The history of our building

SANCTUARY
 The Gothic sanctuary was designed by Richard Upjohn in the style resembling Trinity Church in New York City; a church that Upjohn's father designed.

Calvary St. Andrew's Presbyterian Parish has a rich history within the South Wedge Community. Calvary Presbyterian Church was constituted July 15, 1856 on Hamilton Street. In the same community a few blocks away in 1873 St. Andrew's Episcopal Church was started. The two congregations served the same community and in 1968 decided to literally join together. The Presbyterian congregation sold its building and moved in with the Episcopal Church. As a joint parish they witnessed to the transforming presence of Christ in the City of Rochester. In 2001, after a four year process of discernment, the congregation became solely Presbyterian and bought the building.

The 1873 Gothic sanctuary has many wonderful works of art that are the legacy from the height of St. Andrew's Church.

 Baptismal Font

 The font is a relic of Calvary Presbyterian Church, October 11, 1885 and is used today as the primary baptismal font of the parish.

 High Altar

The High Altar, designed by George Haushalter, was a gift of Mrs. Henry (Maria) Perkins on April 11, 1899. The reredos were made in Florence, Italy, and the base was made by Anthony Halstrick. In a newspaper article dated February 12, 1900, the altar is described:
 
"The altar is in the style of Gothic and designed on the proportions of the altar and reredos of the Ely Cathedral of England. The center panel consists of a bas-relief in a severe Gothic style and represents the crucified Christ and the Madonna tenderly covering the bleeding feet of the Savior, and St. John on the right in the attitude of deep grief. Above this is a canopy of successive clusters of spires, surmounted by a delicate floriated cross.
 
The four-side panes, two on each side, consist of delicate open work tracery, supported by turreted columns, the capitals of which are executed as exquisitely as gems. Above, the crockets are surmounted by the Gothic lily, very delicately carved. The altar proper is of very simple proportions, but of accurate detail. On the front side are three beautifully carved panels. From the marble floor rise a flight of three steps, and for a background in wainscoting of Rubio marble. The reredos is executed in the finest white Carrara marble, which is the best the world, produces. The altar proper, steps and wainscoting are the American marble. The reason for not using the American marble
throughout is that it is not susceptible of such delicate caring, being too hard and brittle.
 
After having finished the drawings, Mr. Haushalter sailed directly for Carrara, Italy, and had executed under his personal direction the reredos, employing for five months twenty- five of the most skilled workmen of the School of Fine Arts of that city. Professor Fontanna quite outdid himself, and when the work was finished it was exhibited at Carrara and received unanimous praise of the critics. The altar was executed here in Rochester by Anthony Halstrick, a German sculptor of great ability. While Mr. Haushalter worked in Carrara on the reredos, Mr. Halstrick executed and set in place the beautiful altar steps and wainscoting. The work wrought in Rochester loses nothing in comparison with the work of Professor Fontanna and his corps of sculptors in Italy.
 
On the south side of the altar is a Gothic credence table, in the form of a deep marble recess, and an open-work tracery front, executed in the same style of Gothic by the same sculptor as the reredos."

 FROM THE ST. ANDREW'S ARCHIVES

My Dear Marie

As we are about to dedicate the Altar which you have given us I wish to say to you, before that event, what is in my heart

You have given to God the best and so have fulfilled the law of sacrifice; you have given not only to God but also to the people and so have fulfilled the law of kindness; you have given not only to the present but to the future and so have fulfilled the law of faith.  Now you have nothing else to do but to give yourself to God and to the people and so fulfill the law of love. That I am sure you have done and will do.  So your faith and hope and charity will not only in this act, but in all the acts of your life, be manifest to all.

You will pass away but this creation of your affection will witness for you to those who were to come after you.  Now your part is done.  Come tomorrow with a full heart to enjoy the beauty and the blessing  which is now a beauty and blessing common to all.  In the name of God and the people

Ever affectionately

Your friend and pastor

Algernon S. Crapsey

TIFFANY  High Altar Window

The high altar window was designed by George Haushalter and made by the Tiffany Glass Company of New York, and given by Marie Atkinson Perkins Willard. The scene depicts the women at Christ's tomb on Easter morning (Mark 16:1-6). The magnificent center focus is the angel of the Lord proclaiming the resurrection. The window remains a prophetic voice in our midst testifying to the power of God. 

                               TIFFANY WINDOW

        Epiphany Altar

The altar and the accompanying painting were gifts of Mrs. James S. (Emily)Watson in memory of her late mother, Mrs. Hiram (Elizabeth) Sibley, in 1903. The painting depicts the adoration of the three Wiseman at the crib of the infant Jesus, hence the name "Epiphany Altar".

