Important Article to read: "Giving the full history: Who owned Absalom Jones?"

 

Giving the full history: Who owned Absalom Jones?

February 11, 2008

Timothy B. Safford

The Rev. Timothy Safford, rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia

Absalom Jones is one of the Episcopal Church's and our nation's most heroic founding fathers, and on February 13, we commemorate blessed Absalom, the first black priest and founder of the first black congregation in the Episcopal Church. Absalom Jones had been born into slavery in 1746 and achieved his own freedom in 1784. But, from whom?

I know it's awkward at this time of celebration to acknowledge the man who enslaved Absalom. But the 2006 General Convention mandated that the Episcopal Church give a "full, faithful and informed account of our history" with slavery. So, the time is right to remember that the man he called "master" for 38 years was Benjamin Wynkoop vestrymen, warden and benefactor of Christ Church and St. Peter's in Philadelphia, our Church's two historic congregations that helped give birth both to the nation and the Episcopal Church. May a fair accounting of Jones' and Wynkoop's history as slave and master provide Episcopalians today with the insight to overcome the legacies of a racist past infecting our society, and beloved Church, still.

Absalom was not given the last name of Jones when born on the plantation of Wynkoop's parents in Sussex, Delaware. At an early age, he was taken from the fields and came to work in the house. When Wynkoop chose to farm no longer, but to make his way as a merchant, he sold Absalom's mother and six siblings, and brought the 16-year-old Absalom as his slave to Philadelphia in 1762.

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, Wynkoop began attending the newly constructed St. Peter's, built when Christ Church had become fully subscribed; Christ Church and St. Peter's were one parish church in two congregations.

Wynkoop's business was successful, and how not? Absalom labored from dawn to dusk, he reported, often till midnight. Not only staffed by slave labor, the store sold the fruits of slave labor: "rum, molasses, coffee, chocolate, pepper, and other groceries." According to a biographer, Wynkoop was a "prompt contributor to worthy causes" through his gains reaped by the labor of others. A major donor in the parish, Wynkoop was elected to the common Vestry of Christ Church and St. Peter's in 1769.

According to Absalom's own autobiographical sketch, Wynkoop permitted him to attend a school for blacks, possibly one in Christ Church conducted by the Bray Associates (another history that needs a full accounting). Absalom married a slave, Mary, whose master was Wynkoop's neighbor and fellow parishioner at St. Peter's. Absalom took on the cause of Mary's freedom. With the skills learned in school, he wrote the case and raised the necessary money to purchase her freedom, which her master accepted. Absalom remained a slave.

When General Howe marched his British troops into Philadelphia in the autumn of 1777, Wynkoop temporarily fled. Absalom could have easily taken refuge with and received freedom from the British. But he stayed in the Wynkoop's store. Mary was now free, he had a family that he would not abandon, and a house he had built that he rented to free blacks, saving the money. "I made application to my master in 1778 to purchase my own freedom," he wrote, "but this was not granted."

"My desire for freedom increased," he wrote, because he feared that, while a slave, his house might be taken by Wynkoop. He made "many applications to [Wynkoop] for liberty to purchase my freedom," but Wynkoop wouldn't budge. Why couldn't Wynkoop breath the air of freedom rich and redolent in Philadelphia? Why did his Church, that had many abolitionists as members, remain silent? Those are the questions we are obligated to ask now.

On October 1, 1784, Absalom recounts with a charity surprising that Wynkoop, "generously gave me a manumission." Then, Absalom freely took the surname Jones, uniquely American and sounding nothing like the Dutch Wynkoop.

Within three years, Absalom Jones co-founded the Free African Society. In 1792, he led his congregation from St. George's Methodist Church and founded St. Thomas, which then in 1794 affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese, and the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas was born. But what of Benjamin Wynkoop? He becomes warden of Christ Church and St. Peter's during these formative years of the Episcopal Church, but little detail of his life remains. The most interesting detail is from Absalom Jones.

After his manumission, he writes, "I have ever since continued in [Wynkoop's] service at good wages, and I still find it my duty, both late and early, to be industrious to improve the little estate that a kind Providence has put in my hands."

I leave to historians the interpretation of the meaning or importance of Absalom Jones continuing to work for Benjamin Wynkoop, building a relationship of some warmth and forbearance such that Wynkoop's respect for Jones was quoted in Jones' obituary in 1818. But I challenge myself, and the tour guides at Christ Church who will tell Wynkoop's history of slaveholding this year to some 100,000 school children, not to jump to the conclusion of a happy ending to a slavery story in our beloved Episcopal Church. I hope that Jones and Wynkoop truly enjoyed the embrace of reconciliation, but take that possibility as a challenge today to reconcile our present Church with its own history with slavery. Might we be guided by the wisdom of theologian Miroslav Volf: "Remembering well is one key to redeeming the past; and the redemption of the past is itself nestled in the broader story of God's restoring of our broken world to wholeness -- a restoration that includes the past, present, and future."

