Portsmouth church honoring its founder's wishes

St. Mary’s Church raising funds for first major renovation of 170-year-old chapel

By Jim McGaw
Posted 5/12/18

PORTSMOUTH — During a worship service last fall, The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick preached in character in hopes of convincing parishioners that St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, located at 324 …

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Portsmouth church honoring its founder's wishes

St. Mary’s Church raising funds for first major renovation of 170-year-old chapel

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — During a worship service last fall, The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick preached in character in hopes of convincing parishioners that St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, located at 324 East Main Road, needed a major physical overhaul.

The sermon started as normal, but then she left the room briefly and returned as Sarah Gibbs, who funded and led the construction of the original chapel nearly 170 years ago.

“I preached as Sarah Gibbs because I wanted people to look at the building and see how long in the tooth it was getting,” said Rev. Pedrick, the church rector. “I said, ‘I gave this with all these good intentions, and it’s time to do something.’”

The church community came on board, she said, and now a three-phase $750,000 capital campaign has begun to restore the chapel to its original glory. 

The project, said Rev. Pedrick and church vestry member Peter Collins, would make Ms. Gibbs proud.

The never-married daughter of a Newport mercantile, Ms. Gibbs lived in Oakland Farms estate — long before it turned into condos — and wanted to see an Episcopal church built close by. The congregation started worshiping in a shed before she got Richard Upjohn, the famous church architect who designed Trinity Church in New York City, on board to draw up plans for a new chapel. She also left 100 acres of land to the church, which is now owned by a trust. 

“This chapel was started in the mid-1840s and finished in 1849,” said Rev. Pedrick. “Her desire when she left the land and this building is that it always be a church or seminary. Education was really important to her, and reaching out to this area of Portsmouth was very important to her.”

Patchwork improvements to the chapel’s interior have been made over the years, such as in 2001 when it was cleaned, painted and new carpeting and wiring were installed.

“But that’s not the same. This is a slate roof, with copper detailing, and that has never been redone,” Rev. Pedrick said. “We haven’t found any time when it was really given a top-to-bottom overhaul.”

“It’s an incredible structure,” added Mr. Collins, “but it needs attention, and that’s why we’re going through this whole restoration process. We’ve known for a few years that this bigger overhaul was needed.”

Phase one — done

Phase one of the project — making the chapel “inhabitable and a comfortable environment for everyone,” he said — is already complete. Last fall, not long after the sermon by “Sarah Gibbs,” the church decided it had to replace its faulty boiler. 

“The community was really amazing,” said Rev. Pedrick. “We needed about $46,000 to do that, and in less than six weeks we raised that money. Then we had another issue, which was moisture — no surprise to us. We had to close the church and then we decided we had to just dig in and do this.” The chapel closed in late November and reopened in late March after the basement was gutted and made watertight. 

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the church will focus on phases two (the building’s exterior) and three (the interior worship area). The single most expensive item will be replacing the original slate roof.

“It’s over $300,000 to do just that alone,” Mr. Collins said. “The slate roof is going to be the number-one priority. We need to get it restored and replaced entirely, and get it watertight. Some of these more recent weather events have been challenging.”

Rev. Pedrick said some people have asked why the church doesn’t go with asphalt shingling, since it would be so much cheaper. “But I think the leaders here are thinking that this is a gift for generations to come, and we want to preserve this piece of history. When you look around, it’s really a gem. We’re trying to get people onto our property and experience all this,” she said.

There’s a lot happening at the church, which recently changed its mission to be a community of Christian worship, well-being and service, with a particular focus on children, youth and their families. The church property is home to the Sea Rose Montessori School Co-Op, runs programs on dance, health and well-being, has a community garden and a strong partnership with local Scouting troops as well as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport.

“This building has been a tremendous gift to us and we’re trying to share it more and more to the community. We have a lot of activity here but we want this to remain a historic church,” she said.

Phase three

When you walk inside the church, you may not notice any glaring problems since the interior was recently cleaned. On closer inspection, however, you’ll find water damage, some chipping and paint peeling away in spots. In addition to cosmetic repairs, the project could possibly restore parts of the interior to how it originally appeared in the 1800s. 

“One of the things our preservationists were showing us is that a lot of architectural details may have been plastered right over,” Rev. Pedrick said. “We want to make this as beautiful as it can possibly be and if there are original details that have been covered over by age and convenience — Yankee ingenuity and thriftiness — I think we would want to explore that further.”

She pointed to a colorful mosaic floor, which she believes is original. “There are so many gorgeous things, but they need some TLC and brought back to life,” she said. “Since the mid-1800s, layer after layer of paint has gone on and people may have changed this and that — maybe changed some of the historic finishings. Given what this was intended to look like by the architect and given that we live in this century and maybe we worship a little differently, how do we be true to the history of this place?”

Special place

When asked what she loves most about the chapel, Rev. Pedrick first mentions the historic stained glass windows, some of which are originals designed by John La Farge (1835-1910) and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 -1933) and restored several years ago. She pointed to one over the altar.

“At the 8 o’clock service, the light is so intense that some (parishioners) put their sunglasses on,” she said, adding that she can see the churchyard and beyond through another window on the north wall.

For Mr. Collins, the church is simply a place for him to come “and sort of make sense of everything that’s going on in the world,” he said.

Interestingly enough, Rev. Pedrick said, “There’s not one thing inside here that remembers Sarah Gibbs herself.” 

That could change with the restoration, however, as Ms. Gibbs is the main reason why the congregation exists, she said.

“Sure, this is a bricks-and-mortar project, but I think it’s really spiritual work,” Rev. Pedrick said. “This has been entrusted to us — not just this building but all of it — and those of us who have been called to lead here need to do our very best and offer it the community. We want to offer this so down the road people will look back and say, ‘Isn’t that a beautiful place?’”

St. Mary's Episcopal Church

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.