Work Progressing Fast On Home For Pastor Of Chapel St. Church
PARISHIONERS BUILD RECTORS — Several members of the Chapel Street Baptist Church are shown at work on the new home which they are building for their minister, Rev Carter Johnson and his family, at the corner of Walpole and Berwick Streets (McLean Photo)
For the past year the Rev Carter Johnson, his wife and year-old daughter Carol have been searching through Norwood for a permanent home. Like hundreds of other young families, they found the situation a hopeless one, in spite of the fact that1 they were being assisted by all 90 members of the Chapel Street Baptist Church of which Mr Johnson is pastor Due to other arrangements made by the landlady of their temporary residence on Chapel Count the\ were forced to vacate Without living quarters. Mr. Johnson is pastor.
Due to other arrangements made by the landlady of their temporary residence on Chapel Court, they were forced to vacate Without living quarters. Mr Johnson regretfully told his parishioners that he must seek another pulpit.
The problem of finding a house when there was no house to be found was soon solved when a group of men of the Chapel Sheet church parish pooled their talents and found that they needed only land, material, and money. The other intricacies to building a house were easily settled, among their group were carpenters, electricians, an architect, and engineer.
Six weeks ago they began giving their spare time over to the construction, which is now rapidly nearing completion. Saturday afternoons and evenings during the week they go to work at the corner of Berwick and Walpole streets, where the attractive Cape Cod cottage will be ready for occupancy by their minister in October.
Members of the church had long been desirous of purchasing the; land, which was owned by former Governor Frank G. Allen, After they had raised money for the land, they acquired it from Mr. Allen, who also donated $1000 toward the worthy project. This and other donations, which are still being collected by Treasurer Roland Cedarfield, have financed twenty percent of the construction and the rest is mortgaged by a local bank.
The house was framed ‘by carpenters John Nelson and Charles Anderson. Don Carrier has supervised the electrical work, with the assistance of Robert Palmberg Sr,, deacon of the church. Harold Palmberg has been the architect and engineer and others working on the house are Leon Delatore, Joseph Mulonis, Carl Johnson, Robert Palmberg, and William and Sexton Everburg, After the house is completed, the women of the parish will take over the job and supervise the interior decoration.
A five-room structure, the new rectory has two spare rooms in the attic, which will be finished in the future. Although they are now fully occupied with their parsonage, the group someday hopes to have its entire church property on the Walpole Street location, where they own enough land to erect an adjoining church.
(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)