It began on a Porch in Dorranceton ...

DATA & LORE
(A more or less truthful, 'though sometimes fanciful, account of Grace Church)

Did you know Grace church was born in controversy?

Legend has it that Benjamin Dorrance, an noted "coal baron" and a small group associated with him had a sometimes stormy relationship at St Stephen's in Wilkes Barre, but he had enough influence to convince the bishop that a mission church of St Stephen's should be started on the west side of Wyoming Valley, across the Susquehanna River in Dorranceton, of course. Then as now, money talked, and so it happened. Ben also had some things to say about Kingston when it incorporated HIS hometown Dorranceton, none of it flattering. Or repeateable.

The first edifice, a wooden Dutch Colonial Structure was completed in 1902, and a little more the 25 years later the current stone church, in an English Country Gothic style, was built. Some growth, huh? Speaking of Dorrance, didja ever wonder why there is a Dorranceton millwork and a Dorranceton Methodist church. Well Benjamin Dorrance was such a big mahout that the place  where our church stands was in Dorranceton. It only became part of Kingston early in the last century,

Data:
The roof finally received its crown in 1989, fifty nine years late. The entire church was repointed in the same year
The interior of the Edifice was stripped to the walls in 1990 and the walls, floors, altar and pews were refinished once we were dry and under cover (meaning the roof was repaired). The chancel was in poor shape, lots of damage near the Altar due to water infiltration. The Chancel was painted baby blue. The base of the large columns in the nave were painted brick red. Honest. Few remember this.

Lore:
The main altar was pulled out from the Rerodos one evening by one Denton Durland, an interim Priest. I know. I saw him do it . It was a complete surprise to me. Amazingly, this did not cause as big a stir as i had thought it would. A brave man, Denton.

Data:
Arcane terms: When you enter our church, you come into the Narthex (vestibule). On your left is the Narthex sinister (Coat room), on your right , Narthex dexter (Stair to basement). The floor below you as you stand in the Narthex (in the basement) is called the Jack croft . Above your head is the Choir Loft. Above that is the Echo Organ, a small room with hardwood floors whose sole function was to have a set of resonant base pipes installed to improve the bass "voice" of the organ (None were ever installed, see below for what may be the real reason). Above that is the Belfry, empty out of deference to the neighbors who might object to bell ringing so close to their home (that's the story, at least). There was also the fact that there was no money for Bells or the Echo organ. As you can tell we Episcopalians have a name for everything.

Lore:
The construction of the present church was begun in 1929, the corner stone was laid in 1930 and despite a healthy membership, as a result off the effects of the depression the early 1932, the Church was slowly sinking under the weight of its mortgage. Twelve elders of the church, Lanning Ransom being the youngest, bought life insurance policies naming the church as beneficiary. According to Lanning, the church was paid for by 1934

Data:
More Arcana: The walkway at the perimeter of the church is the ambulatory. the one in font of the chancel is the transept . The aisle is the middle walkway in the nave (main church). Oh yeah, overhead is not the ceiling, but the vault, constructed to look lie the hull of a ship sort of like Old Ship Zion. As I said, we Episcopalians have a name for everything

Data:
The church has three basic heating zones: chancel, nave, undercroft. The Narthex and kitchen are on a scavenging system, that is, they cannot summon heat on their own, but both have thermostats to heat those particular areas provide the Main church or Undercroft is being heated. There is also a designed in 7 minute delay in the heating system by means of an air conditioning switch, so that if the heat just goes off in the knave, and someone turns up the heat in the undercroft, the boiler will not fire again for seven minutes, allowing the hot water in the system to provide heat without incurring additional cost. The old heating system was the third update of a coal fired near-vapor steam system designed by the Anthracite Institute. There used to be a huge 1,750,000 btu hand fired coal steam boiler, which was replaced by a 1,550,000 btu gas steam boiler, which in turn was replaced by the present 1,125,000 boiler, which was once a steam boiler, but now is a hot water system.

