Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[L Verge]

(01-24-2019 01:25 PM)Steve Wrote:  Edwin was buried in Massachusetts, wasn't he? I'm going to assume you meant memorialized. So, I'm going to guess the stain-glass window of Edwin at the Church of the Transfiguration.

Steve - remember that many folks (especially before 2000) are taken first to church for a burial service and then to the cemetery for burial. Maybe my Episcopal way of phrasing it as "buried from a church" is confusing.

That said, your answer is correct, but I almost asked for the church's nickname and decided not to since it would probably give it away. Most people know it as "The Little Church Around the Corner." In the early-1800s, when actors were frowned upon, Joseph Jefferson (Rip Van Winkle fame, early minstrel, friend of the Booths) went to the priest of another church and asked him to conduct the funeral service for a fellow actor, George Holland. The minister declined, but suggested that Jefferson and his friends try "the little church around the corner" because they did "that sort of thing." Jefferson replied, "In that case, sir, God bless the Little Church Around the Corner." The rector there, Rev. George H. Houghton, did perform the service, and the church became a favorite for actors. The stained glass window that you mentioned was created in Edwin's memory and depicts him as Hamlet. The artist was John LaFarge.

Rev. Houghton also allowed about 300 black persons to take shelter in his church and adjacent buildings during the horrible Draft Riots of 1863. At one point, he actually stood at the door wielding a very large cross to protect everyone from the rioters who were threatening to get inside. There is another window in the transept memorializing a black couple, George and Elizabeth Wilson, who worked for the church for thirty years following the riots.

BTW: The Little Church still holds services. I was last in it in 1970.