Celebrations in Philadelphia for the 175th anniversary of Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, have included a gala benefit, the international debut of a choral mass setting, the completion and dedication of a console revitalizing its 1936-37 Aeolian-Skinner organ, and a full architectural restoration of its iconic landmark, the Lady Chapel.
The parish, begun with a vestry meeting in 1847 and the laying of its cornerstone on April 25, 1848, was one of the very first in North America to be planned according to the principles of the Tractarian Movement originating at Oxford in 1833. Today, the church is on a steady trend of post-pandemic growth, reporting just over 500 members, 200 average Sunday attendance, and nearly $700,000 annually in plate and pledge support as it welcomes the Rev. David Cobb as interim rector in the first half of this year.
The first major component of the anniversary was the late 2023 installation of a new, four-manual console by Kegg Pipe Organ Builders of Hartville, Ohio, with a large grant from the Wyncote Foundation at the direction of Philadelphia philanthropist Frederick R. Haas.
A sold-out benefit on February 9 at the 23rd Street Armory aimed to raise $175,000 for work with families and children at St. Mark’s. The parish designated 20 percent of funds in support of a thriving educational ministry at St. James School in the Allegheny West neighborhood of Northern Philadelphia.
Bishop Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez of Pennsylvania made a pastoral visitation April 21 with 16 confirmations and receptions during a Pontifical High Mass. He received new Episcopalians prepared by the Rev. Meghan Mazur and the Rev. Dr. Nora Johnson, as well as Servant Year program ministry interns involved directly in weekly catechesis. Several confirmands were members of the renowned parish children’s choir.
Bishop Gutiérrez preached on the Good Shepherd and invited the parish “to hold one another’s hands and journey with one another, and to learn to love one another as he loves us — that transformation of self in friendship with our Lord, that imprinting of how we walk with him, and he walks with us.”
A capstone of the anniversary was the debut of a specially composed St. Mark’s Mass by Dr. David Hurd, director of music at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City, during a Solemn High Mass for the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist on April 25. The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin, sometime associate priest and longtime friend of the parish, presided.
Hurd’s choral setting in Latin was supported by a gift from the Association of Anglican Musicians and included the full texts of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Music of the Mass also included texts and compositions by former St. Mark’s staff Robert McCormick and the Rev. Erika Takacs.
The most extensive and costly effort during the anniversary year was the Lady Chapel preservation effort, funded entirely by an anonymous donor and continuing through 2023 and 2024. This project involved inspecting and improving exterior masonry and foundations, digging a trench to improve drainage, and installing a dry well in the east garden to redirect rainwater from the roof.
Damaged exterior stone on the Cope and Stewardson-designed chapel, built in 1900 and consecrated in 1902, was removed and patched. Missing and damaged sections of the pinnacles on the top of the chapel were replaced with cast stone, and exterior lighting has been improved. This heavy construction project involved scaffolding and disruption to sidewalk traffic, as well as a pause on St. Mark’s gardens. Rogation Sunday, May 5, marked the blessing of refreshed gardens around the Lady Chapel, and a return to a bucolic inner-city setting for resting pedestrians, as well as several productive beehives.
The Lady Chapel at St. Mark’s houses monumental furnishings — most notably the marble altar on a wooden frame encased in a permanent silver front — and stained-glass windows. Rodman Wanamaker (1863-1928) gave them in memory of his wife, Fernanda, who died in 1900.
St. Mark’s has played a key role in American Anglo-Catholic history in addition to its significance for architecture, music, campanology (its bells have legendary stories), and the full inclusion of all persons in all liturgical roles as they have been authorized by the General Convention. Its first rector, Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer (1849-61), became the second Bishop of Louisiana. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, rector from 1869 to 1879, served as dean of the General Theological Seminary in New York from 1879 to 1902 and oversaw careful transitions of both institutions from Tractarianism to fuller Ritualist sympathies.
His successor, Isaac Lea Nicholson, was Bishop of Milwaukee from 1891 to 1906. Rectors Alfred Garnett Mortimer (1892-1912) and Frank Lawrence Vernon (1920-44) exercised national influence with their widely published essays, devotional commentaries, sermons, and books.
The Saint Mark’s complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.
