REBUILDING
It was decided to rebuild the church at a new location and a lot was acquired at 437 James Street, where the church stands today. On May 15, 1891 the Vestry accepted plans for a new church as drawn by Asa L. Merrick (1848 – 1922) of Syracuse. Designed "in the 13th Century Gothic style,” it was to be 120 feet long and sixty feet wide, with a “battlement tower” eighty feet high and a shorter secondary tower at its southeast corner. But these plans were scaled back due to their cost.
The cornerstone was laid on August 26, 1891 by Dr. Joseph M. Clarke, in his capacity as chaplain to Bishop Huntington (who was vacationing at his ancestral home in Massachusetts). In his remarks on this occasion, Dr. Clarke said:
“St. James will continue to be a free church. It has always been a church for the people. It has undergone reproach in days gone by, and its rector, for the wideness of his ministrations among all classes of the community. If it ever dies of respectability it will be a new departure indeed. Yet it does not bid for popularity by compromise of principle. It does not flatter the people who seek to conform itself to their present notions. Rather it seeks to conform them to the model of Christ and the gospel. It is not a religious club, dignified and exclusive. Rather like its Divine Master it seeks to draw all men in with the net and into the ship of the gospel.”
It was decided to rebuild the church at a new location and a lot was acquired at 437 James Street, where the church stands today. On May 15, 1891 the Vestry accepted plans for a new church as drawn by Asa L. Merrick (1848 – 1922) of Syracuse. Designed "in the 13th Century Gothic style,” it was to be 120 feet long and sixty feet wide, with a “battlement tower” eighty feet high and a shorter secondary tower at its southeast corner. But these plans were scaled back due to their cost.
The cornerstone was laid on August 26, 1891 by Dr. Joseph M. Clarke, in his capacity as chaplain to Bishop Huntington (who was vacationing at his ancestral home in Massachusetts). In his remarks on this occasion, Dr. Clarke said:
“St. James will continue to be a free church. It has always been a church for the people. It has undergone reproach in days gone by, and its rector, for the wideness of his ministrations among all classes of the community. If it ever dies of respectability it will be a new departure indeed. Yet it does not bid for popularity by compromise of principle. It does not flatter the people who seek to conform itself to their present notions. Rather it seeks to conform them to the model of Christ and the gospel. It is not a religious club, dignified and exclusive. Rather like its Divine Master it seeks to draw all men in with the net and into the ship of the gospel.”
The cornerstone contains copies of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and other papers, including Dr. Gregory’s plea against pew renting, as well as a small bell recast from the material of the old bell of St. James.
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It was possible to salvage the cut Fulton brownstone from the ruins of the old church and the front portal of the old church was moved intact to become the east entrance of the new building.
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