Absalom Jones wrote that the motivation for founding the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas was "to encourage us to arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and throw off that servile fear, that the habit of oppression and bondage trained us up in." That same habit of oppression and bondage will continue to infect the Episcopal Church until we tell our complete history with slavery. I pray we, as a Church, arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and give an informed account of the slaveholders in our past, and not just the slaves.

   From "Hidden City Phila . org" 

The Unbuilt Vision For A Grand Cathedral Road

JUNE 5, 2014 | by Bradley Maule

 

Philadelphia … of the future | Map by Saarinen, Swansen and Associates, courtesy of Penn University Archives and Records Center

Sometimes Mother Nature’s resilience is insurmountable, in spite of humanity’s best efforts. Between Chestnut Hill and the Schuylkill River, the Wissahickon and Upper Roxborough, the northwestern corner of Philadelphia is also its most verdant, but 75 years worth of planning, including such high profile names as Paul Cret and Eero Saarinen, tried like the devil to turn it into something it would never become. Cathedral Road—a small part of which was developed between the Andorra Shopping Center and Wissahickon Valley Park—would have been its central artery, connecting Chestnut Hill and the Main Line across the estate of Henry Howard Houston.

Houston worked his way through the ranks of the Pennsylvania Railroad from an agent in its freight department to freight director after the Civil War to board of directors, which he served on for the last 15 years of his life. During those years, he also became the largest owner and developer of land in Northwest Philadelphia, and exercised his power to build a train line to conveniently serve his land holdings. What’s now SEPTA’s Chestnut Hill West Line opened in 1884; another line, unbuilt, would have crossed the Wissahickon into Roxborough via a spur at Tulpehocken Street—where Houston lived. A statue of him (and his dog) stand just off of Lincoln Drive at Harvey Street.

As far back as 1885, Houston and PRR President Alexander Cassatt lobbied for a connection between Chestnut Hill and the communities developing along the railroad’s Main Line (from which the famous suburban area takes its name). After Houston’s death in 1895, his son Samuel Frederic Houston became the main agent of the Houston Estate, and in that role acted extremely conservatively out of fear of lawsuits from other trustees and Houston heirs. One vision he made sure to maintain was the goal of connecting the tony locales via a new major boulevard.

1926: Paul Philippe Cret’s design for a Chestnut Hill-Bryn Mawr Road | Courtesy of the Penn Archives & Records Center; see it bigger HERE

Cret’s design for a new bridge across the Schuylkill somewhat recalls the circa-1918 Manayunk Bridge a couple miles downstream | Blueprint courtesy of Penn Archives & Records Center

In 1926, after years of support from several mayoral administrations but no implementation, the latest iteration for a Chestnut Hill-Bryn Mawr Road came from Paul Philippe Cret. Cret’s road would have started at Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore (where Suburban Square is now), followed Mill Creek Road in Lower Merion, crossed the Schuylkill River above Flat Rock Dam, ascended the hill into Roxborough through what is now the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, curved southeasterly east of Ridge Avenue, crossed Wissahickon Creek near Rex Avenue and the indian statue, then come into Chestnut Hill via Gravers Lane to Pastorius Park—which itself would become a traffic rotary connecting the new boulevard with extensions of Lincoln Drive and Bethlehem Pike. This plan was approved by City Council in 1927. But it wasn’t built.

In 1932, the Regional Planning Federation of the Philadelphia Tri-State District (a predecessor of sorts to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission) turned it into the Suburban Belt-line Parkway, bypassing Roxborough and Chestnut Hill for platting through Whitemarsh and Springfield Townships.

In 1935, as part of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission’s report of 1934-36, the boulevard, reworked again, was this time farther south, crossing the Schuylkill at Flat Rock Dam, paralleling Domino Lane through what is now the Roxborough tower farm, crossing through Wissahickon Park just below Valley Green. A new highway bridge would have gone directly over Devil’s Pool and split just above it—one branch of the road continuing up the Cresheim Valley to connect to the extant Cresheim Valley Drive, the other a spur connecting with Wissahickon Avenue at Allens Lane.

