A Brief History of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Adapted and paraphrased from a May 4, 2001 article in the Newark Courier-Gazette.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church traces its beginnings to 1851. The first Episcopal service in Newark was held in the home of Esbon Blackmar on what is now West Union Street. Later that summer, with the permission of the bishop, the congregation elected its first church officers and officially organized the parish.
Building a church was not easy. After local fundraising efforts fell short, two parish women, Mrs. A. W. Marsh and Mrs. Martha Hayes, the rector’s wife, traveled to churches between Newark and New York City asking for support. Carrying letters of introduction from the bishop and clergy, they spent three weeks visiting parishes. They returned with donations and the welcome news that Trinity Church in New York City had offered a $500 loan to help establish the new congregation.
In August 1851, St. Mark’s was admitted as a parish in the Diocese of Western New York. The congregation purchased a building for $350, and on September 19, 1852, held its first service there. The American Gothic church stood at the corner of Main and West Miller Streets and served the parish for the next fifty years.
The early members continued improving their church. The Ladies’ Sewing Society provided carpeting and an organ, and by 1892 the parish had paid off all of its debt.
As the congregation grew, it became clear that a larger church was needed. In 1900 the vestry voted to sell the original church and rectory. On the parish’s 50th anniversary in June 1901, the cornerstone for the present church was laid. Construction moved quickly, and the first service in the new building was held on All Saints’ Day in 1901.
The parish continued to grow in the years that followed. In 1917, the Bloomer family donated the first parish house, which became a center for church dinners, education, and fellowship. During World War II, the building was made available to the Red Cross for its relief work.
By the early 1950s, plans were underway to expand the campus once again by adding a parish hall with offices and classrooms. After years of fundraising, the new addition was completed, and in 1954 Bishop Dudley Stark dedicated the parish hall that continues to serve the congregation today.
In a Christmas message to the parish in 1929, Martha Thomas Comstock wrote:
“The glory of life is to love, not to be loved; to give, not to be served; to be a strong hand in the dark to another in time of need; to be a cup of strength to any soul in crisis of weakness; this is to know the Glory of God.”
Nearly a century later, those words still capture the spirit of St. Mark’s. Since 1851, generations of parishioners have gathered to worship God, serve their neighbors, and share Christ’s love with the Newark community.
