecture will say they are firmly in the genre of similar homes, such as the Willits or the DeRhodes or the Ziegler, or ever-so-many other houses in the Midwest that are part of the Oak Park studio's output. 

That’s no surprise. Because Walter Burley Griffin had a lot to do with developing that style.

Walter Burley Griffin was a valuable and hard-working member of the Oak Park studio staff. He eventually had a falling out with Wright over not being paid. It’s funny about employees, but they do like to be paid for their work.

People who are cavalier about money, and Frank Lloyd Wright is the top of the list in that regard, sometimes get their feathers ruffled when someone who has worked hard for them has their hand out and says, "You owe me three months back salary", or something similar.  Funny, that.

So, the association with Wright ended. Griffin was out on his own designing buildings, quite successfully, with the able collaboration of Marion Mahony Griffin, an architect in her own right, and Walter’s wife. 

In Beverly, this cluster houses is part of the result.

People who are slavishly devoted to the point of blindness to Frank Lloyd Wright will point to these little houses in Beverly (if they bother at all), and say, "Look how Walter borrowed from Frank in order to create these houses."  Well, please take a deep breath. Because the reality is the opposite.  Many of the stylistic elements that one thinks of as quintessential Prairie Style were developed by Walter Burley Griffin while working for Frank Lloyd Wright.

What happened next?  After Walter designed these lovely little houses, he won a prestigious international competition, that many architects entered, to design the new capital city of Australia, Canberra.

The result of winning that competition was that he was engage to make it into reality. Which meant leaving the United States and going to Australia.  There, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin are justifiably remembered and honored as extremely gifted architects. As national treasures. The lake at Canberra is named in their honor.  I don't know of a body of water in Washington DC named for Mr. Wright, do you?

Meanwhile back in United States, Frank Lloyd Wright was struggling to recover from the damage that he inflicted upon himself by running off to Europe with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and the resultant loss of business. Wright's world was egocentric in the extreme.  The day was good if it was good for him, and it was bad if it was bad for him. The world of architecture was good if people were showering him with praise. And if they didn’t bother to praise him, he praised himself, long and loud, as he was won't to do.

But Wright did not stop at praising himself. He continued by putting down other people who had ever work for him.  If they went on to their own successes, they fell afoul of him.  

Wright was extremely jealous of Walter's success. It came just at a time when Wrights architectural career was on the skids. Wright never got over his bad habit of trying to erase others'  accomplishments. He did with the other Oak Park era folks as well. To his discredit. He, and the world, would’ve been better served had he said in effect , "Look at what a wonderful judge of talent I am, to have found these people and brought them into my studio, and let their talent shine as they worked for me."

But Wright wasn’t that kind of a guy was he?

I’ll go on, below, to talk about each of these houses individually.  But I do also want to say that a happy sidelight of this happy side trip was that there was a gentleman moving a car out of his driveway and onto the street as I was quietly sauntering past looking at one of the houses and taking as subtle a photograph as I could, so as not to be intrusive. He noticed me, invited me into his Walter Burley Griffin home, gave me a tour, and told me about the many years of living in his home. He introduced me to his wife, who may or may not have been somewhat surprised to see a stranger in her home...

Do you hear that? Someone in Chicago who was a stranger and who wasn’t expecting me, invited me into their home. Showed me around. Made me feel welcome.

Which reminds me of Matthew 25:35:

"I was a stranger - and you invited me into your home."

How does St. Paul put it in Romans 12:13?  Oh yes:

"Always be eager to practice hospitality."

BUT NOW, ON TO THE HOUSES...!

The story of how Griffin came to Beverly is an interesting part of local history.

The land that includes what is now Griffin Place was part of a “gentleman’s farm” owned by Samuel J. Wells, a meat packing company buyer.

Wells was born in 1858 in Birmingham, England, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1872. There are several mentions, in 1877 and 1883, of patents being granted to a Samuel J. Wells of Chicago, if that is the same man. The patents were for a hair loop to help with braiding hair, and a trunk fastener.

Wells’ older brother, Thomas, owned a large amount of stock in the Continental Packing Co., where Wells worked as a buyer. In 1908, Wells opened his own company as a commissioned buyer of hogs.

His wife was Helen Nash, and the 1900 U.S. Census listed the Wells Family living at 10407 S. Wood St. Their original house still stands, although it has been significantly altered and the address changed due to city renumbering. The 1910 U.S. Census listed Wells as a “squab raiser.” Those young domestic pigeons were a culinary delicacy.

