Norman Hutton: Reviving the "Shell of a Parish," 1909-1917

The events associated with Mr. Kemp's tenure as rector and the period which immediately followed it left the parish in desperate straits. The last months of 1908 and the beginning of 1909 were certainly the low point in St. Chrysostom's history.[1] A 1928 mailing recalled this troubled time: "We had but the shell of a parish ... we were few in number, discouraged, and almost disbanded." However, by early 1909 the vestry had begun the process of selecting a new rector; in contrast to present practice, the candidates visited St. Chrysostom's and preached before the congregation. In late February the first man chosen immediately refused the call. This was almost certainly providential. Nothing further is known of the vestry's original choice, while the Reverend Norman Hutton, elected two weeks later on March 5, 1909, would prove to be the man who, more than any one person, is responsible for the parish as we know it today.

Mr. Hutton was born in Baltimore on June 20, 1876; he was a graduate of Hobart College and General Theological Seminary. In 1905, the year of his seminary graduation, he married Anne Butler; the couple had two children, Norman, Jr. and Nancy, at the time they came to Chicago (a third child, Edward Butler, was born in March 1914).[2] Before coming to St. Chrysostom's Norman Hutton had served parishes on Long Island — two years at the Church of the Nativity, Mineola, and two years as rector of Trinity Church, Roslyn.

Nearly twenty-five years later, in the January 1934 issue of the Diocese (the diocesan magazine of the period) commemorating St. Chrysostom's fortieth anniversary, Norman Hutton recalled the parish at the time of his arrival in May 1909. "Together with a parish mortgage and about four thousand of unpaid bills, St. Chrysostom's presented a challenge. Most people thought it was hopeless. I, too, would have felt this had I not met the handful of devoted souls who had stood by in the hour of trial. These few, some twenty-five families, had gone through trying days but were determined that the parish should survive." The new rector's two previous parishes had not made sufficient use of his talents: "I — at 33 — wished for challenge and hard work. I accepted the rectorship and events proved that I found all that I was seeking ... From the first day my people gave me unqualified support." According to the 1928 mailing, at the time of his arrival "income was so small that outsiders had to guarantee the rector's salary" (then $3000 a year) but, "within a year, our parish activities had already made such progress, under the influence of his lovable personality and cheery enthusiasm, that recourse to the salary guarantee was never required." Bishop Anderson had apparently spoken to the new rector at the beginning of his tenure, indicating that success in his ministry at St. Chrysostom's would only be obtained "on your knees"; a few years later, Norman Hutton would write to the bishop that his successes had come when he remembered this principle, and that his failures had occurred when he had gone ahead without prayerful consideration.

Dr. Hutton recalled in 1934 that the 1909 church building  had "a charm, restfulness and spiritual appeal that has always been its characteristic. Somehow, in entering the old Church one felt it was 'a place where God dwelt.'" Yet the physical condition of the building must have been discouraging: "There were places in the roof with holes that let in the light; rains had discolored the red calcimined walls. The iron gas pipes were coiled around wooden nave pipes and were at all angles. Gas was the only means of illumination. The Sanctuary was supported by four piles that had gradually sunk and the weight hung upon two sturdy props. At the first vestry meeting one of the members [whose identity is not known to us] advanced enough money to repair the roof, remove the red calcimine, replace it with a pleasing gray, and make other immediately necessary repairs."

The departure of many parishioners had left vacancies in positions of leadership.  John Astley-Cock replaced Charles Allum as organist in February 1909; although his appointment was at first temporary, he continued in the position for six years and remained an active member of the parish in various capacities until the 1930s.[3] Several new vestry were chosen in early 1909. Of these, John Redmond would prove to be the most distinguished. Still in his mid-twenties when elected, he would continue on the vestry for fifty years until his death in 1959; since a rotating vestry with four-year terms was introduced in 1960, his record of service will almost certainly never be surpassed. He was named to the property committee, a position which involved considerable responsibility given the condition of the buildings and the many plans for repair and expansion introduced in succeeding years. In addition he served for many years as an usher, and was active in the Men's Club in the early years of Mr. Hutton's rectorship. 

In 1910 he married parishioner Julia Crampton, whose mother Jane had been active in the parish since its earliest days. Mrs. Hutton was godmother to the Redmonds' daughter Elizabeth, who has carried on the family tradition of service as member and president of the Altar Guild and the Women of St. Chrysostom's, church school teacher and lector, and has herself served two four-year terms on the vestry.[4] Betty Redmond recalls that her birthday fell on the same date as Mr. Hutton's, and that on several occasions when the rest of his family had left on vacation Norman Hutton would join the Redmonds for a joint birthday celebration. 

Other relatives and connections of the Redmond and Crampton families have played important parts in the life of St. Chrysostom's, including Julia Crampton's sister Pauline Crampton Warren, Pauline Warren's sister-in-law Gladys Warren Wells, Mrs. Wells' husband John and their children John and Margaret. The younger John Wells married Martha Mullen in 1960; a choir member for many years, Martha Wells also served as summer substitute organist and carillonneur and as member and president of the Altar Guild, as well as being a member of the Women's Guild and Lectors' Guild. Their daughter Susan continued the family connection with the parish into yet another generation, serving as a lector in the 1980s.

At Mr. Hutton's first vestry meeting in May, the group voted to contribute $200 for missions at the forthcoming annual diocesan convention; the parish delegation at the convention increased the amount to $300, a notable example of stewardship from a parish which had not been able to guarantee its new rector's salary earlier in the year. Treasurer Perry Shepard, elected to the vestry that spring, estimated in October 1909 that income from pew rental for the year would total $2705, with $1292.20 received in pledges, an average pledge of $ .53 per person; pledge income seems to have come mainly from contributions at Christmas and Easter rather than weekly envelopes (envelope income was estimated at $508.25 for the year, with $338.78 in plate offerings). In the spring of 1910 the parish arranged for a $2500 loan to help pay off its indebtedness; a number of parishioners loaned $100 or $200 each to the church with repayment at staggered intervals over a period of several years.

At about this time the parish began to put out a monthly publication, St. Chrysostom's Herald; the surviving copies of this magazine are an invaluable source of information on parish activities. The August 1909 issue included organist John Astley-Cock's description of the choirboys' two-week encampment at Lake Nagowicka, Wisconsin in late June and early July.[5] The group traveled by lake steamer to Milwaukee, then by interurban through "extremely picturesque scenery" to Nagowicka, where the rector, who had arrived by train earlier in the day, met the party in late afternoon. The campers rowed to their island campsite, where they put up the tents that would accommodate them for their stay. As might be expected, swimming was the most popular activity; there was also fishing (though the catch was reported to be poor), ball playing and occasional trips to the mainland for supplies. Mrs. Belle Dunn, the choir mother, was part of the group and appears to have been particularly helpful in entertaining the younger campers at the end of the day when they tended to become restless and perhaps a little homesick.

On Sunday the choir sang at the parish church in Delafield (coincidentally, dedicated to St. John Chrysostom); "Fr. Healey of the Nashotah Mission," preacher at the service, commented: "This is the best behaved boy choir I have ever seen; they usually arrive with a whoop and a yell!"  (Mr. Astley-Cock hoped he would "not be taxed with undue pride" in quoting Fr. Healey, but commented that "the general behavior during camp was particularly gratifying to those in charge.") One afternoon the boys hiked to the Nashotah Mission, where the Reverend Edward Larrabee (newly installed as dean of Nashotah House seminary after some years as rector of Chicago's Church of the Ascension) gave the group a tour. On another evening the campers attended a carnival in town; the rector treated the boys to unlimited ice cream at that day's evening meal, perhaps to discourage their consumption of carnival food. While the boys "enjoyed the possibilities of bucolic side-shows" the rector and choirmaster visited with Dr. Smythe, headmaster of St. John's Military Academy, who had given the camp two tents and a canoe. 

