An Easton Congregation and Its Award Winning Church

St. Marks Episcopal Church on the corner of Columbus Avenue and Center Street won the Easton Historical Commission‘s Clement Briggs Award last week. The award goes to the property owner who has done something out-of-the ordinary to preserve a historic property. Clement Briggs , our first English settler, built the first European style home in town along the banks of the Queset in Eastondale.

The historic church’s congregation has worked hard over many years to maintain this little gem, and in 2012 a particularly nice job of repainting their building in a two-toned Victorian style caught the eye of Historical Commissioners. What the Historical Commission discovered at its awards ceremony was an inspiring story of perseverance well worth sharing.

The story begins next door to the church lot on Center Street where sometime between 1889 and 1891 Samuel Judson Howe built “Sunnyside” the large house that is today 89 Center Street. Howe was born in Chatham in 1845. Like many Cape people, Samuel’s father mixed farming with the sea. The Howe family moved to Middleborough in the 1850s, and it was there that young Samuel met and married Susan Abby Sanford  in 1866. By 1870 both Samuel and his father were listed as sea captains in the census, and at some point Samuel became a captain in the United States Revenue Service, a precursor of the Coast Guard. Howe, a devout Baptist lived at Sunnyside until his death in July, 1917 and his wife continued there into the 1920s.

Next to Sunnyside were two small lots that were part of a subdivision set out by Lemuel K. Wilbur and Josiah Goward in 1890. Howe bought these lots in May,1892, and in June, 1893 donated them to the First Baptist Church of Easton.  The new church was completed by 1895 in the simple, but elegant late 19^th century  version of the Queen Anne style. A recent historical survey calls the church an “intact and distinctive example of late 19^th century church building in North Easton” and “an important architectural and cultural landmark in the town.”

The Howes were leading members of the new church, but unfortunately, as the original members of the church faded away, the younger generation couldn’t keep up its financial obligations. In 1909 the members deeded the church to the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society which continued to own the property until 1928.

Meanwhile, on February 13, 1916 a group of Episcopalians met in a private home in  North Easton to participate in a service led by Reverend W. W. Love. The service was so well received that the little group decided to establish themselves as St. Mark’s Mission and to rent Lake’s Hall, a small room above Lake’s Store on Main Street at the northwest corner of Mechanic Street. The group met there until October 1926 when it began to rent the Baptist Church on Center Street. The Baptist Society sold the church to three trustees who were to “hold and manage” the property for St. Marks. The church was consecrated in May, 1928 and the trustees soon transferred title to the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts with the condition that the building be used for “a church, chapel, or rectory” for Episcopalians.

Always a small congregation, the people of St. Marks have had to work hard to carry out the mission of their church and to preserve their beautiful building. All went well for fifteen years until Halloween night 1943 when around 9:30 P. M. a fire destroyed most of the interior of the building. Giving the date suspicion arose that the fire might have been caused by a prank gone awry, but close inspection pointed to defective electric switches as the cause of the disaster.

With damages of $9,000 in 1943 dollars a lesser congregation might have given up on the building, but the frame was sound and the people got to work. Five local churches offered help, and the congregation met at the Swedish Lutheran Church on Williams Street for eighteen months. Professionals restored the damaged structure while the men of the church cleaned and repainted the sanctuary. Services resumed in the spring of 1945. The beams in the roof still bear the scorch marks of the great fire.

With the building structurally sound and usable the next decade saw a complete renovation of the interior often through gifts and memorials. The sacristy was restored and a new organ added. A new altar, public lectern, chancel rail, prayer desks, vases, and altar hangings all were added during this time. The exterior required continued maintenance, of course, but the only major change was the replacement of old windows.  In 1952 Sunnyside was acquired as a rectory and parish hall. A decade later the barn on the property was converted into a parish center with Sunday school rooms in the basement.

Throughout the 1960s membership grew, and the congregation made many small improvements to the property. The decades of the ‘70s and ‘80s saw a decline in membership, but the congregation remained committed to maintaining its building. During this time Sunnyside was sold to create an endowment to maintain the church building.

The mid 1980s marked a positive turn for the little congregation. The undercroft of the church was renovated with a kitchen, bathroom, and meeting space added. The members then met in the undercroft while the sanctuary was restored and an office and sacristy added. Once again these changes did not affect the buildings lovely exterior.

