Parish History

     The first Episcopal Lay Worship services were held in Mauch Chunk in 1829 by William H. Sayre, a devoted churchman. Services were held by visiting clergy at various times until 1835. On May 17, 1835 a group of concerned churchmen met in the old Broadway schoolhouse and organized the parish under the name of St. Mark's Church. The Articles of Association were signed by ten persons: The Rev. J. M. Rogers, chairman of the meeting; Mr. William H. Sayre, Sr., the secretary; and Messrs. Samuel Holland, Benjamin Rush McConnell, John Ruddle, Asa L. Foster, Asa Packer, James Broderick, William Butler and Joseph H. Chapman. The first Episcopal visitation was held on November 9, 1835 by the Rt. Rev. H. W. Onderdonk, D.D. Five persons were confirmed.

     The parish was received into union with the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Pennsylvania on June 7, 1836. The charter of the corporation was granted by Pennsylvania Governor Joseph Ritner on June 3, 1836.

     Almost as soon as the parish was incorporated, a committee was formed to begin the process of building a church for the parish. A subscription campaign was begun in 1837, but it was not until 1848 that the first church was ready for occupancy. The new building was consecrated on June 13, 1852. During these early years the parish worshiped in various churches and public buildings in Mauch Chunk.

     In January of 1839 the Bishop sent a missionary priest, the Rev. Richard F. Burnham, to serve the small parish. Fr. Burnham served the parish for a little over one year and then departed. The parish called its first full time rector in 1844 when the Rev. Peter Russell was installed on Trinity Sunday of that year. It was he who celebrated the first services in the new church. Fr. Russell served the parish until September of 1856. A plaque commemorating his ministry here can be found on the north side of the nave of the church.

     During the Advent season of 1866, the Rev. Dr. Leighton Coleman of Wilmington Delaware became rector of the parish.

     By 1867 the first church building had been outgrown by the parish and plans for a new building were begun. Architect Richard Upjohn, Sr. was selected to design the new building. On June 16, 1867 the last service was held in the first church after which it was demolished to make way for the new building. The cornerstone of the present church was laid on September 21, 1867. The new edifice was consecrated to the worship of God on November 25, 1869.

     In the year 1870, Dr. G. B. Linderman and his wife presented the parish with two lots of ground adjacent to the church. It was on this property that the "Sarah M. Packer Memorial Parish Building was constructed in 1880.

     When the original St. Mark's church was demolished, the materials salvaged were used in the building of a chapel at the corner of Center and Third streets in what was then East Mauch Chunk. The lower story was completed and the pews and chancel furniture from St. Mark's were used to fill up the temporary worship space.

     On April 1, 1874 the rev. Dr. Coleman resigned as rector and on August 1, of that year, the Rev. Marcus Alden Tolman succeeded him in that post. On July 4, 1876 the 1,116 pound bell in the church tower was cracked while being rung during the celebration of the nation's centennial. The bell was removed from the tower and melted down. Some of the metal was cast into a cross as a memorial to Mr. Lewis Weiss, the first organist of the parish. The remainder was cast into hundreds of small handbells which were sold to help finance the replacement of the bell.

     In 1876 the original bell was replaced by a chime of nine bells cast by the Jones bell foundry of Troy, N.Y. Each bell was given by or in memory of a prominent member of the parish. One was given by the congregation and one by the Sunday School.

     In 1875, the nave of St. John's Chapel was completed and the finished church building was consecrated on September 23 of that year.

     As the wealth of the citizens of old Mauch Chunk grew, so did the richness of the memorials they lavished on their church. In the period between 1880 and 1900 many of the furnishings and appointments of the church that we see today were added. The altar and reredos were installed in 1880. In 1883, the brass pulpit and lectern were presented. The choir stalls were added in 1884. The baptistry was constructed at the rear of the nave in 1887. The stone steps leading to the main church replaced a wooden structure in 1890. The litany desk was presented in 1891. In 1895 on the feast of All Saints, the beautiful Tiffany window in the south transept was dedicated.

     In 1891, due to growth in what was then East Mauch Chunk, St. John's was established as a separate parish. The first full time rector called to St. John's was the Rev. A.A. Bresee of Johnstown.

     After the turn of the century, under the rectorship of Rev. Joseph M Hayman, missions were established at Lehighton and Palmerton. A church building was constructed in 1906 at Palmerton for St. John's parish and in 1907 a building was constructed in Lehighton for All Saints parish. In 1909 St. Mark's was the recipient of a credence table as a memorial to Mr. & Mrs. Francis Sayre.

     The year 1912 was noteworthy for the many improvements made to the church. Through the generosity of Mary Packer Cummings, the entire church was renovated and redecorated. The original Jardine pipe organ was replaced with a three manual Austin organ. The bishop's chair was given. A lovely tiffany window "The Breadth of my Love" was given by Mrs. Cummings in memory of her sister, Lucy Packer Linderman. Her generosity did not stop there. The parish building was completely renovated and the Chantry was refurnished, complete with a new altar.

     Finally, the one thing that makes St. Mark's unique, an Otis elevator was installed. The fact that this was done in 1912, before the advent of laws demanding access to public buildings by the handicapped, shows the foresight and compassion of Mrs. Cummings. An Apocryphal story says that just before the elevator was completed, Mrs. Cummings fell ill and died. The story goes that the first official use of the elevator was to carry her casket up to the main church for her funeral service on November 1, 1912.