Love swimming and rock diving at Devil’s Pool? Enjoy this new highway | Image courtesy of Philadelphia City Planning Commission

Concurrent to all these grand plans for a cross-county highway, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania had its own big ambitions. In 1922, the Diocese purchased 100 acres of the Houston Estate at the corner of Ridge Avenue and Cathedral Road from Sam Houston, whose father Henry built the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (designed by former Frank Furness partner George Hewitt) in 1888.

Guided by the big dreams of the Diocese’s Bishop Rhinelander and a design from parishioner Frank Watson, ground was broken in 1932 for what would have been the largest Episcopal Cathedral in the world—one 1000′ long and with a 300′ tower holding twelve bells cast at England’s Whitechapel foundry (where the Liberty Bell was cast). Between the Great Depression and the Episcopal Church’s redirection of efforts to the Washington National Cathedral (the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, built from 1907-90), only the apse and a side chapel, donated by Sam Houston and his wife (who are both buried under the chapel) were actually built. The side chapel contains a stained glass window by Nicola D’Ascenzo and an altar made of stone from Israel. The Whitechapel bells still reside in storage in the chapel’s basement.

It really would have been a massive cathedral; what actually was built is circled in blue | Rendering courtesy of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

When the church defaulted on its mortgage, 34 acres forfeited back to the Houston Estate. In order to make better use of the land it retained, the church sold some of it off for private development, where the western end of Cathedral Road effectively dead ends into a suburban style development; it also began construction on Cathedral Village, the popular retirement community with over 400 residents which opened in 1979. A porte-cochère connects the Village with the church, with Boys in the Park, a sculpture by resident Charlotte Stokes greeting visitors at the entrance.

Click any photo here for a mini-gallery of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Cathedral Road:

* * *

Cathedral Road as grand boulevard, take 3; here, it runs from a traffic rotary where Henry and Ridge Avenues intersect (in red at left), across the Wissahickon and splitting in two at Chestnut Hill | Blueprint courtesy of Penn Archives & Records Center

As World War II raged across the Atlantic, the Houston Estate and Planning Commission were creating plans for the city after its end, including yet another effort to make Cathedral Road bridge the Wissahickon and bring Upper Roxborough and Chestnut Hill together. This time, the Houston Estate retained Eero Saarinen—not only for Cathedral Road, but for a community master plan of what is now Andorra, called Cathedral Hills in the plan. The plan was released to the Houston Estate in 1948, a year after Saarinen designed the Gateway Arch, the iconic landmark of St. Louis’ Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. His Hill College House opened at Penn in 1960.

TOMORROW, sort of. Cathedral Road still crosses the Wissahickon, but the Henry Avenue connection is different | Eero Saarinen plan, courtesy of Penn Archives & Records Center

Saarinen’s plan for Cathedral Hills, titled The Trustees of the Estate of Henry H. Houston Present Land for Large Scale Development in Suburban Philadelphia, was indeed prototypically postwar suburban, and not yet even into the Leave It to Beaver 1950s:

“Cathedral Hills has been designed for good urban living. The residential streets are narrow, quiet and safe for children. Through traffic is routed outside residential areas.

The shopping centers will be designed with efficiency and plenty of parking space. Unity of design made possible by single ownership and a calculable need—each center will serve 1000 families—will set a tone or character that is impossible in an unplanned development. The schools will be adjacent to the shopping centers, thus bringing the activities of mothers and children (the stay-at-homes of suburban life) into focus in one area. Homes are actually within easy walking distance of schools, stores, and transportation.

There are pleasant drives through the Estate land and the adjacent country. The completion of Cathedral Road and its bridge will make the McCallum Street-Lincoln Drive-Fairmount Park route to downtown Philadelphia readily accessible to Cathedral Hills commuters.”

Saarinen’s plan also included “interregional highways”: a “road to Harrisburg” along the Schuylkill River that eventually became the Schuylkill Expressway (independent of Saarinen), an expanded Henry Avenue, and a “Lafayette Parkway” that ran from Center City at Pennsylvania Avenue to 33rd Street and Ridge Avenue, up Midvale Avenue and then via Henry Avenue and into Lafayette Hill in Whitemarsh Township. His client, an aging Sam Houston, hoped to attract a large institution to relocate in the district, including Temple University and the United Nations, which briefly considered the location before John D. Rockfeller wrote a check for over $8M securing the New York site on the East River. Earlier, before selling the 100 acres to the Episcopal Church, Houston unsuccessfully lobbied the City to use his land for the Sesquicentennial, ultimately hosted in South Philadelphia.