Lore:
It is said that the first boiler cracked when the sexton overslept and the fire went out. It is also a legend that Henry Schultz, in a master stroke of salesmanship, managed to convince this heavily coal and oil connected Parish (Dorrance[coal] and Mahaffey[oil] families) to switch to gas so this sort of disaster wouldn't occur again. The latest boiler has worked well for about eighteen years,but about seven years ago, the steam pipe, contorted by settlement and rotting pipes under the floors began to bang and howl steadily, in addition having a voracious appetite for water. Despite this cacaphony, some wags said it was better to listen to the boiler than listen to the priest's sermons, but most of us didin't think so. We decided to convert to hot water heat, but keep the boiler we had. The big old Burnham boiler is a stout piece and despite warnings to the contrary it seems to work OK, and has been for a long time.

Data:
The boiler serving the office, sacristy, bathrooms and Wallis room is a Bryant (Carrier) about 40 years old. It is likely to be our next heating nightmare. It is connected to a series of pumps feeding radiators and one classroom ventilator heater which also supplies air conditioning, This classroom ventilator, a frightfully expensive $10,000.00 item including the air conditioning replaced a nearly identical unit which failed about twelve yeas ago. The original rational behind this design is that it was the only way to rapidly heat an “occasional use” room - quite true- but it ain't cheap to replace these classroom ventilators.

Lore
The boiler tubes in the Wallis Room boiler literally burned through because of heat and corrosion about nine years ago. Not a good thing to happen to an obsolete boiler. A service man from PG Energy, Gene Mafre, said " I think I saw burner tubes like that at our warehouse" He found them - amazingly, they fit, and are still working today.

Data:
This church as conceived, was never to have any of that "Roman Catholic" frippery like stained glass, Tabernacle or Aumbres. That ideal lasted until a parishioner (whose name escapes me right now) carved an Aumbre which closely follows the design o f the Cathedra (Bishops Chair). It is attached to the right corner of the Chancel.

Lore
A former Rector , a snake belly low Episcopal minister, the Reverend Ralph Weatherly (MISTER Weatherly to you!) really disliked the "Catholic" tradition of the Episcopal church so much so that he abhorred things like the Rerodos and stained glass windows. Yet he was a pragmatist. When memorial donations were made for a Rerodos, it happened. When people began requesting stained glass memorial windows, he dutifully laid out a plan of installation so that family members didn't run amok or duplicate designs. It worked almost flawlessly except for one window installed after his death.
He also finally weighed in in favor of hanging the Aumbre on humanitarian grounds (in other words, not to annoy a major contributor), although twas said his heart wasn't in it (this was a guy who offered moaning prayer three out of four Sundays), he was pleased with the symmetry of the result

Data
The East window and Altar window are original Petruzzi of New York, (spelling may be wrong) who were among the most prestigious stained glass manufacturers in the world. The appraised value of these windows in 1990 was in excess of $250,000!! Most of the remaining stained glass windows are from the renowned Willets studio in Philadelphia, with one exception, which was by Baut Studio, Swoyersville

Lore
The last two windows were installed after the death of Jim Ward and William George. These windows were installed by Willets of Philadelphia by a couple of guys who could pass for Hell's Angels. The Vestry murmured silent prayers that none of our older parishioners would happen on the scene during installation. Helen Bubeck, our longtime Altar Guild president and severe taskmistress, did happen upon the installation. She saw the gusys installing the window. She said nothing. [Whew]

Data;
We have an ancient natural gas powered generator for emergency lighting located generally under the Wallis Room kitchen. It has to be fired at least once weekly to be sure it will actually function in a emergency.

Lore:
Legend has it that on Lanning Ransom used this system to scare the bejeebers out of a youth Halloween party. In the midst of someone telling scary stories in a darkened Wallis room, he sneaked down a fired the generator, it hammered away like the dickens and strange lights turned on all over the Church. It sacred the kids out of their socks.

Data
The basement walls in the average 22" of poured concrete. 22" !!!!

Lore
The powers that were in charge during the Edifice construction opted to eliminate tarring the outside of the foundation as an economy move, the result has been a damp basement and water infiltration only recently attnuated. Helen Bubeck opined that these were white gloved gentlemen who knew nothing about construction (actually, she was a little rougher and a bit more salty than that).