All the campers reportedly gained weight, not surprising when the "bill of fare" for one week of the encampment is examined: a typical day's meals included oatmeal, sirloin steak and coffee for breakfast, roast prime ribs of beef, mashed potatoes, green peas and purina custard at noonday dinner, and a supper of roast beef hash, green peppers, Boston baked beans, French toast and cocoa. 

The entire cost of the excursion for the twenty-one campers totaled $316.00; choir concerts served to raise part of the money for the trip. In 1910 Maunder's "Penitence, Pardon and Peace," with baritone soloist Lionel M. Parker and boy soprano soloist Harry M. Brauns, was performed on Good Friday, March 25, while the same soloists with tenor George Bainbridge sang with the choir on April 28 in Henry Ware Shelley's "The Soul Triumphant." On this occasion the choir was "assisted by an Auxiliary Choir of Ladies."

As membership had declined so drastically, copies of a flyer to attract new members were distributed in the neighborhood in the fall of 1909, informing residents that the church had been "entirely renovated and the structure placed in better condition than ever before.  Mr. Hutton has come to us from ... Roslyn, L.I., and his vigor and forcefulness impress favorably all who have attended our services ... If you are interested in the Episcopal Church and its work in Chicago, we cordially invite you to attend St. Chrysostom's and join us in our endeavors to build up a parish which shall be widely and permanently useful to the community in which we live." 

A more dramatic announcement to area residents, probably dating from three or four years later, was designed to attract parishioners to the evening service, which at many periods in parish history was plagued with poor attendance: "How do you spend Sunday evening? Come to the People's Church, St. Chrysostom's, 1424 Dearborn Avenue (between Schiller Street and Burton Place). JOIN IN THE STIRRING MUSIC!  HEAR THE GREAT BOY SOLOIST MASTER ELDEN DAY. The Sermons are Illustrated with Colored Stereopticon Pictures. POPULAR HYMNS. A PEOPLE'S SERVICE. 7:30 P.M.  Start the Week Right!"[6]

Each year at Christmas Mr. Hutton sent his parishioners a greeting card with a message.  His 1909 card read:

 

This is my Christmas greeting and wish for you.

It has no value in the market and no great art in its making. But if you will let it mean to your heart what it means to mine at this glad season, there will be in it a worth above money value and a beauty that art alone never gives.

I earnestly wish that every good brought into life by the Christmas Christ may be yours.

That you may have a heart of cheer, a spirit of hope, a hand of help, a life of love for every day in all the year. This is my Christmas wish for you.

At Easter 1910 the rector's message stated that "if church attendance is a sign, we may feel that we have advanced, as there has been a steady increase at all services." He noted too that "guilds and clubs" had grown to "splendid proportions": the Women's Guild had 30 members, the Men's Club 50, the Boys' Club 35 and the Girls' Club 12.

The January 1934 issue of the Diocese contained reminiscences by Martha Deane, who had been active in the Women's Guild in the parish's early years. The group met in the church basement and, "in spite of a small membership and many drawbacks, the work went vigorously on, and, besides the sewing, we often gave parish suppers and other social affairs, even entertaining in our time the Diocesan Women's Auxiliary." 

A newspaper clipping in parish archives describes the 1910 bazaar. Mrs. Deane was in charge of the management committee; Mrs. John Crampton (whose daughter Julia had recently married John Redmond) was responsible for the supper. Mrs. William Street and Miss Florence Hutton (the rector's sister) presided at the fancy table "laden with fluffy opera caps and such wares." The art department, headed by Mrs. Hutton, Mrs. Perry Shepard and Mrs. John Chew, featured brocade covered dictionaries and butterfly dinner cards. Alice Wrenn Norcross, wife of vestry member Frederic Norcross, was in charge of the toy department, whose wares included "Parisian millinery for dolls" and Russian toys — swans, woolly toys and emerald beetles. A gypsy tent, tulip bed, French pastry table (staffed by Miss Margaret Conover, who would remain an active parishioner until her death in 1973) and a Christmas tree with Mrs. Santa Claus were also featured; an unusual department was the table under the direction of Mrs. Henry Tifft and Mrs. John Manierre, with 1,242 pieces of wire hardware! The variety of merchandise made a profit of $700. 

By 1911, men began to take part in the bazaar. Norman Hutton and John Astley-Cock appealed for men to donate articles that might be useful for "the rector's table" or to make a cash contribution to the cause, a tradition which continued for twenty years. In February 1911, the Women's Guild held a rummage sale at Mozart Hall on Sedgwick Street; profits of over $100 were given to the Sunday School building fund.

The meeting of the diocesan Women's Auxiliary referred to by Mrs. Deane took place in 1916, when the church facilities were in better shape to handle a large group. A considerable effort must have been required, since between 600 and 700 women attended the May 25 meeting, a morning service at which the "United Offering" (now the United Thank Offering) was received, followed by lunch at a cost of $ .75.

The Men's Club met in the evenings; a smoker was scheduled on November 18, 1909, while a little over a year later, on February 15, 1911, a municipal judge with the distinctive name of Fred L. Fake spoke to the group. It is to be hoped that his topic had no personal allusion to any of the members: a Tribune story next day quotes the judge as saying, "Few persons can appreciate the sufferings of bank presidents who are compelled to serve prison terms ... Frequently men of good instincts get the impetus for a criminal career from their first term in jail." On Election Day, April 4, 1911, when a speech by a Spanish-American War correspondent formed part of the program, vestry member Angus Hibbard, president of the Chicago Telephone Company, arranged for the group to receive the election results by telephone. Mr. Hibbard was an amateur musician and composer; the evening ended with a performance of the "Chicago Songs" composed by him. Announcements of club programs often concluded with the words: "Bring Your Pipe."

By spring 1910 two Boys' Club groups met in the church; an afternoon group known as the Sir Galahad Club, and an evening group (which apparently had no distinctive name) for boys who worked during the daytime. Both took as their theme chivalry and the knightly orders of knight, squire and page, a popular choice for boys' activities at that time; the Women's Guild made "distinctive regalia" for the members.

The Girls' Friendly Society (whose members were in their teens and preteens) met under the direction of Gertrude Gamble Shepard, whose husband Perry served on the vestry and as parish treasurer from 1909 to 1917. Parish programs sponsored by the group included an entertainment on October 25, 1911 at which most of the features were provided by children, and a strawberry social in June 1914. Mrs. Shepard must have been highly gifted in working with the group; after her untimely death at the age of 30 in January 1912, the Herald paid tribute to her "good judgment, keen intellect, powers of expression and tactfulness." Later that year the Herald recorded a change in the starting time of the GFS meetings from 8 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for the convenience of "business girls"; dinner was followed by work on sewing projects, and meetings ended promptly at 9:30. Another girls' group, the St. Mary's Guild, met in the afternoons to dress dolls for the bazaar and to sew and make scrapbooks for hospitals, and held monthly "Social Afternoons" with refreshments.

After two years at which the choirboys' annual encampment was held at sites in Wisconsin, Mr. Hutton and Mr. Astley-Cock decided that the parish should acquire a permanent campsite to avoid the problem of finding a suitable location each year. Land on Lake Chapin, three miles from Berrien Springs, Michigan, was purchased; transportation costs from Chicago would be reasonable, and the site was close enough to Berrien Springs that supplies could be brought without too much difficulty but far enough that "the attractions of a town" would, it was hoped, not "prove too alluring" to the campers. Lake Chapin, formed by damming the St. Joseph River at Berrien Springs, had facilities suitable for both beginning and advanced swimmers.