Some of Saarinen’s Cathedral Hills plans came to fruition. In 1950, construction began on over 100 homes, and the Andorra Shopping Center opened the same decade. Cathedral Road was platted toward the Wissahickon as a tree-lined, four-lane boulevard with a landscaped median to Glenroy Road, where it ends abruptly and a trail continues down to Forbidden Drive—along the route of what would have been the largest bridge across Wissahickon Creek.

Left: what might have been; right: what is | Bridge rendering courtesy of Penn Archives & Records Center, photo by Bradley Maule

In 1951, a design for Saarinen was prepared by Philadelphia’s Richardson & Gordon engineers, who worked extensively with Cret’s successor firm Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson (now H2L2). In the bill to City Council proposing the bridge, its dimensions were presented side-by-side with those of the Walnut Lane Bridge:

Cathedral Road Bridge: 750’ long, 145’ high, 70’ wide (four very wide traffic lanes, sidewalks on either side)
Walnut Lane Bridge: 585’ long, 150’ high, 60’ wide (currently two wide traffic lanes with bike lanes and separated sidewalks on either side)

That the bridge went unbuilt proved unfortunate for one of the larger buyers into Saarinen’s plan for the Houston Estate: the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. On a tract of land east of Ridge Avenue opposite St. Mary’s, the Archdiocese made plans for a new, modern cathedral of its own, contingent upon the bridge’s completion—providing access to parishioners from Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy. In a letter to Houston Estate trustee James Gowen, Father Joseph Sullivan said, “if Cathedral Road is a dead-end street, we [will have] paid too much for the land.” Oops!

These members of Courtesy Stable, on the bend of Cathedral Road that would have led across the bridge, aren’t heartbroken it was never built | Photo: Bradley Maule

A final push to construct a bridge to relieve predictable congestion in Roxborough and at last provide Roxborough and Chestnut Hill a second option across the Wissahickon (after Bells Mill Road) developed in the mid-1950s. A revised plan did away with the large bridge and proposed a new, smaller bridge over Forbidden Drive and the Wissahickon Creek at Valley Green Inn. Via a new roadway that veered from Wises Mill Road on the Roxborough side parallel to and above Forbidden Drive, the low bridge connected to a widened Valley Green Road on the Chestnut Hill side. But this plan would have brought the widened road very close to Druim Moir, the giant home Henry Houston built for himself and his family. Finally, at the behest of Charles Woodward—son of George Woodward, the Chestnut Hill developer who married Houston’s daughter Gertrude—the plan died in 1959.

Currently along Valley Green Road: this wooden bridge carrying the Orange and White Trails would have been obliterated by a mid-50s plan for a bridge | Photo: Bradley Maule

One of this last bridge’s added benefits would be to finally remove motor vehicles from the small portion of Forbidden Drive between Wises Mill and Valley Green Roads. Then, as now, cars destined for Valley Green Inn could drive on Forbidden Drive so called for its prohibition of motor vehicles; here, the Valley Green Bridge carries the roadway of Valley Green Road over the Creek from Chestnut Hill. A locked gate on the western side of the bridge intends to prevent through traffic from crossing over. However, several keys evidently exist for the lock, as the gate is rarely locked these days, allowing access for through traffic. It’s a problem that will certainly see exacerbation by the closure of the Walnut Lane Bridge later this year for renovation.

But even if there is an uptick in technically illegal traffic across the Valley Green Bridge, it will be a far cry from the traffic that would have traveled on a cross-county Cathedral Road.

* * *

The author would like to thank Dave Schaaf at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Jim Duffin at the Penn University Archives & Records Center, and Wesley Parrott, organist at St. Mary’s Church, for their kind assistance.

TAGS:    ANDORRA BRIDGES CATHEDRAL ROAD CHESTNUT HILL EERO SAARINEN HENRY HOUSTON MAIN LINE NORTHWEST PHILADELPHIA PARKWAYS PAUL CRET PHILADELPHIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION ROXBOROUGH UPPER ROXBOROUGH WISSAHICKON VALLEY PARK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bradley Maule Bradley Maule is a former co-editor of the Hidden City Daily and the creator of Philly Skyline. He's a native of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and he's hung his hat in Shippensburg, Germantown, G-Ho, Fishtown, Portland (Oregon), Brewerytown, and now Mt. Airy. He just can't get into Twitter, but he's way into Instagram @mauleofamerica.

The History of St. Mary's-Cathedral Road

The origins of St. Mary’s Parish go back to plans for a Cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

that would rival those of Europe. In 1919 Bishop Rhinelander organized a Cathedral Foundation.

