Thank you to Lucy Werner, author and historian of the SCC history series; a beautiful tribute to our collective experience as we celebrate the past 100 years!
The view from the steeple of our sanctuary!
October: Celebrations Through the Years
From the steeple on our sanctuary we can view our grounds and the communities we serve. From our archives and memories we can view a few of the celebrations that preceded our October 2024 celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Scarsdale Congregational Church becoming an independent congregation.
Before there were anniversary celebrations there were celebrations of buildings and other special events beginning with laying the cornerstone of the Little Stone Church on August 27, 1904 and dedicating this sanctuary on June 8, 1905.
The Assembly Hall, now known as the Parish House, was dedicated on October 19, 1922. Two years later, at 8 PM on October 22, 1924, the congregation celebrated the transfer of 410 names from the Westchester Church to the Scarsdale Congregational Church, thus forming the Scarsdale Congregational Church as an independent congregation.
Easter Sunday, March 21, 1951, 910 persons attended services celebrating the completion of our current Sanctuary. And on April 17, 1955 the congregation dedicated the remodeled Parish House.
October 22, 1967 – on “Anniversary Sunday” (our 43rd) we honored 15 persons who had been members since 1924 or before.
October 20, 1974 – Seven years later there were still seven of the 1924 Charter Members to celebrate on our 50th
Anniversary. During Sunday worship Bob Chamberlin recounted the history of our congregation. The next weekend congregants celebrated the Anniversary with three dinners highlighted by dramatic presentations of “The Best of the Twenties”.
May 24, 1981 - We dedicated our new playground – and on June 5, 2016 we re-dedicated this remodeled playground as “Ruby’s Playground” honoring Ruby Woosnam.
October 21, 1984 – The three remaining Charter Members were honored at the 60th Anniversary Coffee Hour.
October 22, 1994 – We celebrated our 70th Anniversary as an independent congregation and the 99th Anniversary of the Arthur Manor Union Sunday School.
August 27, 1995 - The Bulletin announced Jane Grenley and Anna Lindow won the contest for the best t-shirt design celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Arthur Manor Union Sunday School.
October 20, 1996 – In worship we celebrated the 50th All Church Fair with a history written by Betty Taubert.
October 25, 1998 – Glen Nygreen wrote the first of 32 “Snippets of History” celebrating the 75th Anniversary of our independent congregation. In the months that followed, fourteen congregants gave their historical recollections as part of Sunday morning worship services. April 17, 1999 - Diners filled Dyckman Hall for the 75th Anniversary Dinner.
December 31, 1999 – A quiet gathering in the Sanctuary was followed by ringing the Sanctuary bell to celebrate the beginning of the new century. This is the same bell that rang in The Little Stone Church.
April 24, 2004 – A little early, we celebrated our 80th birthday with a birthday cake.
June 4, 2006 – With music by the Chancel and Children’s choirs, we dedicated the Phillip and Nancy Washburn Memory Garden.
November 30, 2008 – The Nursery School celebrated its 50th Anniversary.
October 18 and 19, 2014 – Homecoming Dinner and Sunday Worship began theJubilee Celebration of our Sunday School, first building, and charter as an independent congregation. During the year we blessed our grounds, our animals and our grounds. Aprons, mugs, car magnets and pens kept the celebrations in mind. We concluded the Jubilee with the November 21 and 22, 2015 Homecoming Dinner and Sunday Worship.
Highlights of our 2024 Centennial Celebration include an October 18 meet and greet, October 19 dinner and October 20 worship with a blessing for our next one hundred years of worship and service to our community.
September: Our Congregation’s Open Arms Through the Years
These members of the Youth Action Committee, sorting clothes for a Midnight Run, are an example of only one of the many ways in which our congregation has opened its arms to the world around us. What follows is a small sampling of other efforts – leaving out more examples than are included.
In 1907, before we were an independent congregation, the Ladies Missionary and Aid Society was organized. With the men of the congregation it supported missionaries in India, beginning in 1911 with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, followed by Lillian Pickens who retired in 1958 after 40 years of service.
In 1921 when The Little Stone Church was no longer big enough to serve the congregation, members determined there wasn’t enough money to build a sanctuary and an assembly hall, so they decided to build a hall that would serve the needs of the community as well as serve as a place of worship. Ever since, church facilities have been made available to the community – sometimes for free, other times for modest fees. Two synagogues had their first services at the Scarsdale Congregational Church.
The open arms of youth were always apparent. In 1927 the Young People’s Society gave three plays to raise money for current operations and “benevolences”. In the 50’s youth tutored in East Harlem. Youth participated in a 1996 Midnight Run and a Souper Bowl - and do so today. The Church School sponsored Abdoulie, a young man with disabilities in The Gambia until he turned 18. Today the Church School celebrates Love in Action Days and supports the Pajama Program.