An exterior change did occur in the new millennium.  A revived congregation used the undercroft for many charitable and community projects, but it only had a single exit making it dangerous in case of fire. Granted parish status for the first time by the annual Diocesan Convention in 2001, the congregation was able to receive a small loan from the diocese. With the loan and a lot of “sweat equity” from the members a second exit was added, and the building was brought up to code.

Still, the congregation is a small one with a strong commitment to charitable work including support for HUGS II and a program for providing backpacks filled with school supplies for kids in need so financing even general maintenance requires creative thinking. At one point prisoners on work release painted the church, but by 2012 the building needed a new scrapping and paint job. Money was again in short supply. In fact, the job was likely to be postponed until a call was placed to Painter’s Pride in Framingham, a painting company that specializes in churches and other large projects. The owner, Bud Killam, visited the church even though he was told it was unlikely the church could afford his services. Mr. Killam, a fellow Episcopalian, fell in love with the little building and decided to donate a painting crew for a week. Church women banded together to feed the crew who worked through Holy Week 2012. Mr. Killam had the idea to add the golden sunburst in the gable for a touch of Victorian splendor. That sunburst attracted the eyes of the Historical Commission, but it was the congregation’s dedication to preserving this little gem through decades of good times and bad that proved the choice for this year’s Briggs Award winner was one of the best ever.

Painter’s Pride provides free consultations for churches, senior centers, and other large painting jobs. Mr. Killam can be reached at 1-800-600-6472 or bkillam@painterspride.net.

Carne no Espeto

Carne no Espeto is known around these parts as meat on a stick, a direct translation. It is the Portuguese version of Shish Kebab, but the stick is about all the two dishes share in common. Portuguese cuisine is one of the great neglected cuisines of Europe. It first appeared in Massachusetts on the South Coast with Portuguese fisherman before the Revolution, and we are very lucky this is one of the few places in America where it is available.

A Manuel DaSilvia or DaSilva enlisted for Easton in the Revolution and was among our longest serving men. It's doubtful that he actually lived in town, however, since he never shows up on tax records after the war. For some reason Easton wasn't an attractive destination for Portuguese immigrants for a long time. The 1885 state census listed only a handful of Portuguese in Easton while Raynham and Stoughton had large numbers. Farms in Raynham and shoe shops in Stoughton may have been more attractive to these immigrants, but by and just after the turn-of-the 20th century the Portuguese joined the Irish and the Swedes as one of Easton's largest immigrant groups.

The families that came to Easton or perhaps just the males in those families brought with them an excellent marinade for barbecued Carne no Espeto. It became a specialty, a famous delicacy served at ethnic and family events throughout town. It was delicious and served with great pride and a degree of secrecy.

Now at Oliver Ames, the American History classes always did a "Your Immigrant Ancestor" project where students brought in traditional foods. Even warmed up meat on a stick was delicious, but the recipe was still a secret. Heck, in my classes I even added a rule that a recipe had to accompany each dish, you know in case someone had a nut allergy, wink, wink, but still meat on a stick was "oh it's just salt and pepper." Wrong there was more to that recipe, I could taste it.

I made it a crusade to get a real authentic Easton recipe without cheating and using the Internet. It was actually easier to find out who joined the KKK back in the 1920s than to get a recipe for meat on a stick. My attorney knows the damn recipe, but even under the strictures of attorney-client privilege I couldn't weasel the recipe out of him. Things looked grim for years, but I still wouldn't cheat and turn to the 'Net.

Then two weeks ago I was in the Stoughton Bakery, a bastion of wonderful Portuguese baked goods. While waiting for an order of shrimp cakes, I noticed a bag of salt on a shelf. Closer inspection revealed a Gonsalves product labelled "Carne no Espeto." The fine print noted it was for shish kebab Madiera style. Meat on a stick! It had an ingredient list. I bought the bag and marinated some steak tips. It was the real deal.

It actually is mostly "just salt and pepper." Two kinds of pepper: the everyday black stuff and red pepper flakes. I've learned since that most people use American red pepper flakes which is made from cayenne peppers, but that there is a Portuguese pepper (pimenta muida) that is traditional. Along with the salt and pepper, there was garlic powder. Homemade versions may use crushed fresh garlic, lots of garlic. The final and very surprising ingredient was crushed bay leaf. I never would have gotten that.

