St. Peter's Timeline

1682 Philadelphia settled by English under William Penn

1695 Christ Church organized as a condition of the Royal Charter

1744 Present Christ Church completed at 2d and Market Streets

March 1753 Dr. Robert Jenney, rector of Christ Church, tells vestry he has been approached by residents of southern end of city about building a church there.

August 1754 The proprietors are petitioned for a donation of a lot at Third and Pine as a site for the church.

Sept. 21, 1758 Cornerstone laid for the church.

Sept. 4, 1761 First service at St. Peter’s

January 1762 The Rev. Robert Jenney, rector of the two churches, dies

1762 The Rev. Richard Peters becomes rector, serving until 1775

March 1763 Church building completed, except for the pulpit and the chancel

1764 Pulpit, reading desk and chancel rail completed

1764 The church’s first organ, built by the German Philip Feyring, is installed in the north end of the church.

1765 Churches receive incorporation charter from Proprietors (St. James, Seventh and Market Streets, added in 1809, became separate in 1828).

1771 Dr. Peters announces debt for building of St. Peter’s is paid.

1772 Christ Church Hospital is founded as an almshouse for poor and distressed women.

1774 The Rev. Jacob Duche, assistant rector, named chaplain of the Continental Congress; reappointed in 1775 and 1776.

1775 Revolutionary War begins at Lexington and Concord in April.

September 1775 Dr. Peters resigns; dies July 1776.

September 1775 Dr. Duche becomes third rector of St. Peter’s

July 1776 Dr. Duche strikes prayers for the royal family from liturgy

September 1777 to April 1778 British occupy Philadelphia; Duche restores prayers to the King but is arrested for his patriot sympathies; upon release, writes to Washington at Valley Forge, urging him to surrender. Bells from wooden cupola removed to Allentown for safe keeping.

December 1777 Wooden fence surrounding St. Peter’s was burned by British for firewood.

April 1778 British evacuate; Duche flees to England for 12-year exile.

April 1778 Dr. Thomas Coombe temporarily in charge of parishes; he, too, chooses exile in England

April 1779 Dr. William White becomes fourth rector, serves until his death in 1836.

1781 Revolutionary War ends; Anglican Church in America has been decimated by exile of Loyalist members and looked on with suspicion by most patriots.

1782 A choir of 12 men and women begins singing at services.

1784 Present wall surrounding St. Peter’s is constructed, with stone balls on gate brought from England.

1784 Samuel Seabury of Connecticut consecrated first US bishop in Scotland .

1785 First General Convention of the Church in Philadelphia, boycotted by Seabury and New Englanders over apostolic succession issue. Protestant Episcopal Church as a name is chosen.

1786 Another convention in Philadelphia; another boycott; White leaves for England for consecration.

Feb. 4, 1787 Dr. White is consecrated bishop of Pennsylvania at Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Bath and Wells and Peterborough, as is Dr. Samuel Prevoost as bishop of New York.

1787 Congressman John Swanwick donates an episcopal chair to Dr. White for his use in St. Peter’s.

1786 Absalom Jones and Richard Allen lead African Americans out of St. George’s Methodist Church after they are told to sit in the balcony; Jones confers with White, who agrees to accept the group as an Episcopal parish. Jones would serve as lay reader, and after a period of study, would be ordained. Allen founds the African Methodist Episcopal Church instead.

1789 A loft is built for the organ case above the altar.

1789 The First General Convention is held at Christ Church, with Houses of Bishops and Deputies established; Seabury attends, White is chosen presiding bishop; Prayer Book is authorized.

1790 Capital established in Philadelphia until 1800; the Washingtons attend both churches, sitting in Mayor Powell’s pew when at St. Peter’s.

1790 Bishop White founds the Sunday School Society

August to November 1793 The Yellow Fever epidemic decimates the city, killing almost 6,000 of the city’s 55,000 residents and sending the federal government, and most of the wealthy, into exile. Jones and Allen assist Stephen Girard and others with caring for the sick. Many of the dead are buried in St. Peter’s yard in unmarked graves.

