Grace Episcopal Church

About

Grace Church of Plainfield is a welcoming and affirming Christian community characterized by diversity, worshiping, and praising God in the Anglican tradition and proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed in active discipleship.

Story

What is now Grace Church began on January 11, 1852 when a small group of Episcopalians met for the first time at the Plainfield home of one of the founding members. The second service was held two weeks later. Soon, worship was being held every Sunday morning in private homes and schoolhouses. The number of worshippers increased so steadily that by June of that year, the church leaders began the process to establish an Episcopal Church in Plainfield.
On April 18, 1853, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (which is now called Grace Episcopal Church) was officially born in Plainfield. Three months later, the cornerstone of the church edifice was laid at East Front Street between Richmond and Berckman Streets in Plainfield – land the church had received as a gift – and construction was completed by early autumn.
As Plainfield and the church expanded over the next decades, the church leadership saw that their building at its current location was inadequate. So they bought a site in the then-posh uptown neighborhood of Seventh Street and Sycamore Street (now Cleveland Avenue) and the original building was relocated to the current site. The removal and reconstruction of the old edifice was completed during the summer of 1876, and the congregation worshipped in the “new” church for the first time on October 15, 1876.
With the completion of railroad connections to New York City, Plainfield became a populous commuter town. The new – and newly-affluent – families joining Grace Church made a new and even larger church building not only a necessity, but also financially feasible. They turned to renowned architect R. W. Gibson, who was also responsible for several historic landmark New York City buildings, who designed Grace Church as a stone Gothic Revival structure with carved red sandstone trim and hints of the Romanesque.

In design and workmanship, Grace Church reflects late 19th century ecclesiastical architecture. The building is a two-story cruciform plan Gothic Revival style, characterized by the use of asymmetry, cruciform plan, pointed arched windows and arches, gothic style door carvings, and decorative sandstone trim around door and window openings. The church has a central nave flanked by narrow side aisles. Clerestory windows above the aisles illuminate the interior.













field Community Outreach is located, and a large meeting room. The main floor houses All Saints Chapel, Vestry Meeting Room, and large parlor where many parish meetings are held as well as Sunday Coffee Hour after the main Eucharist. The Parish House extension, completed in 1956, is a graceful struc- ture of brick with limestone. The trim, harmonizing architecturally with the old stone edifice, and is full integrated with it. The main floor has an assembly


The Parish House, constructed in 1905, was expanded in the 1950s. The old Parish House was changed into five classrooms, a curate’s office on the second floor and in the lower level there are classrooms and offices where The Plain-












hall named for Dr. Harry James Knickle, the 9th Rec- tor, with connecting kitchen, a ladies powder room and a bathroom. Here on the last five business days of the month, Grace’s Kitchen feeds more than 100 meals daily. At the end of the main floor leading into the church
is the Administrative Secretary’s office and the Rector’s office..

The Chancel and Sanctuary were en- larged in 1930. Grace Church is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


The beautiful chapel in the South Tran- sept of the Nave is a memorial to Walter
C. Scott and dedicated in 1966 designated as The Chapel of Christ the King. Here the priest will bless and anoint the sick of the parish after the main Eucharist on Sunday

The Grace Church Organ
is a wonderful instrument to lead the liturgical and musical life of our congre- gation.

The organ is a 37-rank instrument built by Casavant Fre res Lte e, St Hyacinthe, Que bec, Opus 1186, installed in 1927. The Schantz Organ Company, Orrville, Ohio, installed a new console in the 1970s. The swell trumpet was also replaced with a bombarde unit, but the organ has remained essentially unchanged tonally. It is excellent at accom- panying liturgy and is particularly well suited for French romantic and symphonic literature. Preludes, postludes and improvisations played on our organ greatly Genrich our worship experience




Grace Carillon
The bell tower of Grace Church houses a rare 47-bell carillon that was dedicated as a two octave carillon in March 1923. It is one of the largest in the United States and is played every Sunday except during the season of Lent. The Grace Carillon was It was manufactured and installed by Gillett
& Johnston. The carillon was later doubled in size by brothers Walter and Bertram Pit- tis. he new bells were manufac- tured by Paccard.

On May 5, 1891, the cornerstone of the new church was laid. By spring, the building was finished. The congregation worshipped in the new church for the first time on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892. In just 40 years, Grace Church Plainfield had become one of the largest and most influential parishes in the diocese.