In 1909, Wells’ daughter, Helen, became engaged to Russell L. Blount, manager of the real estate department for a bank. By that time, Wells was interested in developing his Beverly land for housing, and he gave the couple a lot on which to build.

Frank Lloyd Wright had built several homes in Beverly, including the Evans House on Longwood Drive, introducing the area to this innovative new Prairie style. It’s possible that Blount was actually interested in hiring Wright, but a visit to Wright’s studio led him to meet another architect working there, Griffin.

He designed a house for Blount, and during construction, Edmund C. Garrity, a plumbing contractor made Blount a substantial offer for the property; so, Blount sold him the “wedding” house. Thus, in 1909, the first Griffin home, the Edmund C. Garrity House, was built at 1712 W. 104th Pl. The cost was $4,000.

Spurred by the need for a home of his own and encouraged by the sale of the first house, Blount decided to become a developer and secured more plans from Griffin. Several more houses were built, and then in 1912, Griffin won a prestigious international competition to—literally—design Canberra, the capital city of Australia.

Griffin moved to Australia, where he remained until another commissioned project took him to India in 1935, where he died unexpectedly a few years later.

After Griffin left, Blount continued to build houses based on Griffin’s designs - three based on the Van Nostrand House (Williams, Hornbaker, and Clarke), and one based on the Salmon House (Furneaux) - and later worked with other architects. 

Blount also continued to work in banking, and he was an officer with the Commonwealth Trust and Savings Bank, which was a successful bank of its time.

Blount and Wells started up several construction companies in the area, including the Longwood Hills Construction Co. and the Tracy Ridge Company. One of the original Griffin homes was actually built for Wells, but Wells never lived in the house and rented it instead to Walter D. Salmon, for whom the house is named. Salmon later bought the house.

Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending for either of the men who brought Griffin to Beverly.

On Aug. 14, 1915, Wells, 56, and his son Raymond, 22, were killed when their automobile was demolished by a train near Aurora. It was not clear how the accident occurred. They were out for an afternoon of sightseeing, and Wells was considered an excellent driver. But, who was actually driving the car at the time and why the auto was on the tracks remains a mystery.

On Nov. 16, 1933, Blount, 57, was shot in the chest at his home, 1740 W. 104th Pl., and died three days later in the hospital.

At the time, he owned a mortgage brokerage and was the manager of a currency exchange. Three men came to his home in an apparent kidnapping attempt, intending to take him to the currency exchange to force him to open the safe. He drove them off with a tear gas gun shaped like a fountain pen, but Blount was shot in the process.

Blount’s next-door neighbor, Walter Salmon, was also the vice president of Blount’s mortgage concern. Salmon reported that Blount had been held up several years prior at his office. He also reported that the kidnappers would have found no money at the currency exchange, as it had all been taken to the bank via armored truck earlier in the day.

At the coroner’s jury, Blount’s son, Lauren, reported that his father feared kidnappers the week before. The jury returned a verdict that Blount was killed by persons unknown.

Beverly’s Griffin homes were all but forgotten for decades until a 1973 article in The Prairie School Review brought them back to the public’s attention. The article praised Blount for his courage and vision in promoting early modern architecture.

The Harry G. Van Nostrand House

1666 W Walter Burley Griffin Place

1911

This is a small house that was built as a speculative rental property.  Harry G. Van Nostrand was the first renter.  The exterior shows the typical stucco and dark wood construction popularized by the Prairie Style.  The geometric design in the front gable over the screened porch is a recognizable motif used by Griffin often, to create interest without adding cost.  The house plan is compact.  The long-time owners utilized the screened porch as a fair weather living room. The floor plan is a smaller version of the Garrity House, below.

The Edmund C. Garrity House

1712 West 104th Place

1909

The Garrity House - also  known as "The Wedding House" - was the first of the Walter Burley Griffin houses to be built in Beverly.  It was originally intended to be the home of Russell and Helen Blount, as noted above.  However, it was sold to Mr. Garrity before they ever there.  Originally the home was finished in the  usual light color stucco with dark brown wood banding. Over the years, it has had modifications to the color scheme.  The photo shows it in its 2017 livery.