1794 St. Thomas African Episcopal Church opens and is accepted into the diocese.

1795 Absalom Jones is ordained deacon at St. Peter’s by Bishop White. He is ordained a priest in 1804.

1795 Bishop White is elected presiding bishop as well as Bishop of Pennsylvania and serves until his death.

1796 Brothers Joseph and Woodrop Sims donate the baptismal font.

1797 A yellow fever outbreak in the fall.

1798 Another outbreak of yellow fever epidemic in July.

1800 The federal capital moves to Washington, D.C.

1806 Osage orange trees are planted in the churchyard from cuttings acquired during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

1807 The Blackwell House (present St. Peter’s House) is completed for the Rev. Robert Blackwell, assistant rector of the United Churches.

1809 St. James at Seventh and Market Streets becomes the third of the United Churches until 1828.

1814 The first Sunday School is established by the United Churches at Commissioners’ Hall in Northern Liberties led by the Revs. Jackson Kemper and James Milnor.

1816 The Female Sunday School Society began at St. Peter’s in March; later a boys’ division was established, both taught in the pews of the church.

1820 The vestry room was built on the west end of the church.

1821 The General Convention meets at St. Peter’s (also in 1823, 1826, 1835 and 1838).

1825 The Ladies Missionary Aid Society is founded May 24 as the Education Society of St. Peter’s Church.

1832 The United Churches separate; Bishop White remains rector of both churches until his death in 1836.

1832 A building at 319 Lombard St. is purchased for Sunday School classes; it was on the site of the 1870 school building.

1834 Bishop White founds the parish day school.

1835 The Rev. Jackson Kemper is consecrated first missionary bishop of the church on Sept. 25. Bishop White presented Bishop Kemper with the Episcopal chair given to him in 1787 by John Swanwick, which now sits in All Saints Cathedral in Milwaukee.

1835 The Female Benevolent Society is founded for the rescue of dissolute women.

1836 Bishop White dies in July after 57 years as rector.

1836 The Rev. William H. DeLancey becomes fifth rector and the first of St. Peter’s after separation of the churches.

1836 The first stained glass – the Bishop White window – is installed in the church.

1837 Gas lights are installed in the church.

1839 The Rev. William H. Odenheimer succeeds DeLancey as the sixth rector after the latter is consecrated bishop of Western New York.

1842 Dr. Odenheimer introduces the weekly celebration of the Holy Communion in October, one of the first three churches to do so. He also introduced daily Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion on Holy Days.

1842 The tower, designed by William Strickland, is added to St. Peter’s to appease younger parishioners who considered the church’s Georgian architecture old fashioned and to house a peal of bells donated by Benjamin Wilcocks. It is 210 feet from ground to the top of the steeple.

1842 Dr. Odenheimer successfully convinces the vestry to place a 10-foot gilt cross on the steeple of the tower, making it the first Episcopal Church in the United States to do so. For the next 75 years, until the completion of Philadelphia City Hall, the cross on the spire was tallest structure in the city. He presents a brass cross for the altar that was used during the week through the 1980s.

1843 The Guild of Bellringers at St. Peter’s goes on strike for higher pay. They receive $1 a year. This is believed to be the first strike by workers in the United States.

1843 Francis Gurney Smith, the accounting warden, plants chestnut trees along the churchyard walks.

1844 Three chairs crafted from the wood of the original roof are added to the chancel.

1844 The nativist anti-Catholic riots break out in the city, which has seen an influx of famine Irish in the last three years. Accused of trying to bring St. Peter’s into the Roman fold, Dr. Odenheimer writes “The True Catholic, No Romanist: A vindication of the apostolicity and independence of the holy catholic church in England and the United States” in defense of the Episcopal Church and apostolic succession.

1848 A major renovation of St. Peter’s is undertaken, designed by Thomas U. Walter, the architect for both Girard College and the U.S. Capitol dome. Wrought-iron spiral staircases replace wooden ones providing access to the galleries. They were removed within a few years as unsafe. The church is closed “until further notice” during the renovation, which

1859 The Dorcas Society is founded to provide work for neighborhood women to make clothes. The area around St. Peter’s had been in decline for several years, although Dr. Odenheimer had been able to double the number of communicants and increase giving, more and more wealthy families began moving west of Eighth Street and north of Walnut Street.

