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2049 Meetinghouse Way, West Barnstable, MA 02668
Stripped of the 1852 plastered walls and ceiling and outside boarding, the structure proved to be a museum of itself.
Scars and markings on walls and mortise holes in the framing gave original location and measurements of the high pulpit and sounding board, galleries, stairs and pews referred to in old records.
Re-use of old materials by the 1852 remodelers permitted authentic restoration of the tower and other features of the building.
Original panelling, window frames and other items auctioned off in 1852 and built into houses now standing in the village were located and restored or copied.
Early in the restoration, the eighteen feet of length added in 1723 was removed and the building returned to its first dimensions.
In 1921 Elizabeth Crocker Jenkins returned with great joy to West Barnstable after a career in teaching.
She was an unusually caring and intelligent woman as evidenced by years of nursing care to members of her immediate and extended family and degrees she held with honors from Radcliffe College and The University of Wisconsin.
She also studied at Oxford University in England.
She was strong in her Christian faith and much devoted to her church, the West Parish Congregational Church.
She was then almost 47 years old.
She took up residence in the "Old Parsonage" on Church Street.
She had purchased it seven years before and spent those years using much of her income to restore the old building and furnish it with carefully-chosen antiques.
It is described in her biography as a well restored and beautifully appointed home.
Her joy was depreciated by the condition of her church.
The Meetinghouse was a sick institution.
Gone was a full-time minister.
One minister served West Parish and South Congregational.
Worship services were held in the afternoon and attendance seldom exceeded more than a dozen worshippers, including the few inmates who trudged up from the Lombard Poor Farm.
On Sundays during the colder months, the services were held in the "Upper Room", a room above the narthex where our choir and organist now perform.
It was heated by a wood-burning stove but on winter afternoons there were seldom more than four or five present.
Ruth Gilman remembered so well that after she and her husband came to West Barnstable in 1921, she attended the Christmas service at the old "Rooster Church".
There were only seven persons in the congregation.
"It was one of the saddest days of my life," Ruth said.
There had been no Sunday School for years when Elizabeth came home but she and Ruth Gilman instituted a program for children and alternately served as superintendent.
In addition, on Sunday mornings they lugged firewood up to the upper room and lit the fire in the old stove.
Elizabeth set to work on the preserving and restoring the old records of the congregation, many of them going back to the 17th century.
She also represented West Parish at meetings in Boston.
The old Meetinghouse was getting very, very shabby.
Not much had been done but patching since the 1852 remodeling.
There had been some wall papering and plastering of the auditorium in the 1880's, but was showing the effects of time and leaks.
The once-handsome kerosene lamp chandelier with its Sandwich Glass globes was battered.
Behind the pulpit hung a great mural which few people liked but no one dared to take it down.
To the left of the vestibule, a kitchen had been installed.
Food was placed on a creaking dumb waiter, to be pulled by might and main from below to get dishes to the "Upper Room".
There the tables were set for the church suppers.
The pies were lined up on the rail of a small balcony which overlooked the auditorium and, yes, one of them fell off now and then, but space was at a premium.
We are told that one fell on a richly deserving person.
It was all very discouraging.
The few interested members were wondering what would become of the old meetinghouse.
Soon after her return, Elizabeth Jenkins began to think and talk about a possible restoration.
But raising funds for such a project seemed impossible.
In the book, "Barnstable, Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town", edited by D.G. Trayser, published for the Tricentennial Celebration, Miss Jenkins wrote the third chapter, "The West Parish Church".
At the end of the chapter she made the following lamentation:
There is a grave danger that the Committee for the 400th celebration of Barnstable must include among its markers one to read, "Here stood the 1717 Meetinghouse of West Parish with a spire that carried the gilded cock brought from England in 1723 and the Revere Bell, gift of Col. James Otis."
Only as large gifts and very small are patiently added to the Retoration Fund in the Hyannis Trust Company can the buildingbe saved.
Soon after her return to West Barnstable, Miss Jenkins found an active ally in her dream to restore the Meetinghouse.
This comrade-in-arms was Miss Elizabeth I. Samuel, a teacher of music and psychology at the Conservatory of Music in Boston and a summer resident of West Barnstable.
She was the granddaughter of the Rev. Enoch Pratt who served West Parish from 1807-1835 and the daughter of Rev. Robert Samuel who was the supply pastor from 1883 to 1886.
She loved the old church and she and Miss Jenkins often talked about what might be done to save it.
Finally at the annual meeting of the congregation in 1929, the subject of the restoration was brought up - as it had been at many previous meetings - but no one seemed to venture any ideas.
However, Miss Samuel had the courage and emphatically said, "We must make a start, so let each of us [about twenty] pledge whatever we can toward the beginning of a restoration fund,"
She started it off with the first gift of $25.00.
There followed, informal meetings of the Parish folk in the "Old Parsonage" then things began to jell.
Miss Jenkins wrote to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and put in touch with Edwin B. Godell from the firm of Ralph Adams Cram, a leading church architect.