By 1921 his dreams for a great Cathedral were progressing and the Pro-Cathedral he established at

Broad and South Streets was closed — our large, jeweled cross set against the West Window

came from the Pro-Cathedral. In 1926, his successor, Bishop Garland, selected the present site

owned by Mrs. Samuel Houston which was roughly the geographic center for the Diocese.

The Diocese paid $502,000 to the Houston estate for 102 acres, but 34 acres were forfeited back

when the mortgage was in default at the time of the Great Depression.

On May 21, 1927 the first religious service was held on the cathedral property. In 1932 ground was broken

for an immense Cathedral with a three hundred foot gothic tower which would hold the eight bells

previously given as a memorial to William V. Lippincott and cast by Mears and Stainbank, Whitechapel,

England in 1896:  http://www.phillyringers.com/stmarys

The two ton tenor bell stands outside the present building; the others wait in storage.

A gift in memory of Mary Masden Vaughan, the towering structure that now dominates the grounds

was only the apse for the Chapel of St. Mary. The Holy Eucharist was first celebrated there on

All Saints’ Day, 1934. Pennsylvania’s Bishops Garland and Tait are buried in the crypt beneath

St. Mary’s Altar.

The small side chapel given by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Houston, who are buried beneath its floor,

was begun in 1938. The Chapel, dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels, boasts an outstanding

window by Philadelphia Stained Glass artisan, Nicola D’Ascenzo . The Altar is of stone from Israel.

At the bases of the arch ribs, sheaves of wheat and bunches of grapes are carved representing

the bread and wine in the Eucharist. The contemporary aumbry for the Reserved Sacrament is from

Belgium. Near St. Michael’s Chapel is an Altar with a Norman pillar, given in memory of Florence P Scull,

who with her husband, is buried beneath it. It is centrally supported by a 12th century stone column from

Lincoln Cathedral. The altar stone is from Bath, England and rests on Tennessee marble.

The D’Asccnzo window above shows St. Hugh, Lincoln’s 12th century monk bishop.

Although from the beginning services had been held regularly in St. Mary’s Chapel, with the Great

Depression and World War II, enthusiasm faded for finishing the Cathedral. The Chapter

(the Board of the Cathedral Church of Christ), the Bishops, and committees pondered building a

smaller Cathedral, converting the property to secular use or perhaps creating a retirement community.

A plan for offering the site for the United Nations was even considered. Then too, there was the

possibility of a ministry to the neighborhood.

To that end, the first resident priest, the Rev. James T. Berger, was appointed in 1955. During his tenure

the congregation grew and the Cathedral grounds were developed and maintained. As the congregation

increased, additional buildings were needed. Bishop Hart, using funds bequeathed by James and

Martha B. Hay, started the large Chapter House building in 1956.

The Rev. John D. Clark arrived in 1969. Establishing a retirement community greatly interested him.

He worked to form the community, named by him “Cathedral Village”, and to bring it into a supportive

partnership with the Diocese, the Cathedral Chapter, and the parishioners of St. Mary’s. Also under

Fr. Clark, St. Mary’s became an independent, incorporated Parish of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Thomas McLellan arrived in 1977, and served as St. Mary's third rector until 2015.

His tenure was marked by the renovation of the interior of the Nave, and the building of a new organ.

Opened in 1979, Cathedral Village is a community of over four hundred residents and three hundred

and sixty-five employees.

By 1987 St. Mary’s Parish had finally moved beyond the ambiguities of the past. Major building

renovations were completed under the supervision of J.S. Cornell & Son, builders. Later, the

stained glass windows above the altar were installed by artisan Charles Z. Lawrence using

hand-blown German glass. With its separation from the Cathedral Foundation, the Parish

confidently focused its mission and ministry toward its neighborhood and the new community

at Cathedral Village.

Our building still reflects its rather tortured beginnings. A former parishioner, Marjorie R. Maurer,

perhaps best captures the spirit of St. Mary’s today: “So, you have discovered that St. Mary’s

is an unfinished church. Those soaring arches and unfinished upper walls are awaiting completion

with timeless patience. The symbolism of the unfinished structure is a parable. The Church

is not yet finished either. The Church is as unfinished as is every human soul. We, the Church,

have not yet become all we are called to be. St. Mary’s is beautiful in its incompleteness.”

As the body of Christ, we, the Church, are called to serve, are called to bring to others the

reconciling love of Christ, and to heal the world. Our work is unfinished.

The Rev. James T. Berger 1955-1969, Rector

The Rev. John D Clark 1969-1977, Rector

The Rev. Thomas McClellan 1977-2015, Rector

The Rev. Timothy Steeves, 2015-2017, Priest in Charge

The Rev. Peter M. Carey, 2017 - present, Rector