On the first Sunday in October 1848, George Hendric Houghton gathered a band of twenty-four followers for a celebration of Holy Communion in the parlor of the home of the Rev. Dr. Lawson Carter, an elderly priest, on East Twenty-fourth Street. As Houghton's followers left this service by the back door, they stepped into a road fortuitously called Love Lane. None of those first worshipers could have imagined that they had just attended the first service of the Church of the Transfiguration, later to be celebrated as "The Little Church Around the Corner." It was even more unlikely that they could have foreseen the rich church life, the exciting ecclesiastical and secular history, and the enviable record of loving service that they and their successors would extend to the people of New York City - indeed to men and women from all over the globe.
The twenty-eight-year-old priest who called this small congregation into being, however, had a clear vision in mind: to establish a parish that would minister to the poor and needy of New York City. Dr. Houghton had his heart set on building a church near Bellevue Hospital because that was the most desperate, poverty-stricken section of Manhattan at the time, but eventually, for financial reasons, a site was chosen on East Twenty-ninth Street just off Fifth Avenue on what were then the outskirts of town. The site had an unobstructed view south across fields to Madison Square and north to Murray Hill. The first service in the new church was held on Sunday, March 28, 1850, in what is now the west half of the nave. Dr. Houghton had wanted the church to have free pews. (Most churches had rented pews at that time.) But again, because of financial considerations, other founding members of the parish finally persuaded the rector to settle for ten percent of the pews to be free. Undaunted, he campaigned for free pews throughout his rectorate.
Dr. Houghton was a pioneer of the Oxford Movement here in America. The Church of the Transfiguration was founded as a direct outgrowth of the Tractarian (or first) phase of the Oxford Movement, which began in England in 1833 and sought to restore the practice of the full Catholic faith to Anglicanism. The movement brought not only renewed sacramental life and enriched liturgies to churches but also, to worshipers, a deeper understanding of the Church's comprehensive concern for all people. These two emphases have shaped all that has happened in the unique and vivid history of this parish church - Fides Opera, Faith and Works, as our founder frequently reminded his congregation.
A single striking event that might well have gone unnoticed led the Church of the Transfiguration into the annals of fame in the secular as well as in the religious history of our country as "The Little Church Around the Corner." In December 1870 an actor named George Holland died. His friend Joseph Jefferson, the leading comic actor of the day, went to the rector of the Church of the Atonement (which no longer exists) on Madison Avenue to see about the funeral. Upon hearing that Holland had been an actor, the Rev. William T. Sabine said that he could not possibly bury him. The astonished Jefferson asked if there were someplace else where he could arrange for Holland's funeral. The clergyman said, "I believe there's a little church around the corner that does that sort of thing," to which Joseph Jefferson replied in words that became known as Jefferson's benediction: "If this be so, then God bless the Little Church Around the Corner!" And the actor walked around the corner and asked our first rector to bury his friend.
Dr. Houghton willingly officiated at the funeral of George Holland just before Christmas. After Christmas the story began to make its way into newspapers around the country. At a time when actors were considered social outcasts, Dr. Houghton's kind and Christian act appealed to the conscience of the nation. Not only did actors start coming to the church but contributions began to pour in from all over the country. Joseph Jefferson's sobriquet stuck, and soon lyricists and writers began to publish songs and dramas about "The Little Church Around the Corner." The long and vital relationship between our church and the people of the theater was born, and in this birth our church won a place in people's hearts everywhere.
Though it may appear that Dr. Houghton's compassionate willingness to bury George Holland arose out of some understanding of or special interest in the theater, a historical analysis will reveal that our first rector's act of pastoral kindness was rooted in his response to Christ's call for the Church to minister to all who are ignored, downtrodden, or undervalued by social convention. He took as his personal motto for his letter seal a line from
the Roman poet Terence: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto, "I am a man: nothing human is alien to me." Dr. Houghton made himself available to anyone at any time of the day or night. He instituted the practice of leaving a candle burning in the window and put a night bell at the door for all in need. He even refrained from going to the theater, to which he received many invitations, lest he miss some poor person who sought his aid. He also established a number of charitable societies to help carry out his vision. As a result of Dr. Houghton's extensive ministry and the sprawling expansion of the church building, the church became known in the 1860s as the "Holy Cucumber Vine."
His long interest in the abolition of slavery led Dr. Houghton to found the first black Sunday school in New York City and to harbor runaway slaves as part of the Underground Railway, one stop on which was the basement of the church's rectory. During the Civil War, many recent European immigrants of the late 1850s and early 1860s were drafted against their will into the Union Army. They took out their rage and resentment on the blacks, whom the immigrants blamed for the war. Blacks were burned, hanged, and mutilated during the Draft Riots of July 1863. So well known as defender and friend was our courageous founder that a large number of black people who were beleaguered and threatened sought sanctuary in his church. Angry mobs trying to get at those who had found sanctuary within the church twice thronged the gates of the churchyard. Policemen on duty warned our founder that they could not insure protection from the mob. With firm resolution, George Houghton lifted the processional cross from its place in the church, walked out to face the rioters, held it before them, and said, "Stand back, you white devils; in the name of Christ, stand back!" With such courageous words, George Houghton held off the unruly mob, and those in the church remained safe for several more days, until the mob had been quelled and dispersed.
George Hendric Houghton was the rector of the church he founded from 1848 to 1897. In that time, our tiny country church was extended and more than quadrupled in size; its adornment with European art was begun in our founder's later years as rector. A fine musical tradition was established and flourished. This led, in 1881, to the formation of a vested choir of men and boys, which today enjoys a reputation as the oldest such choir in New York City.
Our church was the first in the Anglican Communion to be dedicated to the mystery of our Lord's Transfiguration. For forty-four years, George Houghton waged a campaign to include the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6th) in the Prayer Book calendar of feasts. In the new Book of Common Prayer of 1892, his quest was crowned with success, and in consequence many new parishes formed in the 1880s and 1890s chose to dedicate their churches to the Transfiguration.
The regular cycle of liturgical prayer lay always at the heart of our founder's ministry. The Oxford Movement had restored the centrality of the Sunday celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and Dr. Houghton brought that focus to our church from its foundation. He had recited the daily offices since the beginning of his ministry. From 1880 onward a regular daily mass has been celebrated in our church. The sacrament of penance and absolution has always been made available and encouraged as an unfailing vehicle of God's reconciling grace.
Dr. Houghton was also one of the principal influences in the founding of the Order of the Holy Cross, the first American Anglican religious order for men. For more than forty years, the Rev. J. O. S. Huntington, Superior, OHC, and later the Rev. Shirley Carter Hughson, Superior, OHC, preached at the Good Friday Three Hour Services in our church.
During the 1880s and 1890s people from all social classes and races worshiped here as one family. Perhaps this comprehensive makeup of our congregation is the most valuable legacy we have received in addition to the tradition of regular eucharistic worship established during George Hendric Houghton's long rectorate.
Late in 1896 our father founder became ill. He was seventy-seven years old and had been our rector for forty-nine years when, after a short period of confinement, he died on November 17, 1897.
The Second Dr. Houghton
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