HomeBoston Chapel and ENCAbout the Collection

About the Collection

Collection Title Rev. Jim Tasker's Collection of Boston Nazarene Chapel, 1952-2013

Dates 1952-2013

Accession Number 2013-001

Creators

  • Tasker, Jim
  • Bergers, Jay
  • Crew, Bob
  • Crouse, Nevin
  • Dosckocil, Joan Crew
  • Esselstyn, Ted
  • Fetter, Merle
  • Fretz, Ruby
  • Gailey, Charles
  • Goodell, Janice
  • Goodwin, Hazel
  • Green, Donald
  • Hollett, Pat
  • Hollett, Tom
  • Howard, Margaret Goodnow
  • Kingsley, Rosanna Wilson
  • Landers, Amy
  • McCoy, Erin J
  • Owens, Jossie
  • Perry, Geraldine
  • Stark, Ray
  • Tasker, Myrta
  • Thomasson, Michael
  • Wenger, Fred

Repository Eastern Nazarene College Archives
Eastern Nazarene College
162 Old Colony Ave
Quincy, MA
archives@enc.edu

Access This collection has been processed and is considered open to all users. Some items have been restricted or redacted to protect the privacy of their creators. Agreement to a privacy policy may be required to use certain portions of this collection. For a statement on technology required to access this collection, please see below.

Technical Access The majority of this collection is digital ab origine, or "born digital" and requires a computer to access. Some items will require specific software, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, a PDF reader, and an image viewing software.

Copyright Items in this collection may be under copyright and intellectual property protection. It is the researcher's responsibility to determine the copyright status of any item in this collection and, if needed, to obtain permission for publication and re-use.

Preferred Citation Please use the following convention when citing materials from this collection:
[Name of item] [date of item], Rev. Jim Tasker's Collection of Boston Nazarene Chapel, 1952-2013. Eastern Nazarene College Archives, Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA.

Extent
Physical Extent approximately 13 folders (1 cubic foot)
Electronic Extent 849 MB

Scope and Content This collection consists of materials solicited and collected by Jim Tasker, ’61, and submitted to ENC Archives via e-mail and United States Postal Service. This collection is an intentional collection, consisting of items created by many people, including Tasker, and gathered into one collection. The collection contains personal accounts of incidents, experiences, and the history of Boston Nazarene Chapel as well as photographs, videos, and excerpts from publications. Also included in this collection are e-mails between members of a BNC-centric e-mail group through which members discuss their memories of BNC and Tasker solicits donations.

This collection does not, however, fully document the history of BNC. There are no administrative records of the chapel in this collection, nor are there any records detailing the day-to-day functioning of the chapel.

This collection documents the approximately eight year period during which BNC was supported and run by the Evangelistic Association through the personal, visual, and artifactual accounts of the students who worked in the mission field on Dover Street.

Language Material is entirely in English.

Historical Note Boston Nazarene Chapel’s history goes back to the summer of 1953 when the Evangelistic Association of Eastern Nazarene College (ENC), under Beth Goodnow’s leadership, organized and led a Sunday school on what was then Dover Street (now East Berkeley Street) in Boston’s South End. That summer the Sunday school averaged an attendance of forty students. The next year in 1954 a lease was procured at 26 Dover Street and the Boston Nazarene Chapel (BNC) was officially established. The Chapel made use of chairs supplied by ENC business manager Claude Schlosser, old hymn books donated by college church pastor Dr. Gould, and chancel furnishings (pulpit and altar rail) supplied by Granite Street Church of the Nazarene.

Student and Association member Robert Crew was appointed to serve as the pastor, and the chapel held not only services, but provided Sunday school classes for children ages three to eighteen. The chapel quickly expanded, serving an average of seventy children a week, and a year later in 1955 the Association was renting a six-bedroom apartment above the chapel in which to hold classes.

Five years after the founding of the chapel, the BNC had grown significantly and not only owned their building on Dover street, but also two buses and a carry-all with which to transport children to Sunday school, with all funds being underwritten by the Evangelistic Association.

In 1961 the New England District welcomed a new Superintendent, at which time BNC became recognized as Boston Chapel Church of the Nazarene, no longer an outreach project of the Evangelistic Association, but a full church in its own right.

Collection Arrangement The items in this collection are arranged into two series: Series I, Digital Material and Series II, Physical Material. In most cases, Series II duplicates items in Series I. Not everything from Series I is available online. For more information, please see Researching in This Collection, below.

Researching in This Collection The items on this site are open for your research at any time from any location. Additionally, there are portions of this collection not available online at this time. If you would like to view a complete finding aide for this collection, please contact archives@enc.edu.