Throughout our history, civic engagement has been a priority. In 1934 a Peace Commission sought to make the congregation more peace conscious, causing a few who disagreed with the “peace activists” to leave. There were also disagreements about the Vietnam War. There seem to be no disagreements about the need to reduce gun violence as members volunteer for Moms Demand Action and lead vigils. Currently many are volunteering to write postcards to urge potentially disenfranchised voters to vote “and bring friends”.
Congregants have always worked with their hands as well as their hearts. In 1967 the women of the church celebrated 35 years of gathering each Tuesday morning to make clothing which the Red Cross distributed to hospitals and homes in the area. In the 1990’s men, women and youth worked through AmeriCares to clean and remodel homes of residents who couldn’t afford the repairs. Currently congregants are unloading, packing and distributing food which Grassroots Grocery has saved from disposal at the Hunts Point Market.
The recently distributed 2024-2025 Outreach Calendar lists opportunities to open our arms to the world around us in addition to those mentioned above: stocking and delivering food to Headstart Programs through the United Interfaith Food Bank, providing cereal for the Ecumenical Emergency Food Pantry, doing our part to protect our planet by becoming a Creation Justice Church, offering quality goods at affordable prices at the Family Fair and Garage Sale, participating in the Guns to Gardens/Safe Surrender Program.
As we approach our Centennial Celebrations may our arms continue to be open to the world around us and to the many ways we as individuals and as a congregation can address its needs.
August: Financing Our Work Through the Years
Our congregation has managed its finances creatively through good times and not-so-good times. Our first “capital campaign” occurred even before our first worship service on Sunday, November 10, 1895. In a gathering on November 1 Mr. Gaylor reported an organ had been purchased for $13 “and before the meeting adjourned, the funds were raised to pay for same.” In that first worship service, attended by 42 persons, a tradition that exists to this day began – a collection was taken amounting to $5.37.
Fund-raising through sales also has a long history. The November 5, 1903 Scarsdale Inquirer announced The Annual Acquaintance Sale whose offerings included a “Handkerchief Table”.
In addition to raising money from members and friends, our early congregation was willing to take out mortgages. The 1910 Manse, now the Office Building, cost $10,480 with a mortgage of $5,000.
Outreach to members was conducted with an Every Member Canvass as early as December 1914. Over the years Stewardship Campaigns have included in-home dinners, matching gifts from members, and creative materials such as the 1978 “Ring Thing” pictured above – 66 cards with quotes about the church, symbolizing a circle of caring people.
Large gifts from members have played an important role. Perhaps the most memorable is the $50,000 gift (more than $900,000 in today’s dollars) made in 1923 by John W. Dickinson “for construction of a building in which would be a sanctuary”. The interest generated by that gift helped the congregation through the Depression and became the first seed money for the 1951 construction of our current sanctuary.
The Women’s Auxiliary, later called The Guild, has always been generous in its gifts to the church. In 1931 they met their $250 pledge to the church. In 1947 they held the first “Bazaar Day” (now called the Family Fair) netting $3,700 for the sanctuary building fund. When the Parish House was remodeled in 1955 the Guild gave $28,000 for furnishing. And now the new appliances and refurbishing of the Parish House Kitchen are gifts from the Guild.
During its hay day, Chancel Players donated production profits. For example The 1982 Three Penny Opera yielded $3,500 “for the benefit of the church.”
Our youth learn early to give generously. In 1938 the Church School sent 22 suitcases of clothing, toys and books to children in hospitals in Spain’s war areas. Since 1997 the children have participated in Souper Bowl Sunday, this year raising almost $1,000. Car washes and bake sales have funded other charities.
And we have sold an asset – the Manse at 47 Woods Lane – to finance the new manse and refurbish the parking lot at 2 Heathcote Road.
“Honoring the Past, Walking Together into the Future, Onward with Love” describes our Centennial Celebration – a past and future with loving and creative attention to the finances necessary to support our work.
Construction of the manse at #2 Heathcote Rd.
July: Our Buildings and Land Through the Years
Our Church is its people, but our church buildings and land impact what these people can do.
We first gathered in 1895 as the Arthur Manor Union Sunday School on the second floor of the Sprague Road Fire House at what is now 24 Sprague Road in Scarsdale.