1859 The Rev. George Leeds becomes seventh rector of St. Peter’s when Bishop Odenheimer is consecrated Bishop of New Jersey, replacing George Washington Doane, who had been consecrated at St. Peter’s Church.

1860 Dr. Leeds suggests closing and selling St. Peter’s Church and moving farther west. His recommendation is overruled unanimously by the vestry.

1861 Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, and the Civil War begins. Living in what is called “the most Southern of Northern cities,” Philadelphians, with the family ties to the South, their opposition to abolition, and dependence on trade, are less than enthusiastic about the struggle

1861 The centennial of St. Peter’s Church is observed on Wednesday, Sept. 4, with Bishop DeLancey preaching.

1865 Civil War ends

1868 Dr. Leeds resigns; the Rev. Thomas F. Davies becomes eighth rector.

1868 Martha R. Lewis dies and leaves a legacy for mission work to St. Peter’s.

1868 Dr. Davies founds the Memorial Mission in November, with services on the second floor of the Head House at Second Pine Streets starting in January 1869.

1868 The choir of men and boys replaces the mixed choir of volunteers.

1869 The George Wharton Public School is built next to the church on Third Street.

1870 Anna Wharton Lewis Glen buys a house on Lombard Street near the site of the new parish house/school as a home for old women. The building later housed the Girls Guild.

1871 The Memorial Mission moves to a room over a grocery store at 18th and Manton Streets until a temporary chapel is built at 19th and Federal Streets and opened in January 1872.

1871 A rectory is purchased at 717 Pine Street; it serves for the next 48 years.

1871 The Mother’s Meeting to bring women of the parish together for conversation is organized by Mrs. Glen.

1871 Mrs. Glen buys a house on Fitzwater between Front and Second Streets where she can work with the poor; that is replaced by another, larger house at Third and Queen Streets.

1872 The Endowment Fund is begun with a plan devised by Horace Binney to use the Easter contributions each year for its increase. By 1911, it stood at $180,000.

1872 St. Peter’s House opens at Front and Pine Streets, incorporating Mrs. Glen’s outreach efforts.

1873 The new school building is completed and opened.

1874 The Mutual Aid Society to help bereaved and sick women is begun.

1875 A second mission, St. Peter’s Church, Weldon, is begun

1877 All Saints Church, the third mission established by St. Peter’s, opens at 12th and Fitzwater Streets.

1877 The Missionary Guild (changed to St. Mary’s Missionary Guild in 1892) is begun to encourage evangelism

1879 The Rev. William White Bronson completes his transcription of the headstone inscriptions in the churchyard, which is subsequently published.

1883 The Shoe Fund is started. Shoes are provided to the poor of the parish in the Dorcas Society and the Sunday School.

1885 St. Alban’s Guild, to encourage men to prepare spiritually for Holy Communion, is begun.

1885 St. Agnes Guild is formed to prepare women to receive Holy Communion, although the Harvest Home Donations for the relief of the poor of the parish is the group’s responsibility each year.

1887 St. Peter’s Guild for Girls is founded as model for similar organizations citywide. It is an evening club for members and meets in Guild Hall, which was purchased for that purpose.

1889 Dr. Davies is consecrated Bishop of Western Michigan; Dr. William Vibbert becomes ninth rector and serves for a year, deciding the St. Peter’s Church was on the wane. He was a founder of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew at the cathedral in Chicago.

1889 Mrs. Glen dies at age 75; she founded the Sunday School at St. Martin’s Chestnut Hill, where there is memorial window to her in the parish house.

1891 Dr. J. Lewis Parks, the 10th rector, replaces Dr. Vibbert, who becomes vicar of Trinity Chapel, New York City. He continues Dr. Davies’ work, assisted by Charles P.B. Jefferys, who handles the work of St. Peter’s House.

1896 Dr. Parks becomes rector of Cavalry Church, New York City, and is replaced by Dr. Richard Nelson as the 11th rector of St. Peter’s Church.

