Thanksgiving is much more than a holiday in November. Longtime Portsmouth residents may remember Christ Church that burned in a tragic fire in 1963. The ornate Episcopal church, Portsmouth Athenaeum records show, was on Madison Street at the end of Austin Street. It was dedicated July 3, 1883. Lafayette Newell (1833-1914), perhaps the city’s most important and prolific Victorian photographer, lived long enough to capture images of its looming architecture.
Christ Church gained international fame when the Russian delegation chose to attend services there during the month-long Treaty of Portsmouth negotiations in August 1905. Initially, Russian envoy Sergei Witte attended services here while the Japanese delegation went to church in Kittery. The Episcopal services in Portsmouth, a contemporary newspaper reported, were very different from those the Russians were used to. The singing choir and the collection of money during the service were “something new for them,” the media reported.
On Sept. 5, 1905, bells rang across the city as the two nations signed a treaty at 3:47 p.m at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The Russo-Japanese War that had taken over 600,000 lives suddenly ended. As soon as the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in Kittery, Russian ambassador Witte rushed to Christ Church in Portsmouth to attend a special service of Thanksgiving.
Religious leaders of many faiths gathered in the crowded Portsmouth church to give thanks for world peace. Witte later wrote: “Never did I pray with more fire than at that moment. We were all welded by the heat of our enthusiasm for the great principle – Thou shalt not kill.”
Christ Church was destroyed by fire June 19, 1963. The Portsmouth Athenaeum collection includes almost 200 images of the original church and its members, of the devastating fire, and photos of the new Christ Church structure on Lafayette Road.
Copyright J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved
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