She went to visit him and found him fully equal to the task of restoring the Meetinghouse.
The next move was made on May 25, 1929 when West Parish voted the congregation seek to raise $500.00 to have Mr. Godell investigate the possibilities fro restoration and to suggest some proposals.
Elizabeth Jenkins was appointed chairperson of a Restoration Committee and Elizabeth Samuel and Cora Crocker, her associates.
By July, $400.00 had been raised and on July 21st, the congregation authorized the Committee to employ Mr. Godell as architect.
And so on July 30, 1929, Mr. Godell began his exploration and investigation of the "Old Rooster Church", aided by Mr. Forest Brown, Deacon and one of the Cape's leading Builders.
They got up into the spaces above the old tin ceiling and with enthusiasm, studied the ancient timbers and roof trusses.
They found where the Meetinghouse had been cut in half in 1723, when the ends had been pulled apart and 18 feet added.
(In the restoration, this portion was removed and the ends pushed back together as that had been in 1717.)
Miss Jenkins and her Committee produced a pamphlet appealing for funds for the restoration.
It had a picture on the cover depicting how they thought the Meetinghouse might have looked in 1717, though no one was still alive who could corroborate their drawing.
Some years later, a drawing was found that depicted the original building, which had been made by Rebecca Crocker when she was a child, attending school in the Meetinghouse.
On August 9, 1930, Miss Jenkins produced the "Pageant of the Great Marshes".
The pageant netted $64.00 for the Restoration Fund which was a great achievement for a small village at the beginning of The Great Depression.
The Depression was deepening which made it almost impossible to raise funds.
Her friends offered little encouragement but didn't stop Elizabeth Jenkins.
She became a one person financial campaign.
She sought gifts great and small and they kept dribbling in, as her account book shows.
Mr. Godell's plans had been approved and endorsed and several new members were added to the Restoration Committee.
Later, in 1930, Miss Samuel suggested and the church adopted a plan to make the first Sunday in August "Henry Jacob Day" in honor of our founding pastor.
Henry Jacob Sunday made it possible for Miss Jenkins to get more people interested in the Restoration.
She always managed to get a well-known-preacher who would draw a crowd and the collection augmented the Restoration Fund.
Miss Samuel died in 1936.
When World War II came, everything else took a back seat.
After the war, Miss Jenkins had her fourth call to family nursing duty.
Miss Shattuck, her first cousin, was terminally ill and died in December 1948.
In her will, she left $10,000 to the Restoration Fund and the rest of her estate, amounting to $110,000, to Miss Jenkins.
This money eventually came to West Parish.
Back again on the Cape, Elizabeth and her Committee picked up the fund raising pace, seeking funds abroad from West Barnstable and seeking the support of persons of prominence and means.
The Parish concurred in this reaching out and on September 26, 1949, voted that steps be taken to form a corporation to be known as "The West Parish Memorial Foundation".
The things got moving in earnest with Elizabeth as the spark plug.
The Shattuck bequest was received on December 19, 1948.
In addition, Miss Jenkins made another large gift to the restoration.
By April 21, 1950, there was $18,651 in the Restoration Fund.
In addition to all her fund raising activities, she was firmly committed to the West Parish Memorial Foundation when it was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on May 17, 1950,
"To preserve the West Parish Meetinghouse in the Town of Barnstable as a historical memorial of early America and Americans, and in furtherance of this end to improve, repair, enlarge, alter, restore and maintain the present 1717 structure, to acquire land and to make any contracts to these ends."
Late in 1950, Miss Mary I. Crocker was prevailed upon to sell to the Foundation the land between the Meetinghouse and the Mid-Cape Highway - a piece of 4.71 acres.
This was crucial acquisition because the Meetinghouse lot ended at the stone wall just a few feet back from the rear of the building.
In 1852, the Parish House was built.
When plans for the Restoration were developing there had been much concern about where the much revived Congregation would gather.
A group of women of the parish met in the "Upper Room" to do something about it.
There were 16 members and before the Parish House was built, 28 more women had joined.
The name "West Parish Women's Guild" was selected and they began to plan and conduct ways of making money.
They met monthly and by August 1949, were conducting suppers, fairs, auctions and sales of all kinds.
By January 1951, their savings totalled $3,296.
Then, in March, the parish took heed of what the women were doing and gave the Guild $1,400.
By November 1951, the Guild was worth $6,000.
Miss Jenkins made a loan of $4,000.
It was then voted that the Parish House be built on the Crocker land recently acquired.
Restoration architect Mr. Godell gave his services to design the house and builder Forest Brown helped to modify the plans to match $10,000.
By May 1952, the building was under way and by December 10th was sufficiently ready for the Guild's Christmas Fair.