1897 St. Peter’s Guild for Men for men 18 years and older is started.

1900 The parish house is expanded.

1900 St. Peter’s chapter of Girls Friendly organized.

1903 The day school is converted to a choir school since the need for a day school ended with the construction of the Wharton School. There are 30 boys from 3rd grade to 8th grade attending.

1905 Dr. Nelson is consecrated Bishop of Albany; William Groton, dean of the Divinity School, is interim rector.

1906 Dr. Edward M. Jefferys becomes 12th rector of St. Peter’s Church. A former curate under Dr. Nelson, he had been rector of Emmanuel Church in Cumberland, Md., when he was called.

1907 Church Periodical Club branch is started at behest of Bishop Whitaker.

1908 First deaconess, Louise Adele Freeman, is assigned to the parish.

1908 Fund-raising begins for new organ.

1908 The church interior is painted.

1908 The Jewish Mission is organized under the Rev. Andrew Weinstein

1909 Daily Vacation Bible School begins.

1910 Manual Training School established at St. Peter’s House.

1910 Servers Guild of St. John organized for crucifers.

1910 St. Nicholas Guild organized for boys of the parish.

1910 The mixed choir of volunteers is reactivated to sign during the summers when the men and boys are away.

1910 St. Paul’s Church on Third Street is closed to house the Protestant Episcopal City Mission. “Prayer” and “Praise,” the winged figures on the organ case, and the cherubs’ heads on the case, carved by William Rush, were salvaged from St. Paul’s.

1911 150th anniversary of the church is observed with purchase of new organ at a cost of $10,000; Dr. Jefferys completes sesquicentennial issue of Parish Annual. The organ is first used by T. Tertius Noble.

1911 St. Peter’s reaches peak membership at 1,312 communicants and 533 children.

1915 Harold A. Gilbert becomes choirmaster and headmaster of the choir school.

1917 A new floor was laid in the vestry room.

1917 America enters World War I; Dr. Jefferys joins the AEF as chaplain and serves until 1919.

1920 Pledge envelopes were distributed for offerings supplementing pew rents.

1922 Electricity added to the church; lights donated by parishioners.

1922 Church interior is repainted.

1922 A decision is made to close St. Peter’s House at Front and Pine Streets.

1923 The rectory at 717 Pine Street is sold; a new rectory is purchased at 904 Clinton Street from the Gilpin sisters.

1923 The Devereaux house at 313 Pine St. is purchased from the estate of Helen Devereaux to be used as a new St. Peter’s House.

1926 Brick pointing of entire church and tower and wall is completed.

1927 Brick walkway installed along Pine Street between Third and Fourth Streets.

1929 Stock market crashes; Depression takes its toll of St. Peter’s investments, donations fall, demand for charity increases, while efforts to collect rents from real estate comprising bulk of charity funds grows ever more difficult.

1932 St. Peter’s hosts events celebrating the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.

1933 The cafeteria at Front Street closes as the repeal of Prohibition reopens bars where dockworkers can get their lunches.

1937 Dr. Jefferys retires after 31 years as rector; the Rev. Frederick W. Blatz, his curate and at 27, the youngest in 100 years, is called as the 13th rector.

1940 The church is successful bidder for the Wharton school building at $4,000. The three-story brownstone building and its two-story brick addition, with 20,000 square feet of space, will be used for recreation needs of parish children. It had been most recently used as headquarters of the WPA.

1941 The United States enters World War II.

1942 A delivery truck backs into the Third Street wall and knocks several feet of it down.

1943 Mr. Blatz resurrects the parish magazine for three issues.

1946 Dt. Jefferys dies at his home in Chestnut Hill in August. Bishop Oliver Hart and Mr. Blatz officiate at his funeral. Dr. Jefferys’ 31 years as rector was second in duration only to Dr. White’s.

1946 Mr. Blatz resigns to become rector of St. Paul’s Church in Westfield, N.J. The Rev. William R. Cook, St. Peter’s curate and rector of the Church of the Transfiguration will be minister in charge until a new rector is hired.

1947 Dr. Allen Evans, dean of the Divinity School from 1937 to 1945, is called as the 14th rector of St. Peter’s. He was chaplain of the 104th Infantry Regiment in World War I and lives on land in Haverford granted to his family by William Penn.

