Washington Universalist history, bought in installments

I’m sorry to say I forget which blog entry I read that mentioned the new Google News Archive feature, but it has been fun to see century-old news stories available for instant download, though you only get so far in most cases before having to pay a fee to read the whole thing. You know the first search I made was universalist. Because the most archived paper is The Washington Post, most of the news is about the local Universalist parish and there are lots of interesting items that I didn’t know about. Here are two.

• The Universalist Church (then The Church of Our Father) hosted a fundraiser with “selections from the various mandolin, banjo, and guitar clubs of the city” for victims of the 1893 collapse of Ford’s Theatre, which was then used as a government office building. (Link.)
• Later in 1893, the Church of Our Father opened a mission extension (The Church of the Redeemer) in Capitol Hill “in Haines’ Hall, corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Eighth street southeast.” (Link.) I had never heard of it, and it must not have lasted long. I assume the building’s gone too, since that’s near the Eastern Market Metro station and the brutalist Hine Junior High School.