As our congregation grew, Scarsdale Estates gave us land at the corner of Heathcote and Post Roads on which we built The Little Stone Church, dedicated in 1904. Situated on a western slope, the basement was fully exposed, giving excellent light to the Sunday School room. Above was the sanctuary comfortably seating 150. Cost was listed as $7,896. Four years later we bought ¾ acre next to The Little Stone Church and built for $10,400 a manse which now serves as our Office Building.
Continuing to grow, we felt the need for larger quarters, but built an Assembly Hall, rather than a sanctuary, so we might serve Village needs for community activities as well as our need for larger worship space. Dedicated in October 1922, the hall was more like a movie theatre than a sanctuary – with two aisles and fold-up chairs, and little cubicles on the sides serving as church school classrooms. Cost was about $125,000. Congregant John W. Dickson was determined a sanctuary would be built one day and in 1923 established a $50,000 trust for that purpose.
With a large sanctuary in mind, in 1931 for $65,000 we purchased 5.76 acres on Sherbrooke Road. The Depression dampened and ultimately ended those plans. The property was sold in 1946. In 1949 we bought more land north of the manse and remodeled the Assembly Hall, by then known as Dyckman Hall.
After World War II plans emerged to finally build a sanctuary. Fund raising of all sorts, including the first Family Fairs, combined with Dickinson’s Trust Fund to bring the sanctuary in which we now worship. Congregants insisted the architecture be Colonia Revival – no gold, no crystal chandeliers. First services were on Easter 1951. Cost was $245,000 with seating for 350. Renovations to Dyckman Hall proceeded in 1955, doubling its capacity at a cost of $250,000. And in 1956 we acquired #2 Heathcote Road, ending endless cars parked on Heathcote Road.
Between 1910 and 1961 we owned and rented various second manses. In 1961 we purchased 47 Woods Lane which became the primary manse, freeing the Heathcote manse to be our Office Building. In June 2006 we dedicated the area between the Office Building and the Sanctuary as our Memory Garden. Cost was $200,000.
In 2017 we voted to sell the Woods Lane manse and use the proceeds to build a new, easy-to-maintain manse and repair our deteriorating parking lot. The new structure was built off-site and, as pictured, descended on its foundation April 30, 2018. The $1,315,000 proceeds from the sale of 47 Woods Lane covered the costs of the new manse and the rebuilding of our parking lot. The August 31, 2018 Certificate of Occupancy for the manse came just in time for the Rogers family to move in before school began.
1890 - Arthur Osborn Pritchard and Miss Carol Wolverton’s class
2024 Church School Sunday, June 2nd
June: Through the Years With Our Sunday School
Our congregation began as a Sunday School and has a long history of celebrating Church School in the month of June. The first meeting of the Arthur Manor Sunday School was on November 10, 1895 on the second floor of the Sprague Road Fire House. Forty-two persons attended; the offering was $5.37. Pictured below is one of those early classes.
A special Sunday School room was included in the Little Stone Church. The first worship service in that church was in the Sunday School Room on December 18, 1904. Records document the existence of “Children’s Sundays”, such as the June 11, 1912 service when 185 were present, “the largest attendance in the history of the congregation.”
The Depression slowed financial support but not Church School attendance. In January 1933 the Clerk reported Church School enrollment of 382 with average attendance of 300. In 1935 there were more teachers than could be used, and a six-year Bible course was started.
Our Sunday School has always supported mission projects. In 1938 the Church School sent 22 suitcases of clothing, toys and books to children in hospitals in Spain’s war areas. From 1999 to 2012 the School supported Abdulie Gibba, a disabled young man in The Gambia. More recently the children have sponsored the Pajama Program and various projects embodying Love in Action.
The School also has a history of fun. On August 25, 1910, the Sunday School picnic at Orchard Beach included a 50-yard dash, a shoe race and an apple race. Sundae Sunday, celebrated as school begins in the fall, started as early as September 2004.
Another form of Church School fun and education has been performing plays authored by such talents as Tillie Dunkle, Tegan Lee and Jake Freyer.
As early as 1978 children began worshipping with their families for the early portion of the service on the first Sunday of each month. More recently children are staying with their families for the entire service on the first Sunday of each month – which is also communion Sunday.
Our 1995 celebration of the 100th anniversary of our Sunday School included a t-shirt design contest won by Jane Grenley and Anna Lindow. In this, our celebration of 100 years as an independent congregation, let us give special thanks for our founding as a Sunday School.
Pictured here is a choir some in our congregation will remember – the June 2005 children’s choir directed by Cindy Keeffe Dunne with Anna Lindow as a soloist. Cindy’s mother, Fran, and her sister, Gigi, also directed children’s choirs, as did Anna’s mother, Barbara.
