1906 Dedication of Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church
This plaque is located in the vestibule on the southeast side of the building.
On the weekend of May 13, 1906 the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church was dedicated. It was not simply a dedication ceremony on the morning of Sunday the 13th, it was a four-day celebration of Daniel Reid’s glorious gift to the congregation of his youth and to the city. It was a huge affair encompassing many committees working over several months. Much of the planning involved a huge reception and banquet to show Reid how appreciative the members were. The committees were quite disappointed when, on April 27, they learned that Mr. Reid and his daughter, Rhea, were still in Europe and would not make it home by May 13.
Daniel Gray Reid
The residents of Richmond had been watching the construction with great interest for nearly two years, so excitement was high for a glimpse of the reported beauty of the interior.
The festivities began on the evening of Saturday, May 12 with the dedicatory concert of the chimes in the tower. The Palladium reported that “North A Street in the vicinity of the church was thronged with people an hour before the unique concert began.” Albert Meneely, of the Meneely Bell Foundry, the company that manufactured the chimes, played the concert because no one had yet been trained locally. The building was still not open to the public, so the audience enjoyed the chimes from the street, and for a mile around.
Chime installed in the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church and dedicated on May 12, 1906.
The next morning, Sunday, May 13, was the formal dedication of the church building. The usual Sunday School session began at 8:45 followed by the dedication service at 10:30. The Item reported that the sidewalks were lined with people long before the heavy gates were pulled back allowing people to enter. “Exclamations of awe and admiration were heard on every hand, as only a few had been privileged to witness the interior of the church before the formal opening. “ That is still the case more than a century later when visitors enter the auditorium for the first time.
A special choir had been formed for the event composed of the finest voices in the city and led by Professor Will Earhart, the director of music education at Richmond High School. Five former ministers of the congregation were invited to participate in the services, headed by Rev. Alexander Gilchrist, who gave the sermon. The final act of the service was to formally present the gift of the church to the congregation, which was supposed to have been done by Daniel Reid himself, but in his absence, that honor fell to his half-brother, John Dougan.
A second service was conducted Sunday evening preceded by a meeting of Our Young People’s Christian Union, the United Presbyterian youth group. Both of the Sunday services “taxed the capacity of the church.”
The magnificent organ was dedicated with a formal concert on Monday evening. W. H. Donley, of Indianapolis, was the man who designed the organ, and it was he who performed the dedicatory concert, assisted by Cincinnati soprano, Carolyn Hayes. Another overflow crowd arrived for the concert, and after the auditorium and balcony were filled, chairs were placed in the aisles. “Even then it was necessary for hundreds of people to stand in the entrance and the hallways, while many stood on the sidewalks or sat on the curbstones. People in vehicles of various descriptions nearly formed a blockade on Eleventh Street and on A Street,” reported the Palladium the next day.
The organ looks the same today as it did when it was dedicated in 1906.
Festivities closed on Tuesday evening with a Fraternal Meeting to which all the ministers of Richmond were invited, as well as the five former Presbyterian ministers. W. H. Donley and Carolyn Hayes again performed, and many of the ministers gave short speeches congratulating the congregation on its splendid new home.