Chapter Five – St. Peter’s: 1932-1967

Following Rev. Dowell’s acceptance of a new call, the Rev. John Ernest Carhartt became the parish’s new rector in September 1932, serving until his sudden death in 1943. Vestry officers included senior warden L.T. Carlisle, junior warden Jay Adams, treasurer J.H. Regner, clerk Roy Sinclair, and financial secretary B.S. Hubbard. Vestrymen were J.D. Bonnar, Paul Crosby, W.F. Flower, Charles Gallup, W.B. Hubbard, William Kunkle, Neal Lusk, W.A. Smith, A.A. Tickner, and J.H. Wilsey.

Formerly on the staff of Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Rev. Carhartt’s call to Ashtabula represented a call home to his native Ohio, where he had attended Denison University in Granville, Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and Kenyon Collage and Bexley Hall Seminary at Gambier. Rev. Carhartt’s previous calls included parishes in Toledo, Cleveland, and Cleveland Heights. In the Diocese of Ohio, Rev. Carhartt served six years on diocesan council and served as editor of Church Life, the diocesan magazine, until its 1931 demise because of reductions in the diocesan budget. A chaplain in the Army Reserve, Rev. Carhartt also served as chaplain to Ashtabula’s Dewey Howland American Legion Post.

With the advent of improved transportation facilities in the city, diminishing memberships, and the financial difficulties of the Great Depression, the 1930s were a time of consolidation for the Episcopal Church in Ashtabula, with St. Peter’s growing with the incorporation of communicants from Grace Memorial Church in the city’s Ashtabula Harbor “North End,” St. Matthew’s in Plymouth, and Ashtabula’s Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church, a “Low Church” group that had splintered from “High Church” St. Peter’s in 1890. Trinity’s congregation returned to St. Peter’s in 1934.

Through the use of careful diplomacy, Rev. Carhartt brought these three congregations into the larger life of St. Peter’s, Ashtabula. So successful was his work that members of vestries from the four constituent parishes were elected to the new combined vestry of St. Peter’s with a unity of purpose.

The parish called Rev. Charles V. Covell to succeed the late Rev. Carhartt in 1944. During Rev. Covell’s 5-year ministry in Ashtabula, the old floors in the c. 1829 church were replaced and other improvements and repairs were also made to the facility.

In 1950, St. Peter’s called the Rev. Robert A. George as its new rector. During Rev. George’s 8-year tenure, the Parish Hall was remodeled in 1954 as part of the parish’s $43,760 Builders for Christ parish house improvement capital campaign. The financial structure and pledge arrangements of the parish were also revised and improved. Missionary giving also increased and there was a dramatic increase in lay participation in the work of the Diocese of Ohio. And during Rev. George’s call, parishioner R. Richard Tickner was presented for ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.

Admired diocesan Bishop Beverly D. Tucker of Rev. George, later a canon at Washington National Cathedral, to incoming rector Rev. John S. Cuthbert, “St. Peter’s, Ashtabula, is one of the oldest parishes in the Diocese of Ohio, and today stronger than any time in its history. The Rev. Robert A. George…gave the parish a leadership that has made an impressive program. You will come into not only a rich heritage but a strong and unified parish.”

Rev. Cuthbert, who arrived from Connecticut like founding rector Roger Searle before him, also faced a monumental task ahead of him. While the parish of St. Peter’s, Ashtabula had continued to be vigorous and active, the woodframe c. 1829 Gothic-styled church was showing its advanced age. The rotting timbers supporting the church floor sank suddenly under a group of women meeting in the church. And the ongoing costs to repair the 134-year-old structure were becoming increasingly burdensome for the parish.

The parish had also come to outgrow its c. 1829, with membership peaking at some 400 members in the waning post-World War II Baby Boom years early-to-mid 1960s.

Beginning in 1957, the vestry began exploring the parish’s various options, including a complete rebuilding program of the existing church, demolition of the existing church and building a completely new structure on the site, or relocating the parish to a new location in metro Ashtabula.

While there were many objections raised to the demolition of the old church by a large portion of dissenters in the congregation, Rev. Cuthbert used his extensive past background in business to lay the case for building a new state-of-the-art church and navigating the emotional objections razed. With “tactful strength,” Rev. Cuthbert eventually sold the parish on the advisability of building anew.

Noted Rev. Cuthbert in a sermon prior to the vestry’s final June 1963 vote on the matter, “Let us rejoice in the life and work of this grand old building. As with the bodies of our ancestors, let it now return to the earth from which it sprang. Let us offer a new St. Peter’s Church to God again – reborn and refashioned; transfigured in new raiment – to be used once more in a new generation to the Glory and the Praise of Almighty God.”

With the approval of the vestry, William E. Johnson, L. Tyler Carlisle, and Robert Dickinson oversaw the appointment of Advance Fund and Building committees, which solicited pledges to cover demolition and construction costs, paid over a 3-year period.

Demolition of the old church began, with worship services held in the Parish Hall until the completion of the new church. As part of the project, the existing connecting cloister between the church and Parish House was demolished and rebuilt and the Parish House received an extensive façade remodeling the harmonize the c. 1923 Parish Hall with the rising church’s Williamsburg architectural style.

Built in 1963-65 and dedicated by the Rt. Rev. Nelson M. Burroughs in May 1965, the new debt-free church was designed upon the beauty and simplicity of the New England and Williamsburg styles and incorporated everything that would be usable from the old church, including: selected stained glass windows from the chapel, baptistry and the old Grace Memorial Mission; the high altar and sanctuary reredos; the brass communion rail; the marble baptismal font; the old church pews, installed in the balcony; the old c. 1878 church bell; and the 1441-pipe Holtkamp organ donated by Ashtabula’s retailing L.T. Carlisle family.

The dedication festivities celebrating the completion of the colonial-styled church was planned by a 13-member steering committee headed by chairman Warren Andrews.

Between 1955-1967, St. Peter’s enjoyed the services of an Assistant Rector to assist the Rector in the ministry of the parish – Rev. George Anderson (1955-58), Rev. Charles M. Vogt (1958-61), Rev. Robert T. Mason (1961-62), Rev. Douglas E. Theuner (1962-65, later Bishop of New Hampshire), and Rev. Paul A. Heckters (1965-67).

In October 1967, St. Peter’s celebrated the sesquicentennial of its February 1817 incorporation with a festive liturgy that included Diocese of Ohio bishop coadjutor Rt. Rev. John Harris Burt as officiant, Bishop of Connecticut Rt. Rev. Walter Henry Gray as preacher, and numerous priests including rector Rev. Cuthbert and all the living clergy who had served St. Peter’s Church, including former 1950-58 rector Rev. Robert A. George, former 1944-49 rector Rev. Charles V. Covell, and former assistant rectors Rev. Paul A. Heckters, Rev. Douglas E. Theuner, Rev. Robert T. Mason, Rev. Charles M. Vogt, and Rev. George W. Anderson. A reception followed in the Parish House’s lower level Fellowship Hall.