     The missionary zeal of the parish did not end with the establishment of churches at Lehighton and Palmerton. In 1914 a chapel was erected in Hacklebernie, a village west of Mauch Chunk. In 1929, Mr. & Mrs. Horace DeYoung Lentz presented the parish with a parish house named in honor of Marcus A. Tolman. The Tolman House is located across Race Street from the church and is used for many parish activities. The heating plant for both it and the main church building is located in the basement of Tolman House. Steam is piped into the main church via mains laid under Race Street. At that time, living quarters for the sexton and his family were constructed on the second floor of Tolman House. Presently this space is used as an apartment for the rector.

      The Great Depression of the 1930's took its toll on the Mauch Chunk area as well as on the parishes of St. Mark's and St. John's. Since the coal and railroad industries were hit hard by the hard economic times, many people were left jobless. Many families moved from the area to seek work elsewhere and it was not until the beginning of World War II that the local economy showed signs of recovery. Both parishes did their part during the war years. Seventy-seven men and women from St. Mark's and thirty-three from St. John's served their country in that conflict. Of that number three men from St. Mark's and two from St. John's gave their lives for our freedom.

     After hostilities ceased and those in the armed forces returned home, both parishes began to rebuild their respective parish lives. In 1947, the chime of nine bells at St. Mark's was expanded to twelve. The manual system used for playing tunes on the chimes was replaced with an electrical system and the chimes could now be played from a small keyboard in the sacristy of the church. At St. John's, renovations that had begun before the depression were completed in 1953. The chancel was enlarged, a chapel constructed, the basement was remodeled, a carved wood altar, crecence table and reredos were installed, and a new pulpit and lectern completed the job.

     In 1947 St. Mark's and St.John's entered into an agreement for a shared ministry. St. Mark's would pay a portion of the salary of St. John's rector and in return, St. John's rector would assist the rector of St. Mark's. This was the beginning of an on and off relationship between the two parishes that would culminate with the merger of the two in December of 1980.

     In the early 1950's the chantry on the first floor of St. Mark's was entirely remodeled. The room was repainted by local church artist Frank Romano of Weatherly, Pa. and new lighting fixtures were installed. At this time also, the antique brass gas standards in the baptistry of the main church were restored to working order and new carpet was laid in the nave. In 1951 the former residence of Horace DeYoung Lentz was donated to the parish for use as a rectory. In 1956 St. John's received the gift from the family of Alan Loose of a home to be used as its rectory.

     The 1960's saw an era of change in St. Mark's. The Hacklebernie mission and the parish hall in the Heights section of town were both sold. The Men's choir room was remodeled and changed into a lounge. The parish office was renovated. The building, now nearly one hundred years old, was in need of re-pointing of all stonework. A program was started, beginning with the tower and the stone steps, to repoint the stonework. Due to the magintude of the task and financial considerations, this program was not completed until 1997. Protective storm glass was placed over all of the stained glass windows in the church. Finally, in a church that was largely built with money derived from the coal industry, the heating plant at St. Mark's was converted from coal to oil.

     Change and improvement continued on into the next decade. Extensive repairs were done to the organ, the first major overhaul since its installation in 1912. In 1978 the chantry was rededicated to the memory of Mary Packer Cummings and designated the "Mary Packer Cummings Memorial Chapel". A portrait of Mrs. Cummings now hangs at the entrance of the chapel.

     In 1979 the main church was completely repainted in white, its original color. When the church was repainted in 1912, the color chosen was green. Over the years, with as many as 100 coal trains passing through town each day, the walls had accumulated a layer of soot and coal dust and the church was dark even on a sunny day. During the renovation work, St. Mark's parish worshiped with the parish of St. John at the later church. The main church was reopened on Easter Sunday 1979.

     During the renovation of St. Mark's, people of both parishes began to realize that there would be advantages to joining the two churches. A study committee was formed in September of 1979, which produced a plan of consolidation. The plan was overwhelmingly approved by the two parishes on February 10, 1980 and by the general convention of the Diocese of Bethlehem in December of that same year.

     In 1983, the parish began a community outreach program in the form of a food pantry. Part of the main floor of the Tolman House was set aside for use by the pantry which was called "Shepherd House" to remind is of Christ the Good Shepherd. Shepherd house grew until there were satellite pantries in Palmerton, Lehighton, Lansford, Summit Hill, Weatherly and Beaver Meadows. In recent years, the accessability of the site in Tolman house became a problem and an alternate site within the borough was sought. Our friends at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church stepped forward and offered to incorporate the functions of Shepherd House with the efforts of their St. Vincent DePaul society. This jointure took place late in 1998 creating an eccumenical food pantry for the poor of our borough. The parish still actively supports the pantry.

     A second outreach project was started in 1983 by the women of the parish. A used clothing store, called "The Helping Hands Shop", was begun. It was located in the basement of St. John's church. Used clothing, donated by members of the parish and others was cleaned, mended where necessary, and sold for a small fraction of its original cost. Any moneys generated by the shop were used for charity work. This project continued in operation until St. John's building was sold in 1984.

     In April of 1983, the parish undertook the project of repainting the Great Hall. This is the main room of the Parish Building adjacent to the main church. Materials were purchased by the Episcopal Church Women and labor was supplied by men and women of the parish. All of the woodwork including the large interior ceiling beams and planking in the Great Hall was cleaned at this time. In addition, the two murals on the east wall were professionally cleaned and restored.

     The maintenance of two church buildings had begun to be a burden on the parish. Not only were there financial requirements, but having two buildings became a point of division for the parish. In 1984, an offer was made for the purchase of St. John's. The offer was condidered at some length by the vestry and finally accepted. The sale was finalized on August 28, 1984. All memorials were removed to St. Marks where they were put to use. The altar, Reredos and other church furniture were donated to a church in Kansas under the charge of Rev. Robert Hutchison, a former rector of St. John's.