In a Herald article, John Astley-Cock described the 1911 camping season. The rector and five older boys arrived a day ahead of the rest of the group, traveling to the site by lake steamer, interurban and motor boat.  Justin Langille, piloting the motor boat, "at Berrien bridge ... mistook the stability of a canoe for that of a scow, with the result that the Rector practised total immersion. He emerged with but a dry face — to his watch! Grabbing his presentation time-piece as the canoe tipped he held it aloft, while from the deeper water pellucidly bubbled up the words 'Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus!'" [The hour is late, the times are evil, let us keep watch! — words from a medieval Latin hymn.]

As the site had been purchased only a few weeks before the camping season, the campers had considerable work to do: one hour a day was spent building a bungalow, driving a well and constructing steps from the bluffside site down to the lake. "Camps, no more than Rome, are constructed in a day," commented Mr. Astley-Cock. Afterward there was time for other activities: swimming, fishing, hiking, picking fruit. The "long four-mile walk" to Berrien Springs "considerably discounted the appeal of the insidious ice-cream and the enticing marsh-mallow." The camp followed the practice of a "safe and sane Fourth of July" without fireworks, the day being observed by a track meet which ended with a game of indoor baseball. "Roland Harz captured many a brilliant 'fly' ... Even little Bobbie Hall was known to make first occasionally."[7] Mr. Gunnard Olsen's umpiring received high praise: "In the language of the Fan he exhibited an 'imperturbable Angora' ... Not even with one-all in the second of the ninth, two out and the bases full would he get rattled."

Some of the men from the choir and one or two other parishioners made short visits; John Astley-Cock urged others to do so the following year to learn that the choirboys were not only "kids-kids-kids" and "a corporate nuisance" but "lovable human entities." His final words set forth a goal which would be achieved some years later: "It is our earnest prayer that this Summer Camp may reach beyond the special needs of our Choir into the limitless realm of institutional activity."

Although the parish house at 1344 North Dearborn was still owned by the church and used for some activities, the Sunday School as well as the Women's Guild met in the church basement. In spring 1912 treasurer Perry Shepard reported that the basement had been "greatly improved with new paint, electric light, and lockers in the choir rehearsal room; most of the works ... had been done by the Women's Guild, choir and Boys' Club at no cost to the church." (Presumably the installation of electric light was done professionally and the assistance of the parish groups in this particular part of the work was financial only.) The lighting was installed in time for the Women's Guild bazaar of December 5, 1911, which was held in the basement rather than, as in previous years, at the parish house, which was "too small to accommodate the Booths and allow easy access and circulation."

The Junior Forward Movement, the boys' group referred to by Mr. Shepard, was described by Mr. Hutton in the February 1912 Herald as "the most interesting and remarkable movement that the rector can recall since the assumption of his present incumbency."[8] The group had begun as a Sunday School class under Theodore Morrison and "became not only interested in their work, but, under the genius of their leader, imbued with an esprit de corps"; at a time when parish finances were in shaky condition, their work in the basement — painting woodwork, oiling the floor, repairing and constructing furniture — must have been of special value. On February 7, 1912 the group put on a special program for the Men's Club, with a speaker from Hull House discussing that organization's work with boys and an exhibition boxing match by member Justin Langille and an instructor from the University of Wisconsin. Later that spring the group performed a play, The Toastmaster: a College Comedy, with proceeds given to the Sunday School fund. 

Most of the members of the group did not come from the wealthier neighborhoods of State or Astor Streets. City directory listings indicate that the boys' fathers included a carpenter, a chef and an electrician; most lived in an area to the west of the church within two or three blocks on either side of Division Street. Although the group's founder Theodore Morrison left shortly after this to go into business in Iowa, many of its members remained active in the parish for some years, and the organization was one of which he and Mr. Hutton could well be proud.

The schedule of services at St. Chrysostom's for Lent 1911 is still extant. Holy Communion was celebrated at 8 a.m. on Ash Wednesday and on every Wednesday during Lent; the Litany was read on Fridays at 10 a.m., and there was daily Evensong at 5 p.m., which according to the Herald was well-attended. The confirmation classes of the years 1906 through 1910 made corporate communions at the 8:00 service on Sundays during Lent;  the Sunday School teachers, Women's Guild and other groups provided breakfast after the service. The message accompanying the schedule recommended some ways to observe the season: "What is your besetting sin? Search your heart prayerfully until you find it, then strive by the help of God to overcome it. Read again the sacred Passion history. Learn anew how the Master suffered and shed His precious blood to wash away the guilt of thy sin. It will help you to abandon the sin itself." Persons familiar with St. Chrysostom's in the 1940s and 1950s, when its reputation as a militant low church parish was at its height, would have been surprised to read in this message: "Countless thousands of souls have found in Sacramental Confession the joy of restored Christian fellowship." 

Parishioners were encouraged to make their Easter communions at one of the two early services (7 and 8 a.m.) and return at 11 a.m. for the music; the 11 a.m. service on Easter Day must have been crowded, since tickets were required for admission. This was apparently not uncommon at the period; the Church of the Ascension also required tickets for admission to its Easter High Mass. St. Chrysostom's seems to have discontinued the use of tickets not long afterward, but revived the practice at the time of the dedication of the carillon in 1927 and continued it until 1965. It was a diocesan or national church requirement that communicants return a form indicating that they had received the sacrament at a service during Easter week; parishioners were reminded to bring their forms to the service.

The fall 1911 issues of the Herald document the organization of Troop 40, one of the earliest Boy Scout troops in the city, under the direction of the rector and of scoutmaster Justin Langille. Not long afterward, Frederick Spalding became the scoutmaster. Under his leadership the Scouts thrived; by 1917 Troops 40, 41 and 43 were based at St. Chrysostom's, as well as a group of about forty junior scouts including Norman Hutton, Jr. 

Parish scouting activities were frequently recorded in newspaper stories. A Tribune paragraph mentions a hike from Waukegan to Grays Lake in May 1915, while in the following year the Daily News "Wide Awake Club" children's page gave an account of Troop 40's two weeks at the choir camp after the departure of the choirboys (the first such camping trip for the Scouts took place in 1913). On January 27, 1917, the same section featured Frederick Spalding's tribute to former Junior Forward Movement member Jack Geddeis, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 41, who had been appointed chairman of the Scouts' district life saving commission. Mr. Spalding described an incident at the camp in 1914 "when the senior scout fell in the motor boat, receiving a severe cut on the knee from broken glass. Then a first aid kit used with first aid knowledge undoubtedly saved a life. 'Jack' was there and he was able to apply what was needed promptly ... Whatever the job is he is ready for it ... He believed that smoking might keep him from his best and, believing that his best was always expected of him, he dropped smoking, though not the esteem of the fellows who found pleasure in the habit ... This young man, not yet 19 years old, has made a beginning full of promise, and he is pressing on."

Frederick Spalding regularly wrote poems to friends on their birthdays, none of which now survive; but a copy of his 1913 poem to the scouts' chaplain Norman Hutton is in parish archives.

THE SCOUT'S BURDEN.

                                    To serve for Him who gave us life

Alone is to be free.

We bring our youth and dedicate

Its glory, Lord, to Thee.

 

Its hope, its power, its faith are His,

To use in His vast plan,

To help us reach in His own time

The stature of the Man.

 

Nor can the task have any weight

Which He on us shall lay;

The yoke is easy, borne for Him,

The burden light alway.