May: Music Directors and Choirs Through the Years
Music has been an integral part of our spiritual community – even before it had its first gathering as the Arthur Manor Union Sunday School. On November 1, 1895 the founding members purchased an organ for $13 – nine days before the first meeting of the Sunday School in the Fire House on November 10. The first record of a choir for our congregation is in the minutes of April 11, 1897. Five sopranos, two altos, three tenors – no basses – were reported.
Records of church activity in The Little Stone Church make little reference to music – except for a June 1908 notation that Mrs. Stirling will “preside at the organ for $2 a Sunday.”
With the move to worshipping in what is now Dyckman Hall, musical references increased. In 1932 the choir had 22 members “but needed two additional altos and basses, respectively.” Irene Hecker Sincerbox became choir director in 1934, serving in that role for 13 years. At the January 1935 annual meeting it was reported Mrs. Sincerbox was “directing a choir of men and women, a women’s chorus, mixed ensembles and a vested choir of 25 girls 12-16.”
The next long-serving organist and choir director was Claire v. g. Thomas who served from September 1952 until June 1972. In 1966 she was directing four choirs totaling 200 voices – Carol, Chorister, Chapel and Chancel choirs. In 1971 she directed an “ecumenical first” – the combined choirs of five congregations in Durufle’s “Requiem”.
During our 75th Anniversary Celebration in 1999, Jan Pingel described how she convinced John Frederick Schuder to come to Scarsdale in 1972 for $5,000 instead of going to an Episcopal Church for more money. “Think of the Congregational Church as a place to meet and network in the New York area while serving the friendliest church in Christendom; we’ll take you into the family.” John retired 34 years later on December 31, 2006. The Chancel Choir he directed not only sang in Sunday worship, but also gave concerts in a Music Series that lasted twenty-five years, concluding its seventieth concert on Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2001. In 1985 the SCC choir with the choir of St. James the Less gave concerts in England and Scotland.
In his tenure from 2010 to 2015, Music Director Brett Terry resumed Music Series. He also moved choir rehearsals from Thursday night to after church on Sunday to better accommodate the schedules of participants.
Sandro Russo first appeared as our “Organist and Music Director” playing the piano for the July 5, 2015 service in Dyckman Hall. Anne Cavaliere Conneely joined us as Children’s Music Associate in September 2019. Thus both were poised to bring musical joy to our congregation when Covid locked us out of in-person worship on March 11, 2020. Sandro has encouraged volunteers to sing with the talented section leaders, and Anne has nurtured children to sing in lively groups and as soloists. Music Series have continued with outstanding talent.
And though the congregation may not be an “official choir,” it is clear from the voices lifted in hymn singing that music remains an integral part of our spiritual community. SING PRAISES!
April: Electing Our Leaders Through the Years
General Board elected in 2009
On April 28 we will hold our annual corporate meeting to elect officers, trustees and deacons. As a Congregational, self-governing church, we’ve always had lay leadership, but the numbers, responsibilities and gender have varied over the years. Pictured below is the General Board elected in 2009 – featuring many people still serving our congregation.
When our Sunday School was formed in 1895, women had no right to vote in US elections, yet there were two women among the nine persons who decided to form our Sunday School.
The first bylaws in our archives are those of January 1912 when our congregation was part of the Westchester Congregational Church. The governing organization was called the Church Council and was headed by the Pastor who was called “Moderator”. Other members of the Council were the Clerk, Treasurer, Deacons, Trustees and the Superintendents of each congregation’s Sunday School. The bylaws all referred to “he” and “him”.
Our first bylaws as an independent congregation, October 1924, described a Board of Officers with the Minister, Deacons, Trustees, Clerk, Treasurer, Superintendent of the Church School, and representatives of church organizations.
The concept of a Board of Officers lasted until November 1951 when a Church Council of 17 members replaced the Board of Officers of 35 members with the principal lay officer changed to Moderator – a position first held by Carleton Everett whose son Robert would be Moderator fifty years later. In this historic reorganization, the Board of nine male Deacons was expanded to include nine women.
It took 19 more years for a woman to be Moderator. She was June Lumby, elected in 1970. Although it was proposed in 1978 to “de-sex” the bylaws to eliminate masculine references, this didn’t happen until 1988.
The last major review of the bylaws occurred in 2015 when responsibilities were clarified and the terms for Deacons and members of their committees were changed from three years to two. Terms for Trustees remained at three years, as required by the New York State Religious Corporation Law.
Opportunities to serve this church abound – one need not be elected to help. Just say “Yes” when opportunities are announced. That’s what we do in this CONGREGATIONAL church.
