About Church History
St. Margaret of Scotland, for whom we are named, was canonized as a Saint because of her concern for and ministry to the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, and the sick. She built many schools and hospitals, and spent time each day listening to the needs of her people in the outer court of the castle where she reigned as Queen with her husband, King Malcolm. The entire history of this parish has continued the witness of our Saint. During the tenure of each of the rectors of St. Margaret’s, the expression of our call to love God and to serve our neighbor has taken different forms of ministry, but it has always been faithful to St. Margaret’s commitment to be Christ’s witness to the world.
Early Maps
The map on the left was produced by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1891, and clearly places the developed edge of Washington, DC at Boundary Avenue. The map on the right was drawn by the Rand McNally Co. in 1901, by which time Connecticut Avenue had been extended and the definition of Boundary Avenue was no longer a limit for the expansion of the Nation's Capital.
A New Church Is Born
A portrait of the Reverend Richard Lewis Howell, first rector of St. Margaret's from 1895 to 1899
In 1894, the year St. Margaret’s was founded, the area surrounding the church was an affluent suburb with wide open spaces. Dairy cows grazed in pastures within sight of the church. What is now Florida Avenue was then Boundary Street which defined the northern limits of the city of Washington, DC. The families who lived in the Victorian homes on the hill along Connecticut Avenue and Columbia Road recognized their need for a church in the neighborhood and came together to found St. Margaret’s. The first services were held in a basement room in a home in the neighborhood. At which time four families joined together to form the nexus of a new faith community; the Tutles, Truesdells, Weimers, and Fishers met in the Truesdell home on 11 April 1892 to plan for the design and consecration of a new church and to raise funds for its construction.
A site was selected at the corner of Connecticut and Bancroft and six lots were purchased for the grand sum of $47,500. The small chapel, running east and west was completed in 1895, with the front steps on the Bancroft Place side. The altar was placed in the west end where the present “Sower” window is located. The first rector, The Reverend Richard Lewis Howell, was called and served until February 1, 1899, when his reason for resigning was communicated as due: “to the continued ill health of my wife and of myself, which in our mutual love for St. Margaret’s we feel should no longer be permitted to stand in the way of its prosperity.”
This image shows the church as it appeared in a cold and snowy winter in 1895. Hardly recognizable from it's modern iteration; the photographer was no doubt standing in a cow pasture to take this image! A far cry from the neighborhood in which we find ourselves today; a neighborhood of immense and wonderful diversity!
The Beginning of the 20th Century
The Rev. Herbert Scott Smith was called to be the second rector on March 17, 1899 and arrived on April 1, 1899. His salary was $100.00 per month! By 1900, the congregation had grown to the point of needing a larger building. As a result, it was proposed that the structure be shifted to a north/south axis, so that the two ends of the original structure would become the transcepts for the redesigned church. The cost of this extension was to be capped at $2,500. The new configuration of the building with all of its construction was completed in 1904. By 1909, at least one of the three Tiffany windows was place, with the others to follow soon there after.
By 1913, St. Margaret's was feeling growing pains and the available space was deemed insufficient for the needs of the ministry and mission of the parish. It was the Rector's Aid Society, an organization for the women of the church, that proposed to the Vestry the idea of purchasing the Bingham property that was directly adjacent to the sanctuary north on Connecticut Avenue for the addition of a much needed parish hall. And while the vestry was all male, it is interesting to note that the initiative of the women played such a forward looking role in the young parish's development. To punctuate their serious intentions, the RAS also pledge $1000.00 annually to the construction and out-fitting of the hoped for parish hall.
A bulletin from the Rev. Herbert Scott Smith years from circa 1915 stating the parish services and hours and displaying a photograph of the church in the early years of the 20th century. Perhaps most significant to our present ethos is the slogan at the bottom, "ALL WELCOME ALWAYS." It's a blessing to know that we continue to uphold this simple promise nearly one hundred years later.
An Era Ends
The Rev. Herbert Scott Smith served St. Margaret's for forty-one years. He brought our young parish a great deal of respectibility. A highlight of his ministry was no doubt his officiating at the wedding of President Woodrow Wilson to his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt in 1915. His tenure steered the parish through its hope-filled beginnings to a present that witnessed St. Margaret's as an established, growing, and positive presence in its community within the District of Columbia. In his letter of resignation dated February 8, 1940, he wrote: "St. Margaret's will always have my affectionate regard and earnest prayers for her future prosperity." Saying good-bye to the Reverend Smith gave most of the members of the parish an experience of transistion that they had never known before. And yet far from anxious, the leadership faced the future with hope and resolve.
Perhaps no single fact testifies to this than the action of the vestry in regards to the role of women in the life of the parish taken on May 6, 1940. At that meeting a resolution was passed expressing the earnest prayers of the vestry that the Diocese of Washington would "....give to the women of St. Margaret's the same right to vote and to hold office as is now conferred upon men...." This statement placed St. Margaret's squarely in the vanguard of the movement for gender equality; the Diocese would take a decade before such a simple act of justice as permitting a woman to serve on a parish's vestry would be permitted. (And it would be Lydia Todd, the wife of Richard Todd, who would make parish history by being our first female member of the vestry in 1950.)
Rounding out 1940, the Reverend Armand T. Eyler was called to serve as rector on September 13. The Rev. Eyler would serve the parish through 1947, during the years of World War II and immediately thereafter. The war years were years that saw the parish open its doors to provide shelter and food for the thousands of servicemen in transition through the nation's capital.
The Marshall Years
The Reverend Malcolm Marshall posing with a newly married couple around 1965.