 

Nor can the journey be too far,

Though He shall send us forth

Past storm and flood and mountain height

To conquer all the earth.

 

To serve in hope, in power, in faith

Alone is to be free.

We come with that which Thou hast given

And yield it back to Thee.

 

O take, great Master of us all,

The hearts and wills we bring,

And make the burden that we bear

Our holiest offering.

 — Frederick C. Spalding

April 14, 1913.

In October 1911 Mr. Hutton began to take the evening services at St. John's Mission. This mission, originally founded by the Church of the Ascension, was located in what was then a predominantly Italian area at Clybourn Avenue and Rees Street (now part of the Cabrini-Green housing project); it was not intended to attract practicing Roman Catholics but to reach persons "lapsed from their faith." On November 1, Mr. Hutton was appointed priest in charge of the mission. St. John's parishioners made their communions at St. Chrysostom's; Frederick Spalding read Morning Prayer at the mission each Sunday, and the "splendid" St. John's choir combined with the St. Chrysostom's choir, singing at St. Chrysostom's in the morning and at St. John's in the evening. On Christmas Day, Holy Communion was celebrated at St. John's: "at the 7:00 Mass [sic] 48 received, a showing for which the priest in charge felt we were to be congratulated."

The increased work at the mission, together with the improvement in parish finances, enabled Norman Hutton to add a deaconess to the parish staff, a step which he had had in mind since coming to St. Chrysostom's but which had not been financially possible earlier. Deaconess Amelia M. Propper came to St. Chrysostom's in February 1912 from the Church of the Epiphany in Independence, Kansas, to supervise the work with girls and young women at St. Chrysostom's and St. John's. Not long afterward the Reverend Joseph Anastasi became Mr. Hutton's assistant with responsibility for St. John's, celebrating the Eucharist in Italian weekly at the church. He, his wife and their "four beautiful children" lived at 1362 North Park Avenue, just south of Schiller Street, in the Italian neighborhood served by the mission. In the summer of 1912 Frederick Spalding took a group of boys from St. John's to the camp after the choirboys' annual trip, and Deaconess Propper went with a group of St. John's girls at another period; the Anastasis were also able to take advantage of the campsite for a family vacation. Later in the year the diocese took responsibility for St. John's; Fr. Anastasi was named diocesan representative for Italian work and continued at the mission independently of St. Chrysostom's.[9]

An article in the February 1912 Herald touched on a topic of concern to the parish throughout its history: "How can we best produce an atmosphere of cordiality and welcome at St. Chrysostom's Church? ... The rector himself feels that people are cordial and well-disposed but that they do not always show it. In Chicago we are forced by wide-spread wickedness and deceit to look upon strangers with doubt and distrust ... yet there is a large field where friendliness can be displayed without danger ... Those who have attended our services for some time should be known and greeted, they should be welcomed to our pews, books should be offered them and any little courtesy ... shown as an earnest that our parishioners welcome the transient and the stranger." The parish chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew continued its ministry to strangers; its membership included many of the young men active in the Junior Forward Movement and as acolytes.

Probably early in Mr. Hutton's tenure an innovation in finance was introduced in the parish. A flyer dating from this period describes the use of double envelopes for weekly offerings, noting that parishioners might prefer to give weekly rather than making larger donations at Christmas and Easter; the double envelopes permitted parishioners to designate part of their offering for parish expenses and part for missions. The November 1911 Herald discussed finances in more detail:

 

Our Parish is supported by pew rents and offerings placed in the Alms bason [sic] on Sundays ... We know exactly what sum will be paid each quarter from pew rents and we can plan for its expenditure. The offerings on Sundays are of two kinds. One from the loose money placed in the Plates, which varies much with each Sunday, the other from the envelopes and is a fixed amount.

We need a larger income to meet our expenses ... about an extra thousand dollars a year.

In this article we make an appeal ... [to parishioners] who are not giving in a systematic way [to] enroll themselves on the envelope system. We welcome a pledge for ten cents a week as well as a larger one. If you are a regular subscriber though not a pew holder you are as much a supporter as the person who pays pew rent. Will you not be one of the fifty people we must have to give us this increased amount of income annually?

The following table will show suggested amounts:

 

 10 subscribers @ $ 1.00 per Sunday

 10      "           @ $  .50  "    "

 10      "           @ $  .25  "    "

 10      "           @ $  .10  "    "

 10      "           @ $  .05  "    "

___________________________________

 50 subscribers @ $19.00 per Sunday

The appeal must have met with success, since by February 1912 the Herald announced that one thousand dollars had recently been paid off on the church debt, "taken from the regular income and not the result of any special effort"; the debt was being reduced at the rate of about $100 a month. The 1912 Easter letter urged all parishioners to increase their pledges by fifty percent "to clear away the incubus of debt"; if this were done there would be enough money to pay off all outstanding bills. An offering of over $2800, largest in the history of the parish, was received in response to this appeal, and Perry Shepard's treasurer's report at the annual meeting on May 7 makes happy reading: "All bills of every kind and description have been paid in full to May 1 and probably for the first time the church is free from current indebtedness." This meeting was historic in another way; it was the first in which women were allowed to vote for wardens and vestry, following passage of a canon to that effect at the previous year's diocesan convention.  (Not for sixty years, however, would a woman be elected to St. Chrysostom's vestry.)

When Mr. Hutton came to St. Chrysostom's in 1909 the Sunday School registration had numbered only 24 (ranking 154th among the 162 parishes in the diocese); the school had now grown considerably and needed more space than the church basement provided. Issues of the Herald in 1911 describe the children's sale of construction paper "bricks" at ten cents each to help earn money for a new building, and, as indicated earlier, proceeds of the women's rummage sale were given to the fund. In the fall of 1912 the vestry began fund raising for a new parish house in back of the church, planning to convert the house at 1344 North Dearborn for use as a rectory. The brochure describing the project states that the building would not only provide additional space for parish activities, but would make possible programs for neighborhood residents:

 

In the district bounded by Chicago Avenue, Lincoln Park, the lake and Wells Street, there are many of the finest residences and apartments in Chicago. There exists, side by side with this comfort and luxury, a large population of self-respecting but poor people, and not a few who are on the verge of poverty. Yet in such a large district as this, there is no Community House or settlement.

The saloons and dance halls are left in undisputed control of the field so far as the social work of the churches is concerned. Thus far our social program — merely to warn our youth to keep away from such places — has not been effective.  Some substitute must be found for them.

The original plans called for a "swimming tank" for boys in the basement and an auditorium and stage for girls on the first floor. Space would also be available for the Sunday School:

On Sundays we have urgent need for such a building. The Sunday School has grown in the past year from an enrollment of about 30 to something over 130 children, and indications point to a steady and continued enlargement. Following the latest ideas of making a Sunday School attractive as well as efficient, we use a stereopticon to give the pupils, through truth-telling pictures, vivid impressions of the subject studied. The basement of the church, our present room, is inadequate for this purpose because of the low ceiling and obstructing posts, and unsuited because of the ventilation. In the proposed building, we plan that every class shall have its own room and thus be free from interruption.

The building of the Community House or Parish Hall should carry with it some alteration in the church, and we have in view a new front, that the whole may be a unity in architecture.

It is estimated that the hall will cost $20,000 and the new front of the church $5,000.

The final plan underwent some modifications; the "swimming tank" and auditorium were not built as originally planned, and neither the new front nor a third story for Sunday School classrooms included in the original plan was constructed.[10] The architectural firm of Brown and Walcott was selected for the project. Over 100 contributors are listed, some of whom were not parishioners but who lived in the neighborhood and probably supported the church's planned program for boys and girls. Among these was the utility magnate (and Congregationalist) Samuel Insull, who contributed $500, the same amount given by the Sunday School children. Several of the young men in the Junior Forward Movement made gifts of $7.00, $5.00 and $3.00, almost certainly representing far more sacrificial giving than Mr. Insull's $500 donation. A number of activities were scheduled to raise money for the project, including the appearance of a performing dog.