This pink and blue fantasy is probably not what the Griffins had in mind when they designed the house, but no matter, it brings a bit of whimsy and more than a taste of the islands to often-dreary Chicago.  The home sold in recent years and has undergone an exterior color scheme change since I took the photo in my famous visit to Chicago in 2017.  Certain elements of the home suggest that Marion had a great deal to do with this particular design.  The window fretwork especially.  The protecting cantilevered pergola at the center of the front facade is also a stylistic device Marion used elsewhere. And that Wright would later "borrow" on houses such as Fallingwater. 

 

About the client / first resident: Edmund C. Garrity was born in Illinois in 1880. By 1940 he lived at 8011 Maryland Avenue in Chicago.  Edmund C. Garrity died in Chicago on December 3, 1950.  His obituary states the following:

Mr. Garrity was born near Chatsworth, a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. M. Garrity. He went to Chicago as a young man and has continued to make that city his home since and gained prominence in the Chicago business world as the owner and operator of the National Plumbing and Heating Company. He was associated in the business with his three sons, who now carry on.  He is survived by his wife Mary Jane, and four sons, Edmond, Jr., Donald E. and John J. Garrity; two brothers James, of Pontiac and Leo F. Garrity, of Chicago and two sisters, Mrs. Margaret O'Brien and Mother Una. His final resting place is the St. Mary's Cemetery in Chatsworth.

By the way, uninformed writers tend to sometimes call Walter a landscape architect (yes, he did landscape designs and well as houses and other buildings), and they sometimes get further mixed up and attribute this to Marion or call her a "delineator" (which she was in addition to being an architect, and quite talented in that regard).  Please, people, give them their due.  There's certainly every reason to be proud to be a landscape architect or a delineator  Even so, in the Griffins' case, both were architects.  Read all about both of them on their Wikipedia entries.

The Russel L Blount I House

1724 W Griffin Place

1909

The Prairie School movement made a concentrated effort to create inexpensive homes. Or perhaps better stated, affordable homes.  If you see a genuine Prairie School such as the Blount I, you will note that it is essentially a cube (which more or less flies the the face of Wright's "breaking out of the box" concept.  This is one of many Prairie School houses, whether architect-designed or kit houses from Chicagoland, that makes use of the economical and compact use of materials.  Inside, it has a plan that is semi-open and revolves around the central fireplace.  in that and in other respects, it is part of the family of houses  based on the $5000 "Ladies Home Journal" house (see my previous post, and see the Blount I plan, below). As with most of the Beverly houses, this one displays the use of stucco and dark wood. 

The Harry F. Newland House

1737 W. Griffin Place

1912

The Newland house is particularly pleasing with its use of wood for the first floor and stucco for the portion of the second floor from the windowsills upward.  This provides a visual grounding for the house, and ties the window design together upstairs, as if the windows were more numerous and grouped together, as is often the case in Prairie School houses.  Obviously, this arrangement of paired windows is simpler to achieve and permits a greater flexibility in plan, in a smaller house.  To avoid looking boxy, the house has the front projecting one story gabled wing, In this case, it was probably an open porch, later enclosed somewhat effectively.  Many of the Prairie School houses had this exact same remodeling feature at some point along the way, so that the owners had full use or what would otherwise be a May to September space in the Windy City.  This house was begun by Griffin and completed by Spencer and Powers, who were also noted Prairie School architects of the era, and who are usual listed as the architects of record for this house.

Harry F. Newland was born in England in 1866.  He married Gladys Perryer.  Their son Harry Montague Newland was born in 1889.  

The Arthur G Jenkinson and William N Clarke Houses

The Blount I House

Blount I House - First Floor Plan

The William N Clarke House

1731 W Griffin Place

1913

The Clarke House is a variation on the Van Nostrand House which is hard to guess, because it is shifted on the lot 90 degrees, and has lost its porch.  Even so, the Clarke House may be the purest statement of Griffin's aesthetic in this cluster of houses, as it follows precise geometry and its spare use of wood banding dramatically emphasizes the overhanging gable.  The wood banding that follows the slope of the roof gable has the visual effect of diminishing the perceived height of the house, and therefore tying it more artistically to the ground - a way of emphasizing the horizontal line of the prairie.  Observers often mention that this house seems the most Asian inspired of the group, and they would not be incorrect.  The corner windows do a good deal to help the house break out of the box, especially from the inside looking out.  Somewhat unusual for many of the Prairie School houses, the grouped windows here in the gable, and elsewhere on Walter Burley Griffin Place, are of an even number.  So often Wright used group windows, but almost without exception, there were an odd number of them (5 rather than 4, for example).  The Jenkinson House (below) is another instance of Griffin's freedom to use the more static even number of grouped windows than odd. 