The Reverend Malcolm Marshall was called to be the fourth rector of St. Margaret's in 1948, and thus began a service to the parish that would last for the next thirty years. The Rev. Marshall's tenure at St. Margaret's encompassed a time of unparalleled growth and transition for the neighborhood. Homes and rowhouses were replaced by office buildings, new high rise apartments, and a modern Hilton Hotel. Socially, the civil rights movement was changing the face of America and the neighborhoods around the church were leading the way; becoming the bastions of ethnic, economic, cultural and sexual diversity that they are today. Throughout each and every turn and challenge, the Reverend Marshall lead the parish with grace and wisdom into new acts of service and witness to those around it. In time, the parish would spend half of it's resources on ministries of outreach, spending in the Rev. Marshall's own words, "....about fifty cents for others, for every dollar spent within the parish." One ministry in particular grew out of the Rev. Marshall's vision for those around St. Margaret's, that of engaging the youth of the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, "...teenagers, supposedly 'toughs'" whose welfare and spiritual guidance became one of the many outreach foci of the Marshall years. The retirement of the Rev. Marshall in 1979 presented St. Margaret's with another difficult challenge: how to replace a beloved and cherished priest. And again, the task was pursued with hope and faith.
As an aside, in 1992, the church honored the memory of the Reverend Malcolm Marshall with the installation and dedication of our newest Stained Glass window over the door of the narthex. The Reverend Marshall was deceased by then, but his widow attended the dedication and assured everyone that Malcolm would be most honored by the beautiful gift in honor of his life and service at St. Margaret's.
The Reverend Stephen Arpee at a church picnic circa 1980.Years of Transition
The Rev. Stephen T. Arpee was called in 1979. The Rev. Arpee came to St. Margaret's after beginning his call to ministry in the nation of Iran. St. Margaret's was the Rev. Arpee's first appointment in the United States, and as such, his time with us was a time of much adjustment and growth for both parish and rector. Under his leadership the Education for Ministry program from the University of the South was introduced, and a rich and important tradition in the education of St. Margaret's adults was begun, and continues on today. In 1984, the Rev. Arpee offered his resignation to the vestry of St. Margaret's.
For the next two years the parish was served by an interim priest while it reflected on the many lessons learned through both the retirement of the Rev. Marshall, and the ministry of the Rev. Arpee. These years were an opportunity to not only reflect upon and learn from the past, but also a chance to recast our vision, renew our mission, and look to the future with a sense of conviction and hope.
Living into Our Vision of Justice
Our public bulletin board announces our joy at the calling of the first female rector in a D. C. parish in the Diocese of Washington.
The people of St. Margaret's have always been open to the power of God's grace which sees and knows and calls each of us to realize our fullest potential as human beings created in God's very image, regardless of any discriminating factor. And so it should come as no surprise that after a time of reflection, St. Margaret's would once again lead the way by calling the first female rector in a District of Columbia parish in the Diocese of Washington. On March 1, 1987, The Reverend Dr. Vienna Cobb Anderson was called to be the sixth rector of our parish. The Rev. Dr. Anderson's calling was a testimony to St. Margaret's commitment to face the challenges and changes which the future of the Episcopal Church was struggling to embrace.
The Rev. Dr. Anderson brought with her a tremendous energy and flare for the theatrical in worship and liturgy. During her time with us the parish increased significantly in membership and as a result the ministries of outreach also increased. Within the parish's liturgical life, the celebration of the Eucharist became a part of both Sunday morning services, and the participation of the laity was broadened and increased. A healing service was added to the monthly calendar of worship services--a tradition that has continued and increased to two services per month. And most significantly, the voice of justice from the pulpit took on a new authority, which led to the membership of the parish becoming far more diverse as it grew. It was as if the mantra of the then Presiding Bishop Edward Browning found a home in which to flourish: "No Outcasts" and ALL were welcome.
In the spring of 1995, the Rev. Dr. Anderson announced her retirement to the chagrin and surprise of everyone. Though well deserved, her retirement presented St. Margaret's with it's next challenge--how would the parish continue its desire to be in the vanguard of expressing Christ's unconditional love and justice in the world? The process would involve a period of reflection, and this period would be helped along by the service of an interim priest. The Reverend Gene Sutton would lead St. Margaret's while the vestry and search committee sought God's will. In this we were most blessed to grow in the love and service of our first African-American priest. The Rev. Sutton helped us to prepare for a new ministry by actively challenging us to reconsider all aspects of our parish life and ministry.
Life With Reverend Blue
Susan N. Blue comes aboard
Our time of searching ending in the summer of 1997, when the vestry called the Rev. Susan N. Blue to be our seventh rector. Her first Sunday was St. Margaret's Days in mid-November of that year. Susan came to us from a parish in the diocese of New Jersey, and her call was the result of an exhaustive, extensive search. The efforts of which have been amply rewarded by her ministry to us.
With her leadership and guidance, St. Margaret's has continued to grow in both its membership and attendance. A key aspect of her approach to minisry is transparency. Together, with this mantra, we have tackled potentially "thorny" issues and experiences with honesty and grace. She has continued to foster our call to diversity. In particular, the growth of our ministry to couples and children has increased without exacting a cost on any of the constituencies that had already been an important presence in the life of our parish.
At present, we are decerning our possible call to a capital fund campaign which, if undertaken, might result in a series of even more significant positive changes to our parish. In addition to this, Susan's own ministry is calling us to new levels of corporate ministry in the area of reconcilliation. Today we find ourselves in the wonderful position of being a blessed parish with a generous and caring priest.
For more information about church archives please contact Helen Chapin Metz at 202.244.2923.