At the time of Mr. Snively's retirement in 1907, he had indicated that he did not intend to accept another parish position for at least a year. In fact it appears that he never returned to the parish ministry. He lived in New York but made occasional visits to Chicago; on one such visit in the fall of 1912, he became ill (probably suffering a stroke) and was hospitalized at St. Luke's Hospital. At Mr. Hutton's request the vestry elected him rector emeritus, sending a resolution to him to that effect. He died on December 5, 1912, and was buried from St. Chrysostom's two days later, with Bishop Anderson officiating at the funeral; he is buried in Graceland Cemetery.

The first order of business at the vestry meeting following Mr. Snively's death was a proposal to name the new parish house after him. The decision, unanimously accepted, was reached before two other announcements were made; Thomas and Elizabeth Hinde's offer to make a substantial increase in their gift if the parish house were named for the former rector, and Mr. Snively's bequest of $2000 to St. Chrysostom's to be used to pay existing parish debts. (The bequest must have been welcome; although the parish was now free from current debt, there was still money owing on both the land at 1424 North Dearborn and the parish house at 1344 North Dearborn.) A resolution sent to Mr. Snively's family expressed the loss and bereavement felt at his death and the parish's gratitude for his long and devoted service.

Construction of the parish house was under way in the summer of 1913.  An article in the evening American of August 26 carried the alarming headline, "4 BURIED ALIVE BENEATH BRICKS."  As described in the story itself, the accident on the site, though still unfortunate, appears less serious than the headline implies. A brick wall of the new building had collapsed, and although one workman suffered internal injuries, all four men were able to be taken home in the contractor's automobile after treatment in a nearby doctor's office on Clark Street. 

Vestry minutes of February 14, 1913 stated that "the Women's Guild, desiring to make permanent improvements in the Church, submitted to the meeting a plan for wiring and lighting the Church [using proceeds from the Christmas sale of 1912]. The Vestry heartily concurred in this plan; and the Rector appointed Mr. Redmond to act as a committee to pass upon the specifications." The construction of the new parish house required tearing down the old sanctuary; improvements needed for the new sanctuary including electric lights in the arch, a tile floor and marble steps, were also funded by the Women's Guild at a cost of $569.55. Given the importance of the women's contributions toward construction and repair of the parish house and church during this period, it seems only fitting that the formal opening of the new building should have taken place at the Guild's Christmas sale on December 4, 1913.

Only two months after the opening of the parish house, the church suffered what must at first have appeared to be a severe blow. Sunday, February 8, 1914 was a day of near-zero cold and the furnace had been heated as much as possible to make the building comfortable for services. Fire broke out shortly after the 8:00 service ended; there may have been either a vestry corporate communion or a scheduled meeting of the group after the service, since vestry members Lawrence Meeker, Frederic Norcross, George Ranney, John Redmond and Harold Smith were still in the building and helped Mr. Hutton remove the altar fixtures and other valuables to the parish house. The Reverend John Timothy Stone, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, was taking a morning constitutional in the neighborhood; seeing the flames, he too joined in the rescue efforts and before he left gave Mr. Hutton a check for one hundred dollars toward a new building.

Upon their arrival the firemen worked in the extreme cold to extinguish the blaze. James B. Forgan, president of the First National Bank, who lived across the street at 1415 North Dearborn, was concerned for the men and, according to the next day's Tribune, "invited the firemen to his residence and supplied them with food and hot coffee. When he thought one of the firemen was bashful about accepting breakfast, Mr. Forgan served him personally."[11] Sunday School was canceled for the day, but the 11:00 service was held in the assembly room of the new parish house. According to the Tribune story, damages were at first estimated at $25,000; the church was insured for only $22,000.

At a parish meeting that evening, vestry member George Ranney announced plans to raise $50,000 "to refurnish the church with a view to future needs." The estimate of damage given at this meeting was $7000, considerably less than that quoted in the Tribune. Not only John Timothy Stone, but the rectors of St. James, Ascension and several other Episcopal churches had sent contributions toward a new building and had offered St. Chrysostom's the use of their facilities if necessary. The money was returned with thanks, since the construction of a new building would not be necessary; the offers of space were refused as well and the congregation worshipped in the parish house (using a piano instead of an organ for musical accompaniment) until the church was repaired. After reading the newspaper account of the heroic efforts of the firemen in the cold, it is sad to record that most of the damage to the church was caused by "firemen chopping at the floor, wainscoting, etc."! On Easter Sunday, April 12, the congregation was able to return to the church for worship.

We cannot be certain, but it is tempting to suppose that the vestry gathered at the church on that Sunday were considering a plan which would be discussed at a formal vestry meeting later in the week. Trinity Church at 26th Street and Michigan Avenue was in financial difficulties and planned to close on March 31. This parish, founded in 1842 and one of the oldest in the diocese, had been hard hit by the movement of population from the South Side north; its neighborhood had become primarily industrial and a large number of its parishioners now lived within an eight-block radius of St. Chrysostom's. Trinity was attempting to establish an endowment fund, but it appeared that the parish would not be able to raise sufficient money to secure its future. The Reverend John McGann, rector of Trinity, and Mr. Hutton agreed to a plan to consolidate the parishes. The newly consolidated church would remain at the Dearborn Street location; Mr. Hutton would serve as rector and Mr. McGann as associate rector, with Mr. McGann's $6000 annual salary paid from the endowment funds already raised by Trinity. The Trinity property at 26th and Michigan would be transferred to St. Chrysostom's as endowment. The nine present members of St. Chrysostom's vestry plus three men from the Trinity vestry would serve on the vestry of the combined parish, which within six months to a year would adopt the name of Trinity Church.

The vestry approved the proposal on February 13; later in the month the plan was put before the congregation. "The Vestry realizes that many of the parishioners will regret to see the Church change its name," read the presentation to the group. "On the other hand, in nearly every large city in this country Trinity Church means the representative parish, and, taking everything into consideration, the Vestry, with the possible exception of one or two members, recommend this change to your favorable consideration. Mr. Hutton and Mr. McGann are warm personal friends, and both look forward to working together in this Parish with the keenest interest, and a confident feeling that their relations will be friendly and harmonious ... The field presented for Church work is sufficiently large and important to fully occupy the time and attention of two such active men." Parishioners in attendance approved the vestry resolution by a vote of 98-2, emphasizing that Mr. McGann's "incumbency shall in no way result in the resignation or withdrawal of the Reverend Norman O. Hutton."

The publicity surrounding the proposed closure of Trinity Church aroused much concern and brought in a number of additional gifts to Trinity's endowment fund. By early March the Trinity vestry had reconsidered its plans and voted to remain in existence. In response, George Ranney, clerk of St. Chrysostom's vestry, wrote on March 4 expressing "the sincere hope that your efforts may meet with success and that Trinity Church may continue for many years to come in its present location" and that "the consolidation ... tentatively agreed upon between our two parishes, may not prove an embarrassment to you in considering the future of your Parish in its present location."

Since Mr. Hutton's salary still remained at the $3000 agreed upon in 1909 — only half the amount paid to Mr. McGann at Trinity — it is not surprising that he told the vestry he felt it "impossible to continue at the present rate of salary." He accepted an increase to $4000, noting that the use of the former parish house at 1344 North Dearborn, now remodeled as a rectory, was worth an additional $1000 to $1200 a year to him.