In order that the relationship between the West Parish of Barnstable, the corporation which owned the Meetinghouse itself, and the West Parish Memorial Foundation Inc. might be made understandable and formal, the West Parish of Barnstable on May 17, 1953, made a Covenant with the Foundation in which the Parish gave full and complete permission for the work of restoration and agreed that the Parish would at no time undertake structural alterations to the Meetinghouse without written consent of the Foundation;
that the Parish would not undertake to dispose of or convey the Meetinghouse property, land or building save to the Foundation;
and that in the event that the Parish ceased to be an active corporation, prior to actual dissolution it would convey title to the Meetinghouse property, land and buildings to the Foundation.
Howver, the Congregation will continue to enjoy full rights and privileges of use and legal ownership as before.
By the Spring of 1953, Mr. Godell's final plans had been approved and $45,715 had been raised.
Everyone was eager to begin the Restoration.
At an exciting meeting, the Trustees decided to take a "leap of faith" even though short of the $50,000 goal.
Deacon Forest R. Brown was selected as builder and the work started on June 29, 1953 when a great crane arrived to take down the 1852 steeple with the precious 1723 five-foot-high gilded weathercock.
Next, the 922 pound Revere Bell, a gift of Col. James Otis in 1808, was carefully lowered to the ground.
Everyone was there with their Brownie cameras and Earl Merritt with his movie camera.
It was a day of rejoicing and Elizabeth Jenkins was there to cheer them on.
How thrilled everyone was when the old tin ceiling was removed to see 1717 timbers and roof trusses exposed and when the old wallpaper and plaster was stripped away to find the locations of the old windows, pulpit, galleries and stairways from old nail holes and shadows left on the ancient planking.
More money was desperately needed in the latter part of 1953.
With the work underway, the campaign for funds took on a new lease for life when new propective donors were found and the trustees and other solicitors were urged to get out and meet them.
A new brochure was printed.
The Foundation had $50,000 for the first stage, the restoration of the exterior and an additional $50,000 was needed to restore the interior.
In June 1954, a half-way celebration service was held.
The shell had been restored.
The high tower, the weathercock and bell were again in place, the floor had been relaid, and old-style plaster had been applied to the walls.
There was only makeshift seating and an improvised pulpit as the Congregation moved back from the Parish House.
On September 14th, the heating system was almost complete and an announcement in the church bulletin reported that it could be used for next Sunday's service if needed.
In the new brochure, there was a beautiful colored picture of the to-be-finished interior.
It was reported that $60,000 had been spent and that estimates for completion called for another $60,000.
As in so many building projects, costs tend to be underestimated.
Elizabeth watched the development of the interior.
The galleries were built resting on columns turned from old timbers of the 1717 Meetinghouse.
The entrance ell and stairway were finished.
A section of the box pews was ready.
The first division of the authentically designed 18th century organ was being installed and the exterior areas were graded and tidied up.
The, in August 1955, Elizabeth Jenkins became seriously ill and after a long illness, she died on March 15, 1956.
Tragically, she failed to see the full completion of the restoration of the Meetinghouse that had been the ruling passion of her life for so many years.
The Meetinghouse Rededication Service was held on August 24, 1958.
The restoration was accomplished.
The high pulpit and sounding board overlooked the completed bench and box pews.
The 18th century-style organ was finished.
Harold G. Andrews, a member of the Foundation and a graduate student in music at Oberlin at the time, had worked on the construction of this magnificent instrument for more than four years without compensation.
Earl Merritt, who also lent a hand, estimated that Mr. Andrews had made a contribution of $40,000.
A total of $133,159 was raised and spent on the restoration, of which $18,087 was for parts and materials for the organ.
In her will, Elizabeth Jenkins gave the "Old Parsonage" and all her real estate holdings to the West Parish of Barnstable, with the provision that if the parsonage were sold, the proceeds should go to the foundation for the upkeep of the Meetinghouse.
She also established two endowment funds, one to the West Parish of Barnstable and the other to the Foundation for the preservation of the Meetinghouse.
So her good works live on.
Her bequests help to maintain the historic edifice she saved and to sustain the church she loved.
The above is a condensation of pages 22 to 47 of the booklet, "The Woman Who Saved a Meetinghouse".
It is available in the entryway of the Meetinghouse for a gift of $2.50.
We urge that you read it to get the full story of this exceptional lady.
The West Parish Memorial Foundation accepted the charge to restore the Meetinghouse to its 1717 style of architecture and the stewardship to maintain it in perpetuity.
Since that time, the Foundation has spent $650,772.00 in meeting the demands of their stewardship.
In the early years since 1958 was not much expended.
However, during the past 20 years, $502,672 of the total has been spent for an average of $25,000 per year.
This average cost is expected to continue with increases due to inflation and the aging of the building.
Painting has been fairly large continuing cost.
The upper tower was restored in 1986 at the cost of $84,000.
It is important to point point out, that the Meetinghouse has been maintained almost entirely from the proceeds of Elizabeth Jenkins' endowment.
It has cost the Congregation nothing but its share of light and heat and intermittent payments toward the repair of the organ [1950's installation].
Robert Russell
Former Historian
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