The Arthur G. Jenkinson House

1727 W Griffin Place

1912

Perhaps the best feature of this house is the interplay between the tall "shoulders" of the corners and the downward flare of the centered window design.  Imagine both of them gone, and a  unified exterior of wood or brick, and suddenly the house becomes much more conventional in nature.  The dark wood board and batten cladding has the horizontal line that Prairie School architects so consistantly  strived for.  The banding (one could almost say it is half-timbering) is bold and pleasing.  As with the neighboring Clarke House, the sedan floor banding follows the line of the gable, and for the same reason, to visually tie the house to the ground.  For another view of the house see the next photo.

Arthur G. Jenkinson was born August 18, 1885 in Michigan.  He was the son of a Presbyterian minister.  Arthur died on February 1, 1974. His final resting place is Mount Auburn Cemetery in Harvard, Illinois.  He was married to Hester T. Guild Jenkinson (1891-1957).  She was a talented vocalist and sang in many local concerts.  On June 19, 1913, she and Arthur were married.

When Hester Thompson Guild was born on 1 October 1891, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States, her father, William Wyckoff Guild, was 43 and her mother, Adella Marie Thompson, was 34. 

Hester was born to real estate agent W. William Guild and his wife Adell, and grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was active in both church and high school activities including writing for the school magazine and participating in oratory contests. She was a talented vocalist and sang at many local concerts. On June 19, 1913, she married Arthur Gilbert Jenkinson, the son of the Presbyterian minister. Arthur worked as a carpenter and builder. Hester and Arthur are known to have lived in Tracy, Chicago; Maine Township, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana. Hester T. Jenkinson passed away July 31, 1957 at about 65 years of age. Arthur G. Jenkinson passed away in February, 1974, at about 89 years of age.

She married Arthur G Jenkinson on 19 June 1913, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States. She lived in Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1930 and Park Ridge, Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1940. She died on 31 July 1957, at the age of 65, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Harvard, McHenry, Illinois, United States. 

Hester Jenkinson at age 22 can be seen here:

Hester Jenkinson

More about Arthur's step-father here:

Rev. Henry S. Jenkinson, who was pastor of the Arlington Heights Presbyterian church from 1913 to 1925, died Saturday at his home 1669 W. 104th place, Chicago. Funeral services were held Tuesday with interment in Mount Hope cemetery. Among the pallbearers were Henry F. Muller and Burton Noyes of Arlington Heights.
The deceased was one of the oldest members of the Chicago Presbytery. He was ordained in Canada in 1881, came to Chicago in 1891, serving as Presbyterian pastor at South Chicago, Seventh church, Scotch Westminster, West Pullman, and Arlington Heights. He retired from the ministry and moved to the family home in Beverly when he resigned from the Arlington church in 1925.
Rev. Jenkinson was born Oct. 9, 1856 in Sheltenham, Gloustershire, England, coming to America in 1869. Mrs. Jenkinson died 13 years ago. He is survived by his two daughters, Edith and Jennie, and a son, Arthur G. of Park Ridge. - August 3, 1945

The Jenkinson House

In the view from the sidewalk, the house takes on a symmetrical aspect that is almost ecclesiastical in nature.  Before the projecting porch was enclosed, the blend between outdoors and indoors wold have been less rigid, visually.  This is another iteration of the $5000 house type, but so deftly done, the house seems anything but boxy.  This might be a  good place to mention that the front door to the house is not located in a place that is obvious.  It is hidden, from casual passers-by on the sidewalk, and this is on purpose.  It is also quite unlike 99 percent of the builder houses or houses designed by architects not of the Prairie School.  The interest in providing privacy as well as an indoor-outdoor connection prompted the positioning of the main entry in a subtle location, so that one "discovered" it as one approached the house, and such a discovery, it is assumed, was done by those who were invited, or friends of the owner.  The resultant sense of mystery and charm is one of the delightful hallmarks of Prairie School design.  

William R. Hornbaker House

1710 W 104th Street

1914

This is a little gem of a Prairie School house and is a variation of the Clarke House.  If you think it is veering toward the Tudor-esque you are not alone.  Aspects of the house suggest that aesthetic, but even so, the familiar Griffin motif of the wood following the line of the gable is present here.  Tudor homes would never have used such a design detail.  See as well that the windows, while grouped as is expected in a Prairie School house, are even in number, not odd in number.  A Griffin "give away".  I doubt the second floor window box was part of the original design but it is inoffensive, and in fact has some connection to the planting boxes used in the various versions of the $5000 houses.