                                       The Rose Window

The delicately designed rose window was given in memory of Henry Brooks Ellwanger, organist and choir master, by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Ellwanger on August 8, 1883. Mr. Ellwanger was one of the foremost authorities of roses in this country. The window, in his memory, bears a wreath of roses and is located in the north transept.

 The Morse Window

 Given in memory of the Reverend Frederick E. Morse, Rector of St. Andrew's Church, February 15, 1961 to September 6, 1963, this window depicts Jesus and the little children. The viewer should take note of the racial integration portrayed in the window. The window was made by Pike Stained Glass.

According to Valerie O'Hara, owner of Pike Stained Glass ,"In designing the two lancets, my father James J. O’Hara, sought to respect the design elements in the older windows, while maintaining his own style of art. For example, he used the same proportions and details of the borders and the lozenge shapes at the tops of the lancets, which house the two symbols; the chalice and the stole. They would relate to the scene below of Christ with the children. The chalice would symbolize Christ’s sacrifice for us all, from Matthew 26:28, Luke 22:19-20, and/or Corinthians 11:25. The stole, a liturgical vestment, would represent Christ as a preacher/teacher, which has many biblical references, but to tie it in to the scene below, I immediately think of Luke 18:16 or Matthew 19:14.The background is done in the same way as the oldest windows in the church. The technique used was called grisaille. In the early 1800’s, many shades of colored glass were not readily available. In addition to this, many glass artists who emigrated from England brought over this technique that would have been seen in earlier stained glass windows. The lacy effect is achieved by screen printing or stenciling a vitreous paint onto the surface of the glass and firing it permanently in a kiln, much like ceramic paint. (All of the details not possible by glass and lead alone, such as the lines and shading in the figures are applied by hand using the same kind of paint).
 
Our website (www.pikestainedglassstudios.com) has a timeline witch includes some of my Father’s background and achievements, and attached is a synopsis of our studio. Among other things, he studied under the painter Reginald Marsh, and in his figures, you can see robust, solid quality also seen in Marsh’s figures. In my opinion, my Father mastered the ability to bring tradition and modernity in stained glass art together; respecting the past in scale and technique, incorporating his own design sensibility. The Process: A stained glass window always starts with a painting, usually to scale, as the first step in the creative process. From the scale drawing, a full sized drawing is made. From the full size drawing, patterns are made. The patterns are placed on the glass and each piece of glass is cut by hand. Before the pieces are assembled, the details are painted and fired on to the surface of each piece. Some details require up to three firings to achieve the desired effects. The pieces are assembled (also by hand) and the assembled window is soldered at the intersection of each piece of lead, on both side of each panel. The soldered window is waterproofed and reinforced before installation in the church".

                             The Douglas Window

Given in memory of Sotherland Douglas, the window over the rear door displays three major scenes: the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, the raising from the dead of Lazarus, and Christ's resurrection.

Two Figures from the South Transcept windows

Austin Organ. From St. Andrew's Record, Rochester, New York, November, 
1916: 
 "On Wednesday, November 8th, parishioners and friends of Saint Andrew's will have the opportunity of hearing the new organ at a dedicatory service followed by a recital to be given by Mr. John Warner. 
 
The new instrument is a three-manual organ or twenty-two stops, made up as follows:Choir organ of five stops: Melodia 8 ft., Violoncello 8 ft., Dulciana 8 ft., Harmonic Flute 4 ft, Clarinet 8 ft.; Swell Organ of eight stops: Open Diapason 8 ft., Rohr Flute 8 ft., Viole Dorchester 8 ft., Viole Celeste 8 ft., Echo Salicional 8 ft., Flauto Traverso 4 ft., Harmonic Tuba 8 ft., Obo 8 ft.; Great Organ of six stops: Bourdon 16 ft., Open Diapason 8 ft., Melodia 8 ft., Violoncello 8 ft., Dulciana 8 ft., Harmonic Flute 4 ft.; Pedal Organ of three stops: Open Diapason 16 ft., Violone 16 ft., Bourdon 16 ft. 

