Old home days at the Underwood Museum

By Jonathan Monfiletto

There is the old saying that begins, “If these walls could talk...” and is then filled in by whoever is saying it with whatever memories and secrets they think the walls of a house or building or similar structure – wherever people have resided or occupied throughout the years, decades, and centuries – might divulge if, indeed, the walls could talk. At the L. Caroline Underwood Museum, however, the walls don't have to talk in order to express the history of this place – at least, they didn't have to for one day earlier this year.

Back in July, one of those hot and dry days like many of the days we had this summer, St. Mark's Terrace – located right across Chapel Street from the Underwood Museum – hosted a belated 50th anniversary celebration for its senior citizen apartment complex. St. Mark's opened to the Penn Yan community in 1971, making 2021 the actual golden anniversary year, but like all good stories these days that seem to start with “but COVID...” the celebration was pushed back a year. Unbeknownst to us at the time, as we gazed across the street at the tent, signs, and balloons evoking a festive atmosphere, that day also turned out to be old home day at the Underwood Museum. Coincidentally, at that point, I had recently wrapped up some research and the draft of an article on Chapel Street in general and the 107 Chapel St. home in particular. And, yes, all three of these things are related to this story.

Now, picture a Thursday afternoon on an unusually quiet summer day in which we had seen no visitors for tours and even the phone had remained uncharacteristically mute. Then it is 3:15 p.m., and I am looking forward to wrapping up my work and closing up the museum for the day. At that precise moment, though, a group of nine people enters the front of the Underwood Museum. My first thought was, “Oh no...” not because I don't like giving tours (I absolutely love giving tours, especially when I can geek out about some of the research I've done for this blog into the backstories of our exhibits and buildings) but because a full tour of our three museums can take an hour or so depending on how much you read from the exhibit panels and displays. That late in the day, a full tour would be tight.

After my first thought, though, came my second thought, “Huh?” Someone in the group had called out either, “Our grandparents used to live here!” or, “We used to live here!” Well, it turns out that someone was two someones or a few someones: The visitors were sisters Debbie Kirkpatrick McMenamin and Kristie Kirkpatrick Chapman, their daughters, and some family friends. Debbie and Kristie are two of three daughters of the Rev. Bill and Mary Anne Kirkpatrick and lived at 107 Chapel St. when the home was the rectory for St. Mark's Episcopal Church and Father Bill was the pastor there.

Which means, in a nutshell: Debbie and Kristie gave the tour instead of me. I learned the gallery (where our Underground Railroad exhibit currently lives) once had a wall dividing the space into two rooms, the living room on the street side and the dining room behind it. For the Kirkpatricks, our research room was their family room and Father Bill's office. The kitchen and half bathroom were pretty much the same. Upstairs, where our L. Caroline Underwood exhibit and archives storage are situated, there were the parents' and daughters' bedrooms, with a porch room and a family bathroom on either end of the hallway. The Kirkpatricks lived here from 1965 until 1971, when Father Bill joined the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester; it was so much fun for me to here Debbie and Kristie (mostly Debbie, as Kristie was 2 years old when the family moved) reminisce about their life in the home.

As I shared with them what I had learned about the home and office Dr. Barbara Strait (and, for a short time, her husband, Dr. Bernard Strait) had made here, the sisters shared they were in town to join the 50th anniversary celebration of St. Mark's Terrace, which their father had been instrumental in advocating for and establishing in the community. Naturally, that got me interested in extending my research into 107 Chapel St. and looking into the history of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, St. Mark's Terrace, and the Kirkpatrick family and, of course, writing an article about what I found out. So, after nearly 800 words of my background spiel, here comes today's article.

The Sunday, April 19, 1964 edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle announced that day's installation service – a ceremony called the office of institution – for the Rev. William F. Kirkpatrick, of Pittsford, then the curate of Christ Episcopal Church in that community in a post he had held since July 1962. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and 29 years old at the time, Kirkpatrick graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1959 and Episcopal Theological School in 1962 and was ordained a deacon on June 16, 1962 and a priest on December 21, 1962. He and Anne Marie had just one daughter, Elizabeth, at the time.

Interestingly, it isn't until 1965 that real estate transfer listings in the newspapers show Dr. Barbara Strait essentially donating (selling for $1) her Chapel Street home to St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Another 1965 newspaper announcement lists an open house at St. Mark's new rectory on September 19, so it isn't clear where the Kirkpatrick family lived when they first came to town.

Then, on August 19, 1971 – less than two months before the formal dedication of St. Mark's Terrace – The Chronicle-Express announced Father Bill, as parishioners and people around the community affectionately called him, had been appointed to be the administrative executive officer – the bishop's assistant – for the Diocese of Rochester. Father Bill would begin his new duties on November 1 of that year. That article credits Father Bill for initiating “the action in fulfilling the housing needs of the elderly by establishing St. Mark's Terrace, a 7 story, 110 unit high rise apartment building for senior citizens.” And as president of St. Mark's Terrace, he “pursued every avenue to cut the red tape of the Federal Government in establishing this much needed facility.” This included, according to the article, leading the community in raising $158,000 in cash in six weeks to meet the challenge of establishing a much-needed nursing home, this being Penn Yan Manor, which was to admit its first patient that September.