William Russell Hornbaker, 1870 - 1933
William Russell Hornbaker was born on month day 1870, at Yountsville, Indiana, to Albert T Hornbaker and Susan Elvira Hornbaker (born Price) . Albert was born on October 6 1846, in Ripley, Montgomery, Indiana, USA. Susan was born on June 22 1847, in Cass County, Indiana, USA. William had one sister: Sarah Price Hornbaker . William married Mary D Hornbaker (born Rogers) in 1893, in Illinois. Mary was born on July 1864, in New York, USA. They had one son: Albert Rogers Hornbaker . William then married Esther R Hornbaker (born Perry) in 1916, at age 46 in Illinois. Esther was born on November 5 1871, in Clifton, Iroquois, Illinois, USA. William passed away in 1933, at age 63 in Florida.

Ida E. Wiliams House

1632 W 104th Street

1913

This is the sister of the Van Nostrand House shown first on the list. So it is pleasant to compare them.  Both have L shaped plans thanks to the offset front porch.  This one is enclosed, and may have been from the get-go.  The fenestration certainly looks authentic.  Note the clever use of the angles in the central portion of the windows there.  Other similarities include the horizontal wood banding, to make the house look longer rather than taller.  Just like when a person wears horizontal or vertical stripes.  It is subtle but effective in both houses. 

A collage of the Walter Burley Griffin Place Houses

Have a look at the following, which is the 1973 Prairie School Review article by Paul E. Sprague that reignited the interest in these houses after many years of obscurity:

1973 Prairie School Review, Paul E. Sprague

Copyright © 2021, John A. Dalles.  All rights reserved.

Magnifying the Lord

 

MAGNIFYING THE LORD

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Psalm 126; Luke 1:46b-55

 

Mary sang…

46 “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Mary – the girl from Nazareth.  What do we know about Nazareth?  It was a small town.  Not much more than a village, really.  About 350 people, living in about 35 homes, spread over about six acres. It stood on its own small hill, 500 feet above the secluded valley. A little north of the great plain. The houses were actually cut into the cliffs. Modest houses, they stood upon the narrow knolls, and steep slopes. The limestone hillsides were like Swiss cheese; caves perforated them. Some of the houses were built over the caves, with the caves serving as the main dwelling—or as storage areas.  Mary’s parents’ home was one of these.  The town looked peaceful.  But there were plenty of troubles.  The name of their town suggested how troubled the times were.  Nazareth.  Some said it meant:  “Send us a Helper!”  Other said, “No it means ‘Send us the Victorious One!’”  But the older inhabitants took it to mean:  “Be careful!” or “Keep a Sharp Lookout!”

 

Whether it was a cry for help, or a caution to be watchful, or both, the town was like the eye of a hurricane.  A deceptive calm was there.  A storm was brewing all around them.  Nazareth was anything but tranquil, in those days.  They lived in an occupied country, where it was hard to say what was worse.  The soldiers who were billeted right there in the village. Or the traitorous neighbors, who spied on everyone and made life miserable.  Or the members of the village council, who cared less for those in need than they did for maintaining the status quo.

 

In another age, would she have looked all around, wondering where the voice might have come from. Trembling, when the Angel of the Lord appeared? If she had lived in a different age, would she have been so filled with grace?  Would Mary have been ready? Ready for the greatest gift of God, soon to be freely given to her?  If she had lived in a different age, would she have heard the news that came to her?  If she had lived in a more skeptical age, or a more enlightened age,

Or a more modern, or even post-modern age, would she have listened to the words of her relative Elizabeth:  “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

 

But Mary did not live in a different age. A young woman of her time, she responded out of the realities of her era.  And she sang a song that magnified the Lord.

 

Professor Rolf Jacobson of Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minn. says:

The Magnificat is “The kind of song that has been sung by countless people of faith through the ages in resistance, in defiance of empires, slavers, terrorists, invaders, and the like.” Out of such things, came a song of wonder and praise.  Out of such things, came news that stirred her to joy and hopefulness.  For what the angel proclaimed stood in direct contrast to all that was cheap and tawdry, all that was cold and cruel, all that the people had suffered.  Magnify the lord with me.  An invitation to us all to take a closer look, a very close look indeed, at who the lord is and what the Lord is doing. Right now.