1948 More than 100 graves are broken during a vandalism spree by neighborhood toughs in the churchyard.

1950 Dr. Evans organizes the St. Peter’s Historical Society and begins cataloging the archives.

1950 The diocese proposes merging the congregations of Christ Church and St. Peter’s and closing the St. Peter’s. The effort is opposed by both vestries and the choir school alumni, and goes nowhere.

1951 Relations between Dr. Evans and the vestry sour as the church membership declines and fewer than 50 people attend Sunday services. He is accused of spending more time on historic research than on boosting church attendance.

1952 Burglars try to break into the church through three rear doors but fail to enter. It was the second attempt to break into the church in a week. They had ransacked Old Pine twice during the period by prying iron bars from a rear window.

1954 Dr. Evans resigns, citing ill health. The Rev. Benjamin Bissell has been appointed priest in charge until a new rector is called.

September 1954 The Rev. Francis Bayard Rhein, a native Philadelphian and rector of Christ Church, Milwood, Va., is called as 15th rector of St. Peter’s. A former Navy chaplain, he was ordained in 1942. St. Peter’s House is serving as the church rectory after 904 Clinton St. is sold.

1955 Rhein and Harold Gilbert battle over the choir and the school; Gilbert resigns but the vestry won’t accept the resignation. The issue continues to fester for the next two years, bringing in the vestry and school board.

1956 The curate, Benjamin Bissell, is murdered in his apartment at Fifth and Pine Streets. A dockworker is charged with the murder. Police said that the curate went to a bar in Southwark, struck up a conversation with the stevedore and invited him back to his flat. After they arrived, the curate reappeared from his bedroom wearing no clothes and made sexual advances. The dockworker beat the priest, who struck his head on a radiator and died.

1957 The Bissell affair, coupled with Rhein’s ongoing battle with Gilbert, resulted in an April 10 meeting in which the vestry, which had agreed with Rhein’s recommendation to separate the positions of choirmaster and headmaster but the reversed itself. Rhein submitted his resignation and it was accepted April 12.

April 20, 1957 The Rev. Charles F. Kelbaugh, missionary assistant since Bissell’s murder, is to be priest-in-charge until a new rector is called.

1958 A study committee is formed to look over church/school relations before a new rector was hired.

October 1958 The Rev. Joseph Koci, 37, rector of St. Anne’s Church, Middletown, Del., is called as 16th rector of St. Peter’s. He served in the Navy during the war from Guadalcanal to Okinawa and taught at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown. He graduated from ETS in Cambridge, Mass.

1959 Gilbert’s retirement as headmaster and a pension are discussed but no decision is made.

April 1960 With enrollment at 37, Harold Gilbert resigns after 45 years as headmaster and choirmaster. Enrollment declines to 12; coed education and a nursery school are considered.

1960 Redevelopment authority begins work on Society Hill neighborhood; opposition grows to creating an east-west access between Interstates 76 and 95 along South Street. Mayor Tate kills the project in 1964.

1961 The church celebrates its 200th anniversary with a year of events. Long-needed renovations of the church, parish house, school and St. Peter’s House, now the church rectory, are undertaken. Stairs are added to the northwest and southwest ends of the church to meet fire code, and pews are removed. A sacristy is built and the vestry renovated.

1964 The nursery school begins as the school goes coed. Mr. Koci is headmaster and rector, but vestry and school board continue to push for full-time headmaster.

1965 New building is considered for the school; the redevelopment authority suggests moving the school to a new location, but that is rejected.

1968 Carolyn Seamans is hired as head of school

1968 Harold Gilbert dies April 23.

June 25 Mr. Koci and Miss Seamans cannot agree on the school; the rector threatens to resign unless the vestry supports him

July 16 Mr. Koci resigns and vestry accepts his resignation; the Rev. Meredith Calvert, missionary assistant, becomes the priest in charge.

1969 The school becomes a separate nonprofit institution

February 1970 The Rev. F. Lee Richards, a native Philadelphian and rector of St. Stephen’s Church, Cohasset, Mass., was called as 17th rector of St. Peter’s.
















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