Data
The Church and the Wallis room are " floaters" when the Spring ground water tide rises, the Church rotates on it longitude axis about 4" to the right, the Wallis Room, for no discernible reason, does this about 2" to the left, that is why the handicap ramp is not attached to either building, and also why the flagstone deck between them needs more frequent re-pointing than you would expect.

Lore
A large opening occurs at the vault (ceiling) level adjacent the Lectern in the Spring. Look up and you may see daylight. There is no good way to fix this because our foundation walls are fractured, it has no apparent effect on structural integrtiy, and the Church do what it gonna do. And praise the Lord, it DOESN'T leak. 'tis a mystery true.

Data
The large wooden beam at the front of the Chancel ain' t wood, and its no decoration. It holds the Chancel together. In the late 1950s. shortly after the Wallis Room was built, the Chancel suffered a mine subsidence (a notorious legacy of Anthracite mines). It opened a 9" gap along the same wall described above, the whole Church warped around it. It put so much stress on the Wallis Room that a 4 " gap opened at the entrance up to the ceiling level. If you look closely at the wood coping over the door in the Wallis Room, you will see an irregularly shaped piece of moulding cover a very large sin. and the wall was simply filled in (not to expertly it seems). The Church has not settled much since.

Lore
When the steel beam was added at the Chancel to repair the subsidence damage, there was some controversy about ts appearance and how it would ruin the Church. There were also people upset that Union affiliated Steelworkers arrived to do the job and marveled at the incredible cost. When informed that there were no equally capable non union companies doing this work, a majority agreed. They were then amazed at the speed with which the work was done. To save some money, the slurry of stone and clay backfill used to stabilize the basement of the edifice was supervised by Vestry members (meaning they actually got dirty - no mean feat for lawyers and businessmen)

Data
There is a sump pump in the boiler room that wasn't always there. as a result of this skimping, a blockage occurred and literally blew a lead cap off the sewer line in the kitchen during a particularly cold winter. If you move then serving tables in the kitchen, you will find a large wooden plug where a lead one used to reside. It doen]t blow off any more.

Lore
There are stories of incredibly bad smells emanating from the kitchen for years until someone thought of a sump pump solution.

Data
We have another sump pump in the storage room in the jack-croft. its sole purpose is to draw down water at the wall between the building so the basement doesn't flood. It doesn't have to work often, Thank God it is there when it does have to run.

Lore
We had a leak at the fracture line on the other side of the basement. the guys doing the ramp (the first time) dug done nine feet in a driving rain while Keen Mitchell and I watched, this relieved the pressure on the walls and the multiple steams of water (from two to four feet up the wall) ceased. But, the catch basin they installed must be cleaned regularly to prevent bad things from happening again.

Data
When we first put the handicap ramp in , it cost about $7800. We solicited donations. Fred M. Kirby (yes that Fred M. Kirby of Woolworth fame) paid for all but $168.00 of it. While we were putting it in, we discovered a crushed storm sewer line, which, although it wasn't the main culprit, exacerbated the flooding in the basement. We then asked the mason to inspect all the other sewers, he found most of them had collapsed. the result is that we found the storm sewers wind the way all around the Wallis room, around the back of the church, through the grassy area (and under the memorial garden ) all the way to the street in frioont of the Church. These sewers were replaced. There are clean-outs at regular intervals to allow cleaning and inspection. The catch basin on the right side of the church is also tied into this.

Data:
The plans for the Church, Wallis Room and Rectory are in the little room marked “men” next to the office. Don't worry, the room is not used for that purpose anymore.

Lore
It is said that S. Keen Mitchell had to use all his considerable charm to wrest control of these drawings from one of our parishioners who fancied themselves as the keeper of the grail. This person shall remain nameless.

Data
The main altar was originally attached to the Rerodos, and only had two round legs and two huge ear-like extensions to secure it to the wall. during the restoration, the se "ears we cut off, and two additional legs were turned on a lathe to make the altar look as if it was intended to be that way. Few people ever noticed. Success!

Lore
When the altar was relocated its appearance so offended Helen Bubeck's sense of feng sui (we didn't cal it that then) regarding the altar flowers (she thought they were too crowded and prominent up front on the altar) that she had the two semicircular shelves made that the flowers rest on now. She didn't complain, she simply went out and did something about it (with the vestry's approval).