Kirkpatrick was succeeded in May 1972 by the Rev. Geoffrey Robbins, of Westfield, Massachusetts, a native of Mamaroneck and graduate of Colby College in Maine in 1965 and Berkeley Divinity School in Connecticut in 1968. He was ordained a deacon in June 1968 and a priest that December. Robbins had been assistant rector of the Church of the Atonement before coming to Penn Yan with his wife, Louise, and 17-month-old son, Geoffrey. He was officially installed on June 28, 1972 and expressed the desire to work closely the young people of Penn Yan and address any drug issues in the community.

My previous article referenced a Robbins family that apparently lived at 107 Chapel St., as a Mrs. Geoffrey Robbins hosted meetings of La Leche League in the home. Now, the picture is a little clearer with this information from our subject files. Also, a search of our digitized newspapers shows Robbins was the pastor of St. Mark's until 1978, though it is unclear if the Robbins family lived in the home that whole time.

It was during Kirkpatrick's tenure as the pastor of St. Mark's that the Penn Yan community gave birth to the idea that became the structure of St. Mark's Terrace. The lead of a September 1966 newspaper article reads, “A preliminary survey has confirmed the need and desire for a modern housing project for senior citizens in Penn Yan,” and quotes Father Bill saying, “We have about 70 persons signed up for apartments, just from the parish newsletter and news stories about the project.” The church announced plans to sponsor such a project if current informational surveys showed the need, which indeed they did, and a waiting list for apartments was established without obligation.

A year and a half later, in January 1968, St. Mark's church had formed St. Mark's Terrace Inc. to oversee the senior citizens housing project, and a board made up of Kirkpatrick and members of the church and community had been elected. The building was to be located on the south of Chapel Street, running from the First United Methodist Church of Penn Yan to Liberty Street, and options had been obtained on nine properties – six on Chapel and three on Liberty. The proposed design called for a brick, colonial garden-type structure with 27 one-bedroom units and 57 efficiency and studio apartments; original plans for a high-rise building had been scrapped because of the excessive rents that would entail.

By May 1971, St. Mark's Terrace was indeed a high rise – at least by Yates County standards, with seven stories and 110 units – and ready to open for occupancy on July 1. The building had 80 deluxe efficiency apartments with a living-dining room combination, sleeping alcove, kitchen with stove and refrigerator, bathroom, and closet space. There were 30 one-bedroom apartments featuring the same amenities plus an additional bedroom. At the time, Kirkpatrick reiterated the board's philosophy that “decent housing and a suitable living environment are of primary importance in the achievement of health, happiness and security.” The dedication ceremony for St. Mark's Terrace took place on October 17, 1971 and included much fanfare with choirs from community churches, local, county, and federal officials, construction company officials, and veterans groups and a community procession from St. Mark's church to the Terrace. Rt. Rev. Robert H. Spears Jr., the Episcopal bishop with whom Kirkpatrick later worked, blessed the building, while the Rev. Stanley Robinson, of the First United Methodist Church, offered the benediction. A newspaper article from the time mentioned the building project had received federal approval in January 1969 with a loan of nearly $1.5 million – the first such loan in the nation for a rural community.

Indeed, another newspaper article called the building “a living memorial to the senior citizens of the community.” U.S. Rep. John H. Terry, the Congressman for the area at the time, applauded the community's cooperative effort that went into the building, noting, “The importance of St. Mark's Terrace is that a need was seen at the local level and a decision was made to do something about it.”

Stopped at the pumpkin patch at @stmarksge thank you so much for doing this. We had such a blast. #stmarksepiscopalchurch https://www.instagram.com/p/CGvlqpVAWhD/?igshid=5b7riccj3j1s

166/365 6.14.365 Said goodbye until we meet again to my queen godmother. Jackie, thank you for the family, faith, and formation. Thank you for my godfather, and my three godsiblings. Thank you for the church, for teaching about the Tudors (who knew I would find I was related?) and high tea and proper Sunday roast. Most of all, thank you for teaching shy little me how to speak up in a room full of people. And more than words: when my little brother died and the world was not longer safe, for tucking me in under your quilt and reading me A. A. Milne poems in your glorious Dame Maggie Smith voice until I felt safe enough to sleep. You are my Professor Minerva McGonnagall. You are my Queen godmother. I raise my wand tonight in my right hand, my Book of Common Prayer, that you gave me so long ago, in my left. #homebound #chronicillness #2018project #apictureaday #apictureaday2018 #beyourownheroine #spooniestrong #zebrastrong #apictureaday2018carla #wandsup #jackieblythe #stmarksepiscopalchurch (at St. Mark's Episcopal Church)