On a bright Sunday, May 5, 1872, the Reverend James H. B. Brooks held a service of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the School House on Baltimore Avenue in the tiny borough of Clifton Heights. This was the beginning of what was to become St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.
The first celebration of Holy Communion would not take place until the following October. The members met for organization in April of 1873. On October 12, 1878, the cornerstone of the Church was laid by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D.D., and the Church was consecrated by him on March 15, 1879. How appropriate that St Stephen's be established by Bishop Stevens.
The Parish House formally opened on July 28, 1881. Thomas A. Scott, Esquire, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, provided the funds to have this built in memory of his son. A plaque commemorating this has recently been restored and hangs on the wall of the Parish House.
The first rector of St. Stephen's, William W. Taylor, served until 1885, followed by The Revs. Daniel M. Bates, James Fry Bullitt, Thomas Bell, J. Garwood Quinn, Henri M.J. Huff, Edward H. Bonsall, Jr., Oliver E. Newton, George W. Barnes, Henry M. Prentiss, Norman Kerr, Hobart Heistand, Robert Gearhart, Charles Mauch, Donald M. Whitesel, William Martin, and John F. Williams. Rev. Thomas C. Wand is our current Interim Rector.
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Clifton.
The first services of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Upper Darby were held in the public school-house in the village, May 5, 1872, the Rev. James S. Brooke, the rector of St. George's Church, West End, officiating. On October 27th of the same year communion was administered, fourteen persons uniting in the sacred ceremony, and on Thursday evening, November 1st, the bishop of the diocese made his first official visit to Clifton Heights, on which occasion eleven persons were confirmed.
In May of the following year a Sunday-school was organized in connection with the mission. From the establishment of the mission to the beginning of the year 1877 the congregation were under the pastoral care, successively, of the Rev. Mr. Brooke, the Rev. Gideon J. Burton (warden of the Burd Orphan Asylum), the Rev. W. C. Cooley (of West End), and the Rev. Charles A. Maison (of St. James', Kingsessing), the latter having the oversight for about three years.
During this period the congregation was composed almost exclusively of the people working in the mills near the village. They were poor and few in number, but they struggled on in the face of many discouragements, giving far more than they could well afford from their slender income to maintain the services of the church, to which they were warmly attached. Among the most zealous in the work of the little mission was John Shaw, who subsequently was elected one of the original vestry.
In 1876 services began to be held regularly every Sunday morning by Mr. Thomas A. Bent, a lay-reader. At his death, in October, 1876, he was succeeded by Mr. William W. Taylor. In the fall of 1878, Frederick Chase and wife became earnest advocates of the cause of the mission, and their efforts being seconded by many others in the neighborhood, its prospects began to brighten. Oborn Levis donated several lots fronting on the Baltimore turnpike, and enough subscriptions were soon secured to warrant the erection of a church, notwithstanding by the failure of the Franklin Savings-Fund, in Philadelphia, a sum of money which had been accumulating towards a church erecttion-fund was lost. Accordingly, the corner-stone was laid Oct. 12, 1878, and on Sunday morning, March 16, 1879, the sanctuary was dedicated by Bishop Stevens, at which time the church was entirely out of debt, subscriptions having been obtained sufficient to discharge every obligation for its erection.
The building, which is in the Gothic style of architecture, is laid in pressed brick, with stone trimmings, and ornamented with colored brick, while internally it is finished in oiled hard woods, with an open roof and exposed rafters. In the recess chancel is a handsome stained-glass window, the contribution of the Sunday-school scholars.
A parish was now organized under the name of St. Stephen's Church, Clifton Heights, a charter was obtained, and a vestry elected. The first vestrymen were Frederick Chase, Dr. J. W. Phillips, Dr. R. A. Given, John Shaw, Edward Walden, Richard Barlow, and William Kane. At this time, the Rev. Charles A. Maison having resigned, the Rev. G. J. Burton was elected rector in charge, and the lay-reader was chosen assistant minister. He was ordained to the deaconate in the new church Nov. 1, 1879. On Oct. 9, 1880, the corner-stone of a Sunday-school and parish building was laid with impressive services.
This beautiful structure, one of the finest in the county, was the gift of Thomas A. Scott, then president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who was much interested in the little church. A memorial brass tablet on its walls bears this inscription: "Erected in memory of Thomas A. Scott, Jr., who died Ascension Day, 1879. Of such is the Kingdom of God." On Easter Monday, 1881, Rev. Mr. Burton resigned, and his assistant, Rev. W. W. Taylor, was elected rector. In the fall of 1882 ground adjoining the church property (which had already been enlarged by gifts of lots from Dr. R. A. Given and Thomas A. Scott) was received and a rectory begun. It was finished and occupied the following spring.
The present value of the church property, real and personal, is twenty thousand dollars. The actual communicants number seventy. There are in the Sunday-school eight teachers and one hundred scholars. In the parish day-school, one teacher and twenty-eight pupils, and in the night-school, three teachers and forty scholars. Connected with the church there are also sewing and altar societies. Services are held twice on Sundays, on all the holy days, and communion is celebrated twice in the month.
It will be seen by the foregoing sketch that the parish has grown rapidly, and that now, in its sixth year of organization, it is fully equipped for aggressive work in the midst of an increasing population.