 The organ is electro-pneumatic in action, and is built by the Austin Organ Company on their own patent Universal Air Chest system. This system allows of entrance into the air chamber while the organ is being played, a plan, which greatly facilitates the correction of any faults, which may arise from time to time. The entrance to the air chest is affected by an air lock, and when within, one encounters an air pressure maintained at five inches by a motor-run blower in the cellar. To keep this pressure steady, a movable wall, sustained by springs at about a thousand pounds, actuates in and out as the air is reduced or raised. Over the head are the stop bars worked at one end by a magnet and small bellows, while running transversely are the bars which open, and valves to the pipes, also
operated by magnets and bellows. The swell and choir chest are set on top of the roof of the air chamber and the great and pedal organ pipes partly on top and partly on offsets where there is not sufficient height for the longer pipes. While the organ is being played, one may stand in the chest and see the action in operation.
 
The console is a detached one on castors and will be so arranged on the south side of the chancel that is can be rolled into the chapel for the organist to practice in a warm room when the church is not heated. On the Console are fourteen general combination pistons, besides eight combination pistons to each manual. Each stop series is supplied also with sub unison and super-couplers, and there is also a Fortzando Pedal, which allows for the quickest shift to full organ and back known. The shades for the two chests are run by nine divisions’ electro-pneumatic motors, and the Crescendo is electric.

 In 1979, the people of Calvary St. Andrew's Parish engaged in a major organ restoration project. Eleven hundred pipes were dismantled, cleaned and put back in place. Releathering of the instrument was done by parish volunteers under the leadership of music director, Ann Culp, and Parish Council President, Pat Moran. The Hickey Organ Company trained the volunteers. Through a gift from the Pittsford Presbyterian Church in 1987, a team of over 25 parishioners dismantled their 1916 organ and trucked it to the parish. A new trumpet section was added to our organ, using the Pittsford pipes. A long-range task force was established to negotiate with the Austin Company for their assistance in the selection of appropriate Pittsford pipes in order to enlarge our present organ and to determine the additional work necessary to improve the tonal quality of the instrument. Three anonymous gifts totaling $15,000 enabled Calvary St. Andrew's to contract with the Austin Company in 1988 for the additional restoration. 

The intricate design for the canopy above the chimes was taken from the symbol of the
Trinity carved into the choir stalls in the chancel area. Craftsman Roger Young constructed the canopy in the spring of 1987, at which time the chimes were relocated to the wall of the transept.

   1968 Altar

The square altar, or holy table in the rear of the sanctuary was designed and constructed by Mark
H. Stiegler, a designer and craftsman. Mr. Steigler presented six different designs that  he believed suited the nature of our worship life. In 1973, a committee of 15  parishioners unanimously selected one design formed in a cube of four-foot   dimensions. It represents worship at Calvary St. Andrew's around the holy table, not  just "in front of it." The table is set on a polished metal base, which gives an  impression of suspension in space of the bold block of polished walnut.
 
 Present Communion Table was originally used by Calvary Presbyterian Church at  its Hamilton St. Location. In 2006 it was placed as the center table for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper
 
THE CHAPEL
 
In an article by the Reverend Algernon Crapsey June 11, 1900 the major art work was described:
 "The chapel is the original structure of the first Episcopal Church in this neighborhood, which was known as St. Clement's and began in 1871. The most significant features of the chapel are its artwork, all of which was designed by George Haushalter.
 
 "The Flower and the Thorn," which is the painting of the Madonna behind the altar. This painting gained Haushalter international fame and reproductions of it hang in art museums around the country.

 The Altar, erected before the main  part of the church, was a gift of the late Sherlock R. Andrews in memory of his mother, Lois.

 
The two windows which flank the altar were also given in  memory of Lois Andrews and are also by George Haushalter. The windows were executed by Louis Chapin.
 
The windows to which I call your attention are both of them beautiful, but one of them is great. It will, if I am not mistaken, rank in the future as a work of a genius. The artist, Mr. George Haushalter, to whom we already owe so much, has in this window a distinct advance on his previous work; the angel of "The Annunciation" ranks in conception and execution with the Madonna of "The Flower and the Thorn."
 
The windows, which are placed on either side of the memorial altar, represent the annunciation and the visitation.  The style is pre-renaissance, and is after the manner of the primitives. While not servility following those masters, it has been greatly influenced by the study of Giotto in Sienna and of Fra Angelico in Florence. It seeks its end by the simplest method. 
 