March: Palm Sunday and Easter Through the Years
Palm Sunday and Easter have always been memorable days in Christian churches. One of the most memorable for the Scarsdale Congregational Church was Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951, when the first service was held in our current sanctuary, Rev. Ned Boynton retired after 21 years as senior pastor, and Rev. Howard Stone Anderson began his ministry. 924 attended the two services at 9:30 and 11:05 AM.
The 11:05 hour was also observed on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1928. At a 4:30 PM Vesper Communion service 17 persons were welcomed into membership.
Rev. Boynton was well into his ministry on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1937. At the 11:05 service the Girls’ Choir sang two anthems, and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus was the postlude. An 8:00 PM service included a religious drama entitled “The Portal.”
The Order of Worship for Palm Sunday, April 6, 1952 reported Dr. Anderson introduced congregational singing of “The Palms”. “The Palms” was also part of Palm Sunday, March 23, 1975, when Rev. Johnson was Senior Minister.
Easter Sunday, April 15, 1979, the Senior Youth Fellowship left at 3:30 AM for a Sunrise Service at Pound Ridge.
On March 10, 1991 Rev. Washburn announced that instead of two identical Easter services, there would be a 9:30 AM service with parents and children telling the Easter story and an 11:00 AM service “following the standard pattern”. On Palm Sunday, April 9, 1995, Rev. Washburn led talented young singers in presenting “The Singing Bishop”.
Palm Sunday, April 16, 2000 included an Easter Egg Hunt, and Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005 included “Bringing In Easter Family Craft Time”.
Then UCC President Geoffrey Black preached on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015.
Remember Palm Sunday (April 5) and Easter (April 12) 2020? We saw on our screens Rev. Joya preaching on Palm Sunday, Rev. Kelly preaching on Easter, and Music Director Sandro playing beautiful music, each bringing us joy and hope from our empty sanctuary. This year let us fill our sanctuary with joy and hope on Palm Sunday, March 24 and Easter, March 31, 2024.
February: Lent and Holy Week Through the Years
It was six years before Ash Wednesday 2024 that we participated in the February 14, 2018 Ash Wednesday service with Kelly and Joya, just a few hours after 17 persons were shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland FL.
Earlier observances of Lent and Holy Week probably began when we worshipped in the Fire House, but the first mentions in existing documents are a special 1910 service on Good Friday and Lenten services on Sunday afternoons in 1912. These would be services in The Little Stone Church.
Fast forward to 1932 when the Deacons voted to serve communion on Maundy Thursday. In 1944 on another February 29, Rev. Norman Vincent Peale was the guest preacher at Union Lenten Services held at Hitchcock Memorial Church.
Years later a storm with gusts up to 84 mph hit the East Coast on Ash Wednesday, March 7, 1962, but things had calmed down by March 29 when Jackie Robinson spoke at a Lenten program. On Good Friday 1962 the Men’s Fellowship gathered for luncheon and devotions at the Commodore Hotel. 47 men attended.
On Good Friday 1963, there was a special service for children in Cunningham Chapel. The Good Friday 1964 service included Holy Communion and the Chancel Choir singing Lenten portions of Handel’s Messiah.
Within the memory of many congregants were the 1985 Lenten Adult Education Series led by Phil Washburn. In Lent 2009 Fran Grenley hosted a traditional Seder as an interfaith dinner with the rabbi and members of the congregation of Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El assisting in leading the liturgy.
Even more congregants will remember the Church School Lent Rotations. The 2014 Rotations included learning about the Peace Corps in Namibia, participating in the Pajama Program, and personalizing Easter baskets for the children of the Thorpe Family Residences.
Meditations were an integral part of the 2016 Lenten observance. In 2017 Fran Grenley hosted a pasta and pancake Shrove Tuesday Dinner. On Maundy Thursday she led a service of Tenebrae in Dyckman Hall.
Many will remember the dawn of Zooming in 2020 and the Lenten book group that began meeting on March 20.
Now we enter Lent 2024 with an Ash Sunday Service on February 18 and Joya leading contemplative prayer via Zoom on Fridays and in person on Sundays. May this be a season of meaningful reflection.
January in the Life of the Scarsdale Congregational Church, UCC
Kelly Hough Rogers, our eleventh senior minister, began to serve this congregation in January 2018. Theodore Shipherd, our third senior minister, came in January 1924, and Edward Boynton came in January 1930. Thus January is a good month to learn a little about these eleven senior ministers . Note that Pritchard and Dyckman, our first two senior ministers, served before we were an independent congregation. Shipherd was senior minister when we incorporated. Also note that Boynton (1930-1951) and Washburn (1983-2007) together served 45 of our 100 years as an independent congregation. In the coming months we’ll learn more about these leaders and those who served with them.