I happened to mention my find to a Portuguese immigrant who moved to Easton from Stoughton and who is apparently not bound by the secret death curse for talking about the marinade. She confirmed the ingredients on the bag and added that there is a wet and dry version of the marinade. You don't use it like an American style dry rub because the meat would be too salty. In the old days the meat was rubbed and then was brushed off before cooking. Today you can shake it with the meat in a plastic bag and brush off the excess before barbecuing. The homemade wet marinade contains red wine vinegar with all the dry ingredients mixed in.

How much marinade do you need? A wet version from the Internet (I finally looked) uses a quarter cup of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of red pepper, and "liberal amounts" of the other ingredients for two pounds of beef tips. A dry version starts the base with 6 tablespoons of cayenne for five pounds of beef. All recommend an overnight marinade. This probably comes from the old days when the vinegar and salt would be needed to soften up tough cuts of beef. A few hours in the fridge seems to work as well flavorwise. No Internet recipe mentions the bay leaves-the secret ingredient or the one that makes the mix "Madiera Style?" Who knows, but if you don't want to mix it yourself, it's there on the shelf in a really wonderful ethnic bakery. Try the pastel de nata, the famous little custard tart that Portuguese mariners have spread to every corner of the world, while you're there.

Amazing New Idea at the Library!

Halftime of the Patriots game, and I had to go to a dinner at the Library. Not just any dinner, but a jacket and tie dinner. This was a very special special occasion because the library was announcing its plans for the Creative Commons at Queset House. Rumors of a new idea had been circulating for months but what was a Creative Commons?

As more folks are learning every day, the Library is the busiest place in Easton.  Various groups meet there weekly and hundreds of programs take place annually. Also, I’ve visited libraries in Stoughton, Raynham, Mansfield, and Norton recently and I can tell you that, while those are all excellent libraries, the friendliest and most helpful staff is located right here in Easton.

The new library makes use of the old space gloriously and the Italian Garden is becoming a must see destination with plans for more work this summer. Queset House, the other part of the library campus, has lagged a little behind the other developments, but now it is set to take off and lift our library even further beyond other small libraries in Massachusetts.

What is a Creative Commons? You’ll soon be seeing a trifold that explains it in detail soon, but the idea is to build a space where people of all ages can use new technology and old fashioned networking to spark a creative renaissance in Easton.  The slogan is “Classic Exterior, Savvy Interior.” One of the great thrills of the main library building is having modern library services in an extraordinary building that is a pleasure to visit. At the Creative Commons state-of-the-art media will be housed in a beautifully restored,  elegant 19^th century mansion.

Each room will be a module in a site designed to encourage creativity and collaboration. There will be a recording studio, a lab devoted to digital imaging, and a studio for video editing. Creativity needs more than media and the Creative Commons has set aside a room for craft activities, two meeting rooms with TV capability, and a quiet reading area. While I love the technological whiz bang, my favorite room concept is using the house’s original library as the quiet area with the books from the library’s original collection lining the shelves. The modular idea carries through into the old dining room that can easily be converted into a sophisticated new dining room or a high tech meeting area.

The point of this grand idea is to get you, dear reader, to be a media creator not just a consumer. You’ll be able to record family stories, convert old photos to digital ones and retouch the wear and tear of the ages, design a color poster or piece of original digital art, build a website, write an ebook, or simply host a meeting of your favorite group. Young people will be able to work on multimedia school projects. And, something dear to my historian’s heart, you’ll be able to add your reminiscences and photos to the library catalog making them available to future residents.  And, using excitedly bad sentence structure once more, this will be a collaboration, a sharing of ideas, concepts and skills between people of all ages. The Creative Commons at Queset is an opportunity to build a true “artist’s” colony right here in Easton, and you can be the artist!

Neighbors, don’t expect the landscaping at my house to improve, I’ve gone to the Creative Commons at Queset!

You can learn more and find out how to participate by contacting Uma Hiremath at uhiremath@easton.ma.us or Assistant Director Jason Bloom at jbloom@easton.ma.us.