In "The Visitation," we have a very charming example of the primitive method. The modern artist, with his knowledge of form and perspective, is able to do what the men of Giotto's time could not, but he in turn derives from them depth of religious thought and feeling, simplicity and purity, which is sadly wanting in much of the later Italian art, and also in much of the modern work. "The Visitation" pictures St. Elizabeth coming out of her house to meet the Blessed Virgin, who is ascending the stairs, reaching out her hands to grasp those of her friend. Behind her on the road by which she has come, winds sway till it passes round the blue water of the Dead Sea, which is lost in the brown and blue distance of the mountains of Moab. The picture tells you that Mary has come to the hill country of Judah by the pilgrim route on the east bank of the Jordan. In this window, we have one of those exquisite, child-like conceptions so characteristic of the primitives. The artist wishes us to know that Mary has traveled that road, so he places near the home a cluster of trees and under the trees is the donkey that has carried the virgin from Nazareth to this place. This whole story is told with the utmost simplicity. It is divinely human. 

                                                       THE VISITATION

But when we pass from "The Visitation" to the "Annunciation," we are in a much higher region of thought and execution. To understand this picture, we must know something of religious history. The face of Angels out of the Annunciation is an Egypto-Assyrian face; he has come out of the region of the Havens that broods over a strip of earth, about 400 miles wide and from the beginning of the world. It includes the alluvial lands lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates, crosses the head of the Persian Gulf into the sands of Arabia, passes over the mountain range of Sinai and through the Red Sea into the valley of the Nile. This is the home of the religious thought. It was here that Abraham, the Hebrew, lived before he crossed the river Jordan; here Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians; and here Jesus, the Christ, took His mysterious flight in the days of His infancy. Now it is from out of the Heavens that overarch this portion of the earth that our angels come. He is the angel of the Assyria-Egyptian race. You can see it in his face. And the window tells you where he comes from. He had come from over the mountains and beyond the sea. In the far distance are the copper-colored heights and gorges of Sinai; just in front of them are the sand hills and then the waters of the sea, and over these this angel had made his flight. For this angel can fly; his wings are not mere appendages attached to his shoulders; they are living wings springing out of his body and are quivering with energy to the tips of their feathers; near the body the feathers are
burnished like the feathers of a dove. The body of the angel is a mass of glowing light shining like a cloud at noonday. He has alighted at the balcony where the virgin is standing, her head bowed in solemn thought; she does not see the angel as we see him. 

THE ANNUNCIATION
 
The materialistic conception of the miracle is lost in this attitude of the virgin -- she is not
seeing a spectacle -- she is beholding a vision. Such is the thought of this wonderful window. The execution rivals the conception. The color scheme of the sand, the vivid green and the scarlet of the foliage, the glowing white of the angel, the deep blue of the virgin's drapery are all notes in the music that tell the great message, "Hail thou art among women...Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest." As we stand and look at this window, we see in the inscrutable silence of the angel the inscrutable silence of God himself. He does not need to speak; Heaven and earth in rounded form
and glowing color speak for Him.
 
It is a matter of just pride that this work is the design of a young American artist who, if all signs do not fail, has before him a brilliant career and who has proven in this church, on canvas, in marble and on glass the versatility of his genius".

             ARTIST GEORGE HAUSHALTER

At least one mural and the altarpiece are by George Haushalter, a prominent Rochester artist:

"George Haushalter is known in the Rochester area for his religious paintings hanging in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Averill Ave., as well pieces in other galleries, homes, and churches around the city. He was born in Maine and spent his youth in Europe, studying at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His work impressed Rochestarian J. Sherlock Andrews, who commissioned him to create paintings for the St. Andrew’s Church. Haushalter met Andrews in Italy while studying Frescos and tempera paints. Haushalter moved to Rochester and continued to create work for other churches and wealthy Rochesterians. Haushalter married prominent Rochesterian Clara Wilder. He was a member of the Rochester Art Club and the American Watercolor Society. He is also known for introducing the Rochester community to the burning of Christmas trees on Twelfth Night, a tradition he started in 1932. Haushalter taught classes at Iola, and in 1939 his work was shown at the Brodhead Gallery. After his death in 1943, a memorial exhibition was shown by the Rochester Historical Society.  One dates from after 1903, and the other is most likely earlier." 

                              SAMUEL JAMES ANDREWS

A plaque in the chapel reads: "In pius memory of Samuel James Andrews, the great son of the Revered man Samuel Andrews and his wife Ann Shelton. Auspiciously sent from the town of Wallingford in Conneticut and from St Andrews in New Brunswick by the venerable society for the promoting of the Gospels of the Holy Anglican Church. Founding the first school in this town among the settlements, likewise with others first Saint Luke's and second St Paul's were seen. Born in Wallingford Feb 16th 1766 and died in Rochester Jan 12th 1832. And in memory of his wife Demaridus, the daughter of Samuel Tyler and Demaridus Atwater. Born in Wallingforn April 3rd 1769 and died in Rochester Sept. 18th 1855.