 

“50 His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation”.

 

 

Mary’s song is a way to fend off what is bad, and focus on what is good.

To reject the things that would limit life, and embrace what will make life whole.

Mary is looking to the joyous arrival of Jesus. And so are we. Mary is sure that because of Jesus, the world is going to be made better.  People who have been forgotten will find a place of honor and thanksgiving.  Places that have moldered in decay will be restored.  Purposes that have been abandoned because they seemed too hard to accomplish, will come to fruition and be the source of blessing, because of Christ the Lord.  Mary speaks as if it has happened already, even before the birth of the child at Christmas.    This is an expression of pure trust and deep faith that can’t be stopped.  She knows he is coming.  It is inevitable that he will.  When he does, his mercy will prevail.  The proud and haughty will be case down.  The hungry will be filled with good things.  And his people will live into his everlasting promise.

 

          You have seen, (and I have as well), many statements and signs of late, saying how glad people will be to be done with 2020.  There is a lot of truth in that.  We are hoping that as we move ahead in time, that God our savior will look with favor on all of his servants, and that blessings will abound.  Can you permit yourself to look at this moment in your life the way Mary looked at her’s?  Can you look with a trust and assurance that is unshakable?  Can you see that because of Jesus, God is even now making things new, and right? 

 

We wish we had Mary’s original tune as well as her words.  Even though we do not, we are keenly aware that her song enlarges our understanding of God.  The fact is, the Magnificat boosts us out of discouragement. It enhances our appreciation of the Almighty.  It maximizes our awareness of God’s mighty deeds.  Our commitment increases as we hear Mary’s words.  Our hope extends.  Our vision expands. Our love is amplified.  Our thankfulness is intensified.  Our senses are heightened.  Our devotion is deepened.  Our belief is broadened.  Our wonder is widened.  Mary’s song moves from being a solo, to being an anthem, sung by Christians in every time and place.  We take up Mary’s song and sing along, in praise and blessing, in worship and adoration.  With Mary, we magnify and extol the Lord.

 

Why is it that you can still sing something you sang as a child?  That you have not sung since.  But given a chance, you know all the words by heart.  Songs are powerful.  Songs find a way into hearts that are otherwise closed.  Songs lodge in the mind like a welcome guest.  Songs become the theme of our day or our life.

Songs persist in our memory.  Even the most prosaic of songs do this.  And Mary’s song is among the most profound.  Mary’s song is about a future vision of the restoration of all humanity.  A song about the fulfilment of God’s intentions.  A song about the advent of wholeness which God has promised to the whole human family.

 

According to the church calendar, the third Sunday of Advent. Is joy Sunday, from the Latin word Gaudete ("Rejoice").  This is a day for us to stop and recognize the joy God brings into our lives, by the arrival of the king of heaven and earth.  It is as John Wesley has said:

 

"And she rejoiced in hope of salvation through faith in him, which is a blessing common to all true believers…”

 

Magnify the Lord.  Whatever your darkness, whatever your despair.

Let Mary’s song provide light and hope for you in the midst of your life this season. AMEN.

Worship With Us at Shadyside Presbyterian Church

What might you find, if you came to worship at Shadyside Presbyterian Church for the first time?

We have a hint of that in this very short video.  Please take a moment to watch it, and to consider coming to join us in worship on Sunday morning at 11 a.m.  We will be glad you are here.

Worship and World Communion Sunday - Origins of World Communion Sunday

Worship and World Communion Sunday

By John A. Dalles

Origins

It gleams like a polished jewel in the center of a compass, in the ivory-marble floor of the church’s Chancel.  It is a part of the history of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, a brass tablet which quietly reminds all who pause to read it:

World Wide Communion Sunday

Was originated in

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

By Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr

In 1933

               Each year on the first Sunday in October, faithful Christians in every land gather to unite at Christ’s table.  How fitting it is to note that we celebrate what began 64 years ago in “The Great Lantern” (the name the congregation has given t heir imposing Richardsonian Romanesque Sanctuary).  In the Depression days of 1933, with the storm clouds of Nazism and fascism hovering over Europe, it was a startling notion that sisters and brothers in Christ might transcend geographic, political, and theological barriers at the Lord’s Table.  Even today, the concept may seem like a distant, idealistic dream.  Yet the quest to eliminate walls separating Christ’s flock was not new to the people of what was and remains a benchmark Presbyterian congregation.  Their Senior Pastor, Dr. Kerr, was a pioneer in expanding tht Gospel in every sense of the word.