Suffragan Bishop William E. Toll's confirmation visitation took place on Sunday, March 15, while repairs to the church were still under way. The seventeen members of this class deserve special mention, since they presented as a gift to the parish a brass processional cross, still in use at some services today. Most of the class members were in their early or middle teens. As in the case of the Junior Forward Movement, membership of this class did not come exclusively from the wealthier residents of the area. Three young women were employed as clerks or telephone operators; parents of other class members included a banker, an insurance company official, a bookbinder, a milkman, a woman renting furnished rooms on North State Street and the woman proprietor of the Hotel du Nord on Astor Street. Class member Vernon Walther would in the 1920s serve as the parish's head acolyte and would be present at both morning services nearly every Sunday. The gift of the 1915 confirmation class was also notable, a monetary gift establishing an endowment fund. Subsequent classes continued this tradition for many years; as late as 1949, individual confirmands were urged to mark the occasion of their confirmation with a donation to the fund.

The growth of the parish and its activities led to the need for additional clergy on the staff. Deaconess Propper appears to have remained at St. Chrysostom's only one year; "Sister Dora" (probably Dora Dawson, who had formerly headed the Trained Christian Helpers, a Brooklyn nursing group, and who was described in the Diocese of June 1916 as "a deaconess of rare qualities") succeeded her. Gardner MacWhorter, a senior at Western Seminary, came to St. Chrysostom's as lay reader, director of boys' work, and assistant in the Sunday School in the fall of 1913.[12] After his graduation and ordination to the diaconate in June 1914 he joined the parish as curate, replacing Sister Dora on the staff. He was ordained to the priesthood a year later in a service at which his younger brother Hugh was ordained a deacon; Hugh MacWhorter (who became assistant at the Church of the Atonement) assisted at his brother's first celebration of Holy Communion at St. Chrysostom's the following day. As St. Chrysostom's then had no accommodation in the parish for an assistant, Gardner and Hugh MacWhorter, their mother and a younger brother shared a North Side apartment roughly midway between the two parishes.

The new assistant was placed in charge of the Sunday School, which by November 1914 reached an enrollment of 199. New pupils that month included Rensselaer Cox, Jr. and his brother William, who a few years later were among the first members of the Junior Scouts. Twenty-five years later, in November 1939, William Cox was elected to St. Chrysostom's vestry; he would later serve as both junior and senior warden.

The Norcross family had been active at St. Chrysostom's for a number of years. Frederic Norcross, a lawyer, was elected to the vestry in 1905; his wife Alice was active in parish bazaars and had served as head of the Women's Guild. Both were generous contributors to the church, each giving $500 toward the new parish house in 1913. Alice Norcross' sudden death on June 27, 1914 (the day after the couple's fifteenth anniversary and their younger daughter's birthday) must have been a shock to the entire parish as well as a great grief to her husband and the couple's two daughters, thirteen-year-old Phoebe and nine-year-old Catherine. (In 1928, a vestry letter at the time of Norman Hutton's departure stated that "those of us who were afflicted with grief and sickness in our families will always remember with gratitude his ready and understanding sympathy"; it is probable that Frederic Norcross, by then senior warden, was recalling this time in his life.) The present Guild Room, given by the Norcross family, memorializes Alice Norcross' contributions to the parish.[13] The issue of the Tribune containing her obituary devoted considerable space to another death whose implications were not yet fully understood — the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo.

The outbreak of war in Europe appears to have had little immediate impact on St. Chrysostom's (though a special service with prayers for peace in Europe was held on Sunday, October 4). The choirboys left on June 29 for their annual camping trip, accompanied as usual by John Astley-Cock. The list of supplies for the 1914 campers survives: "Travel in your better Suit. Wear nothing but old clothes at Camp. One suit of under-wear. Two pairs of stockings. Pocket-handkerchiefs. 3 collars. One bowl for soup or breakfast food. One mug or cup and saucer. One large plate. One small plate. Knife, fork and spoon ... Mosquito netting 3 yards x 2." The group made the first part of the trip on the steamer Eastland, which would become notorious a little over a year later when it overturned in the Chicago River, resulting in the deaths of over 800 people.

Following the camping trip, Mr. Astley-Cock had planned a two months' trip to England to study church music, probably motivated by a desire to improve the quality of music in the parish. We do not know if his trip could be completed as planned, but vestry minutes for the fall of 1914 indicate some dissatisfaction with the music, and he resigned as organist and choirmaster as of February 1, 1915. The resignation was apparently amicable; he was paid until April 1, the vestry expressed its appreciation for his "valuable services," and though no longer organist and choirmaster he remained active in the parish, serving as its executive secretary from 1924 to 1933. Emory Gallup, the new organist, came to St. Chrysostom's from St. Alban's Episcopal Church at 41st and Prairie Avenue; under his direction the choir performed John Stainer's Crucifixion during Holy Week of 1915.

At about this period the time of the evening service was changed from 7:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and a mailing was sent out to area residents noting that the service was to be "distinctly a Neighborhood service. If you are already a regular attendant at any other church, accept our good will and pardon the intrusion." During these years, also, November was designated "Go to Church Month" with special mailings encouraging attendance at services; it appears that some of the wealthier parishioners who spent their summers on the North Shore needed reminders to reestablish the habit of churchgoing upon their return to the city in the fall.

The early years of the decade had seen the introduction of new dances which became popular among young people. Some religious groups disapproved of the tango and other dances; St. Chrysostom's was not among them, as in 1913 or 1914 a dancing class was scheduled at the church. This led to an activity attractively described by the Reverend W.B. Norton, religion editor of the Chicago Tribune, on December 29, 1914:

 

           CHURCH TO HAVE CABARET.

          St. Chrysostom's to Have Girls, Tango

           and Frappe on New Year's Eve.

           CHAPERONES ON GUARD.

 

Here's an invitation to a church cabaret on New Year's Eve:

You may tango if you like. When you are tired with dancing you may sit at a round table and sip frappe out of a glass. A stringed orchestra will set the pulses throbbing. There will be girls and girls and more girls. Once in a while the orchestra will stop and someone will sing. Then everyone will sing. The glasses with the frappe in them will clink together. The orchestra will play a two-step, and the silk slippers will again tap over the waxed floor.

This is the plan by which the young people of St. Chrysostom's Church, 1424 North Dearborn Street, will be kept from going downtown New Year's eve, where cabarets, said to be of a demoralizing character, will be in operation.

Assurance is given by the rector, the Rev. Norman H. [sic] Hutton, that everything about the dance will be proper, and the young people will be carefully chaperoned. The dance will be held in the parish house ... All the people of the church, young and old, are invited to attend.

It appears that the dance was as pleasant as the description implies, for New Year's Eve dances were held again at the parish house in 1915 and 1916.

The dance was sponsored by the Knights of Washington, a parish young men's club, whose goal was to provide fellowship similar to that provided by college fraternities. Mr. MacWhorter may have been responsible for the establishment of the St. Chrysostom's company, since the parish group was founded shortly after his arrival and he was actively involved with it.  The Knights were a nationwide organization, originating in the east; by 1917 there were over twenty companies in the Chicago area, and in 1919 several members of the St. Chrysostom's group went to New Haven as delegates to the national convention. In addition to the New Year's dances, the group's activities included "smokers," pool and card parties; the Knights provided for the Sunday morning breakfasts after the early Communion service and on at least one occasion gave a basket to a poor family at Christmas. The annual Washington's Birthday assembly was a major event for the group, in 1917 attracting over 150 people.

