wooden building, sixty feet long and forty feet wide, was began, which
was finished and dedicated in midsummer of the following year.
In the great South End fire, on the twentieth of April, 1787, and in
response to an imperative demand, a second, and larger wooden house, was
erected on the site of the first, and made ready for occupancy in the
course of the following year. This building was planned by Charles
Bulfinch, and in its architecture resembled St. Paul's Church, now
standing on Tremont street.
Within a year the Hollis Street Society has removed to an elegant new
edifice on the Back Bay, and the brick building they left behind must
now disappear in the march of improvement. It was erected in 1811, in
order to accommodate the prosperous and rapidly-growing society for whom
it stood as a place of worship. To make room for it, the wooden
meeting-house already referred to was taken down in sections and removed
to the town of Braintree.
The several clergymen who have been the honored pastors of Hollis Street
Church are worthy of mention in this connection. The first was Rev.
Mather Byles, a lineal descendant of John Cotton and Richard Mather, who
was ordained pastor, December 20, 1732. He was dismissed August 14,
1776, on account of his strong Tory proclivities. His immediate
successor was Rev. Ebenezer Wright, a young divine from Dedham and a
graduate of Harvard, who remained the pastor until the new meeting-house
was finished, in 1788, when he was dismissed at his own request, on
account of ill-health.
The next pastor was a man in middle life, who made himself an
acknowledged power among the Boston clergy, Rev. Samuel West, of
Needham. He died in 1808, and was succeeded by Rev. Horace Holley, from
Connecticut, who was installed in March, 1809, and remained till 1818.
Rev. John Pierpont, who resigned in 1845, made way for Rev. David
Fosdick, who preached there two years, when Rev. Starr King was settled
in 1845, and remained till 1861, Rev. George L. Chaney then took the
place till 1877, and was succeeded by Rev. H. Bernard Carpenter, the
present pastor.
* * * * *
ELIZABETH.[13]
A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS.
By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work."
CHAPTER XIII.--_Continued_.
Half an hour later Edmonson marched into his friend's room. His face was
flushed, and his eyes had a triumphant glitter. It was an expression
that heightened most t
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