The process of creating a Diocesan Archive began last summer. The goal is to create as complete as possible record of meetings and materials that will help tell the story of the 110-year history of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.
We hope you enjoy these notes, stories and historic events from the archives of The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts as compiled and told by Diocesan Administrative Assistant, Karen Warren.
The Springfield Hospital Chapel Log
In April 2011 Jan Wojtowicz, Christ Church Cathedral’s secretary, forwarded an email to me from Steve Calderone of Information Services at Baystate Medical Center (BMC) in Springfield. Steve was doing research on BMC’s chapel, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary at its present location. While researching, Steve found that some of the chapel furnishings were donated from the “Episcopal Diocesan House” in 1931, but no other information was documented. Steve was very interested in learning where these furnishings had been prior to their 1931 donation to BMC, and was asking for our help.
As I received this email query from him, I was beginning to sort through several areas of Diocesan House that contained possible Archives materials. With so much ‘history’ packed away in the attic and basement as well as closets at 37 Chestnut Street, it was a bit overwhelming to determine where to begin organizing our Archives. Around one week after receiving Steve’s request I was searching thru shelves in a basement room of the Cathedral one day, and happened upon a maroon leather-covered ‘log’ on a shelf. It was titled “The Springfield Hospital Chapel Log.” What timing!
As I opened the log, the words “History of The Chapel” were handwritten in beautiful script on the first page. This was followed by a detailed history recounting that, upon the sale of the Episcopal Diocesan House at 1154 Worthington Street, Springfield in 1931, Bishop Thomas Davies made arrangements for the dismantling of the chapel that had been installed by our first Bishop, Alexander Hamilton Vinton, at that property. To read that history click here. The log itself records baptisms and all other events that took place in the Springfield Hospital’s Chapel.
When Steve learned that I had found this log, he was unquestionably excited to add this information to the history of the Chapel at Baystate Medical Center. He reported that, after the wood and furnishings of Bishop Vinton’s chapel were donated, they were stored for 12 years before being installed and utilized in the chapel from 1944 to 1968. Sometime after 1968 the furnishings were again stored, and finally reinstituted in 1991 in the chapel’s current location at Baystate. With approval from Diocesan Administration Officer Steve Abdow and our current Bishop Gordon Scruton, the “Springfield Hospital Chapel Log” was donated to Baystate Medical Center for its preservation.
Connections and Coincidences
Shortly before my employment at the Diocese I was employed at the United Congregational Church in Holyoke, where the late Bishop Robert Denig was consecrated on February 20, 1993. Being a Presbyterian, I knew nothing about this, of course.
In April of 2011 Bishop Scruton’s office received a request from Dr. Albert Webb, a member of the UCC to obtain a copy of the videotaped Denig consecration for the UCC’s Archives. At that time nothing had yet been organized for our Diocesan Archives, but I happened across some old videotapes when we were cleaning out closets, and there it was---the VHS of Bishop Denig’s consecration!
Al Lehmann, a member of the UCC who works at WWLP offered to duplicate the consecration tapes and even transfer them to DVD format if I would loan him the tapes. This we did, and Al was generous enough to make some extra copies of the DVD format, which Bishop Scruton presented to Mrs. Robert Denig in September when she visited him here at the Diocese.