Another activity for young men was indoor baseball, at this period a popular sport; under the name of the Dearborn Athletic Club St. Chrysostom's fielded a team in a league of several north side Episcopal church teams. An early 1915 Herald story, "St. Chrysostom's Wins Another," records a victory over All Saints, Ravenswood, 25-22; however, a letter to club members announcing the next scheduled game expressed the hope that it would be better played than the All Saints' game, in which St. Chrysostom's had made six errors. Later, basketball superseded indoor baseball as the favored sport for boys and young men. The church suffered from the lack of a gymnasium; the Knights of Washington helped out by renting the Francis W. Parker School gym to be used by the boys of the parish.

Two new groups on the schedule of activities were the Brent Club and the Mothers' Club.  The Brent Club, like the Junior Forward Movement, was the offshoot of a boys' Sunday School class; the group, led by Frederick Spalding, was active enough to produce a newspaper, the Bee-Hive, which poked good-natured fun at its rival, the established Herald. The Mothers' Club sewed for institutions and the Red Cross; some of those in attendance brought their children to the meetings. Another ministry of the group, undoubtedly important at a time when illness and death among mothers and children was greater than it is today, was the Flower Fund; members' contributions paid for flowers to be sent to the sick and bereaved.[14] An active member of this group was Rachel Jagoe, whose daughter Jennie would remain a member of the parish until her death in 1970.

A financial innovation took place at St. Chrysostom's in late 1915. On October 7 the vestry passed a resolution "that Mr. Shepard be requested to secure, through Mr. Sterling, the services of Mr. Patton to conduct an exhibition 'Every Member Canvas' [sic] in Chicago using St. Chrysostom's Church as a field." The Reverend William H. Sterling and the Reverend Robert W. Patton, nationally known for their mission work, conducted a campaign in December sponsored by six north side Episcopal churches, emphasizing missionary support as well as annual pledging. At the vestry meeting of January 3, 1916, it was announced that $3336.40 had been pledged for missions and $3244.80 for the parish; subscribers to the envelope system practically doubled, with no effect on open plate offerings. A feature on the canvass in the January 1916 Diocese stated that "the moral and spiritual results" of the campaign in the participating parishes "were more striking than the financial results."

It was anticipated that the increased number of pledges would require additional office work. Vestry minutes at this time indicate that office operations and clerical work were becoming more time-consuming; Mr. MacWhorter's responsibilities included approving purchases of equipment, and a typewriter had recently been bought for the office. Because clerical work was "encroaching on the time of the rector and the assistant," Miss Josephine Schnitzler (a parishioner since the time of All Saints' Mission, who was pursuing a musical career and probably in need of part-time employment) had been hired a short time before, at what seems even by 1915 standards to be the exceedingly low salary of $5 a month, to work two or three hours a week on parish records. In 1916 the vestry raised her salary to $65 a month for six mornings work a week and made her responsible for office operations; when work expanded further, Miss Schnitzler continued as "envelope treasurer" and Miss Anne Caryll was added to the staff as parish secretary at $1000 a year.

Emory Gallup's work as organist and choirmaster had been satisfactory, but he was having a problem recruiting choirboys. (If the rehearsal schedule was similar to that of 1910 under John Astley-Cock, this is not surprising: at that time the full group of boys rehearsed on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, while the junior boys had additional rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and the entire choir including the men rehearsed on Friday evenings.) The vestry made suggestions, such as awarding prizes, which they hoped would attract more boys to the group; however, on January 3, 1916 the music committee stated that "the Choir Master was no longer able to obtain material for a boy choir" and asked authorization to hire a mixed choir; salaries paid to the group were to total $3000.[15]  The vestry approved the request with some reluctance, asking Mr. Gallup to continue to try to find boys' voices and to return, if possible, to a boys' choir; in October he indicated that this was not feasible, and the vestry (with two negative votes and one abstention) authorized a permanent adult choir, with a children's choir of boys and girls for the Sunday School services. 

The program for the choir's first "annual concert" on Monday, May 8, 1916, survives in parish archives.  It consisted of lighter music than the usual Sunday selections; Mendelssohn's "Spring Song," Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Old Black Joe," Cowen's "The Bee and the Dove" and Smart's "Stars of the Summer Night" were among the numbers, three choir members sang solos, and the concert concluded with the choir's rendition of Haydn's "The Heavens are Telling" and the "Star Spangled Banner" sung by all persons present.

In 1916, perhaps as a result of the missionary emphasis of the previous year's canvass, Mr. Hutton appointed a Missionary Committee from among the parishioners.[16] Its members included both men and women; Frederick West, an insurance official active with the Y.M.C.A. and other civic groups who would be elected to the vestry the following year, chaired the group.  Its goal was to "coordinate the work of activities and guilds" in the parish and act as a clearinghouse for missionary activity, investigating the need for missions and providing information to the congregation; the minutes of a meeting in late 1916 approved aid to Western Seminary and discussed the possibility of support for St. Mary's Home and Cathedral Shelter. At this meeting Mr. Hutton proposed dividing the territory of the parish into districts, in which lay persons would canvass for new members and encourage families to adopt the envelope system of giving.

Also in late 1916, Mr. Hutton put forward a planned change in the manner of receiving Communion. His proposal for administration by intinction is described in the Missionary Committee minutes of December 12, which state that he "desired to add this method of administering the Communion to the established custom in our church provided that it meets with the approval of a satisfactory number of parishioners. To the Rector and Assistant Rector there appear urgent reasons for administering Communion by intinction to those preferring thus to receive it.[17] Mr. Hutton explained that ... by the modern method, a small portion of the wafer is dipped in the Chalice by the clergyman and the Communicant thus receives both elements together." Fourteen of the seventeen committee members present were in favor; three were personally opposed but willing to see the experiment made, and the practice was adopted shortly afterward. As adopted at St. Chrysostom's, a divided chalice holding both wine and wafers was used for intinction, which preceded administration of the sacrament by the traditional method.  Despite the strong opposition of diocesan Bishop Wallace Conkling in the early 1950s, this procedure continued in the parish for thirty-five years.

The much-needed additional space furnished by the parish house had begun to be outgrown. By 1915 the church made a new appeal for $5000, of which $2000 would be used to pay off existing debt on the parish house and the remainder to fund an addition for the Sunday School, possibly including a "game room for basketball"; in November 1915 the Sunday School's current goal was described as "improvement in administration ... rather than increased enrollment ... on account of the overtaxing of present accommodations." 

While funds were being raised, the house directly south of the church at 1420 North Dearborn came on the market. Mr. Hutton and some vestry favored purchase of the building, but a majority felt it unwise to take on the additional financial burden at that time. However, Frederic Norcross and Edward P. Russell, with the assistance of "a small loan from the church treasurer," purchased the property and at the vestry meeting of April 27, 1916, indicated their readiness to convey title to the church. The vestry agreed to obtain a note for $16,000, using $6000 to pay off current indebtedness and applying the balance to the purchase price of the building; their action was approved at the parish annual meeting on May 2. A large part of the loan was paid back from the sale of the rectory at 1344 North Dearborn in the following year. Following the sale, the Huttons moved to a house at 1349 North Dearborn not owned by the church; in compensation for the loss of the rectory, the vestry raised Norman Hutton's salary $1200 a year. The Sunday School addition was now unnecessary, and the funds raised for it were put to use for needed repairs and renovations to the building at 1420 North Dearborn. Besides Sunday School facilities, the building included a guild room and a study for the rector, the latter paid for by the Women's Guild; Mr. Hutton commented that he had wished for a study at the church since his arrival, but that "other needs seemed more urgent."