               Dr. Kerr’s illustrious Shadyside pastorate began in 1913 and lasted until 1945.  He was frequently the orator at academic and public functions.  When Lindbergh came to Pittsburgh, it was Dr. Kerr whose address welcomed him at a great banquet held by the city.  Any congregation with a radio or television ministry owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Kerr, who rightly understood that the world’s first radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh, could be the vehicle to utilize the achievements of technology for the glory of God.  The church’s worship services were the first anywhere to be broadcast by radio.  The first radio message broadcast to the Arctic was from Shadyside on Christmas Sunday evening 1922, as was the first church service broadcast to Little America, on Easter Sunday morning, 1929.  Dr. Kerr wrote 20 books, including A God Centered Faith, The Christian Sacraments, and Preaching int eh Early Church, as well as material for A Year with the Bible, a daily Bible guide which circulated for 50 years.  Dr. Kerr was also the author of the noble hymn text “God of Our Life, Through All the Circling Years”, written for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Shadyside in 1916.

               What happened that first World Wide Communion Sunday?  What hymns were sung?  What scripture was heard?  The Rev. Dr. F. Moran Roberts, immediate past Senior Pastor of Shadyside, recalls that on three occasions he searched the vast church archives for an original bulletin that might answer these questions.  All three times, it managed to elude him.  “Yet.” Says, “Davitt S. Bell (the late Clerk of Session and church historian who in1930 accompanies Dr. Kerr in his travels as Moderator of the General Assembly) was a credible witness who said that Dr. Kerr conceived this notion during his moderatorial year.”  Dr. Kerr’s younger son, the Rev. Dr. Donald Craig Kerr, pastor emeritus of the Roland Park Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, MD, who was 16 in 1933, recalls that World Wide Communion Sunday grew out of the Division of Stewardship of the church, in an attempt to bring churches together in a service of unity where everyone would receive both inspiration and information and, above all, know how important the church was, and how each church was tied to the other.  When asked how the idea spread from that first service to the world acceptance of today, he said, “The concept spread very slowly at the start.  People did not give it a whole lot of thought.  It was perhaps during the Second World War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together.  World Wide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together in a spiritual sense.  It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

               The compass design in the Chancel in which the commemorative plaque rests (crated during extensive renovations in 1937), is an unusual ecclesiastical symbol which speaks of the growing significance of World Communion in that ear.  The Hymnal of 1933 was new that first World Wide Communion Sunday, and offered worship planners a fine selection of hymns as: “In Christ There is No East or West,” “Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life,” “Jesus Shall Reign Where’re the Sun”, “Christ for the World We Sing,” “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”, “From Ocean Unto Ocean”, as well as these words of Christian unity in John W. Chadwick’s hymn, penned in 1864, but as stirring today:

“Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round

Of circling planets singing on their way,

Guide of the nations form the night profound

Into the glory of the perfect day:

Rule in our hearts, that we may ever be

Guided and strengthened and upheld by Thee.

We are of Thee the children of Thy love

Our brother is Thy well-beloved Son;

Descend, O Holy Spirit, like a dove

Into our hearts, that we may be as one;

As one with Thee, to whom we ever tend;

As one with Him, our Savior and our Friend.

We would be one in hatred of all wrong,

One in our love of all things sweet and fair,

One with the joy that breaketh into song,

One with the grief that trembles into prayer,

One in power that makes thy children free,

To follow truth and thus to follow Thee” (alt. JAD)

(The article, reprinted by permission, continues with mention of innovations regarding World Communion Sunday at the time of its writing, 1997)

Afterword: Today at Shadyside Presbyterian Church, on World Communion Sunday, the pastors wear pectoral discs that repeat the words of the brass tablet in the Chancel floor.   In 2018, Shadyside Presbyterian Church’s associate pastor John Magnuson again searched the church archives in hope of finding early records of the observation of World Wide Communion there.  He was rewarded with a bulletin from World Wide Communion Sunday on October 1 1939.  The sermon was titled "The Amazing Significance of a World Wide Communion Service."  Rev. Kerr's hymn “God of Our Life” was the opening hymn.

Please note, there had been a link that is now broken, to this article.  I am citing the link here, in the hope that people will find this post when they search for the article:

https://www.wekivapresbyterian.org/articles/presbyterian_origins.htm