The purchase of the house at 1420 North Dearborn provided adequate space for parish activities; the vestry felt that it was now time to consider constructing a new front for the church. There was some difference of opinion on architectural style; Frederic Norcross, inspired by the church of St. Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, favored a Colonial building, while Angus Hibbard strongly preferred Gothic. A number of architects (including parishioner Gregory Vigeant) were to be asked to submit drawings for the new front, and by early 1917 plans for fund-raising were under way.[18]

Norman Hutton: World War I and Its Aftermath, 1917-1920

In February 1917 the national church began a campaign to raise money for the newly established Church Pension Fund for retired clergy. Vestry member Angus Hibbard was active in the Diocese of Chicago's work for the fund; on February 18, he and parishioners Charles Folds and George Higginson spoke on the fund at the 11 a.m. service. The vestry generously agreed to postpone fund-raising for the church front "in order to throw ourselves into the Pension Fund campaign with real enthusiasm." On March 1, after raising $20,000 (one-tenth of the diocesan goal of $200,000) the group again took up the remodeling plans. It was hoped to raise $25,000 for the project, and within a month $10,000 had been given or pledged.

The 1917 Lenten schedule was a full one. The Holy Communion was celebrated on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m., and the Litany read on Fridays at the same hour. There were daily services of Evening Prayer at 5 p.m. with an address by parish clergy or guest preachers; the Wednesday evening services, sponsored by the Knights of Washington, included recitals by guest organists. The choir performed Mendelssohn's Elijah on four successive Sundays at the afternoon service, while the junior choir sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" at a Church Club noonday Lenten service in the Loop in early March. The Sunday School hoped to collect $200 for its Lenten mite box missionary offering, to be turned in at the children's service on Easter afternoon. At this service the primary and junior groups were to recite, while the seniors would perform a pageant, The Witnesses, whose characters included Jerusalem, Antioch of Pisidia, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, To the Philippians, and To the Colossians. Holy Week services included a Maundy Thursday evening preparation for Easter Holy Communion conducted by Bishop Frederick Kinsman of Delaware.  

The Easter observances must have evoked mixed emotions, since Good Friday, April 6, saw the United States' entry into World War I. Ten days later, the vestry unanimously agreed to postpone work on the new front. Pledges were canceled and money already collected was returned, though an offering of $3000 for necessary repairs to the building and parish house was requested. In a spirit of patriotism, John Redmond transferred the parish insurance from Prussian to American companies, and the vestry approved a proposal to erect a flagpole in front of the church.[19] Later in 1917 the endowment fund was invested in Liberty Bonds. 

Parishioners began to leave the city for war service. In July 1917 Perry Shepard resigned from the vestry as he left for military service in France, while the January 1918 Herald contained an appeal for new Sunday School teachers to replace Lawrence Meeker and Douglas Clinch, now in service. Letters from parishioners in military camps were printed in the Herald; Arthur Hurlock, son of a former sexton of the parish, wrote to Norman Hutton from Camp Logan, Texas, in late 1917 describing the kindness shown to the soldiers by a local Congregational minister. "It brings back the story of the Good Samaritan which I learned at St. Chrysostom's Sunday-school a long time ago. I know you will be pleased to know that the kindnesses you have shown others are now being shown to one of yours." John H. Cairns, also at Camp Logan, wrote in February 1918: "A fellow doesn't realize how much a prayer will do him until he is away from his home and friends."

By the end of the war the "Roll of Honor" in each issue of the Herald numbered one hundred and thirty-five parishioners, of whom seventy had seen from three to eighteen months service overseas "while the remainder, through no fault of their own have had to be content with serving their Country and the Great Cause in the United States." Not all of those on the honor roll were in the armed forces. Eleven women were overseas as nurses in military hospitals or working with organizations such as the YMCA, the Red Cross or the American Fund for the French Wounded. Several older men were also serving in the war effort. Angus Hibbard, in his late fifties, with the rank of captain, used organizational skills developed in his years with the telephone company to reorganize the Red Cross administration in Paris. Forty-one-year-old Albert Sprague of Sprague-Warner & Company (later elected to the vestry) was commissioned in the army in November 1917 and went to France the following summer. A contemporary cartoon shows two "doughboys" commenting favorably on his enlistment in the regular army: "There's Col. Sprague." "Yes! He's a 'regular', too, if you know what I mean!"[20] A verse in the cartoon referred to his fondness for hunting in Canada:

In Canada every big game herd

Is glad to hear of what's occurred;

"We can say good-by

 To Sprague," they cry,

"Since he's chief of staff of the 33rd."

Benjamin Carpenter, Jr., a recent Harvard graduate who because of a "leaky heart valve" had been rejected for service by both Army and Navy, went to France as the driver of an ambulance sent by the University Club, but on arrival he deserted to drive a French ammunition truck. Later he enrolled in the French army artillery school and after graduation began active service with a French regiment; the Tribune of October 3, 1918 reported that he had been awarded the Croix de Guerre. Parishioners Susan Ryerson Patterson, who had worked in French hospitals near the front, and her husband George, with the French artillery, were also recipients of the Croix de Guerre.

Two parishioners were killed in the war. The December 1918 Herald announced the death on October 1 of Albert Adams Sercomb, thirty-eight years old, who was survived by a widow and a brother. Captain Sercomb had in civilian life been department manager of the International Silver Company, and had been an instructor of officers before being ordered to France in May of 1918; he had married only a short time before his departure. A memorial service was held on Sunday, November 10, "when the Church was filled with friends from all walks of life, business, social, military, club and church, of the fine young officer who has made the 'supreme sacrifice' for his country. Doctor Arthur Rogers of Evanston made the Memorial address, the Rector read the service, while the Parish choir gave a beautiful musical service." George Alexander McKinlock, Jr., was at that time listed as missing in action; later it was learned that he had been killed at the battle of Soissons on July 21, 1918.

Throughout 1918 a large part of the Herald was devoted to news from parishioners overseas. Alice Morier, a nurse at a base hospital, wrote from "Somewhere in France" on October 20:

Whenever I have written, I have always tried to put the pleasant side foremost ... Of course, down underneath it all you must know that life, while we are working is a serious affair even if we do joke and laugh with the boys while we are taking care of them ...

You can imagine how busy we are just now with the big allied smash going on. Trains coming in three and four times daily. There is a special bugle call for the arrival of a hospital train. I have gotten so that it fairly nauseates me to hear of it for I know what it means. Stretcher after stretcher — hundreds of them all with groaning, moaning boys ...

... I am on night duty now and the other morning at 4 a.m. a train arrived.  I got some very bad cases. One a splendid great big fellow from somewhere in Idaho. His record shows that while under heavy steel fire he carried his wounded lieutenant on his back for miles, when just before reaching the first aid station a H.E. (high explosive) burst near him. He was not hit, but the shock paralyzed him and from his chest down, he "was gone" — but so brave and plucky and anxious to get well. I worked over him for a long time and when I stroked his head he said that was what his sweet little sister used to do for him when he had a headache. He was in a great deal of pain. The next night he was much worse, but talked of getting well and did not want me to leave him. I sat by him every moment that I was not busy. He talked of his mother and father and sister, never complained, but was so grateful for every little attention. He was a gentleman and a brave soldier and should have had a D.S.C. if anyone should, but towards morning he slipped quietly away to the great unknown and the world will just read his name with all the others in the casualty list. His case is just one of many, many, many and I tell you it makes me think. I go to bed every morning with my little Bible — and every one else does the same. I have never seen so many Bibles. All the boys have them and read them ...

I am afraid I am writing too much about my work, but tonight my heart is full and I will try not to do it again. By the papers I feel sure that peace is coming soon, perhaps by the time this letter reaches you.