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The History of St. Columba’s
St. Columba’s celebrated its hundredth anniversary
in 1974, a century after the Reverend John H. Chew, rector of St. Alban’s,
began holding services in Tennallytown on the Georgetown-Frederick Pike.
He held services in several buildings in the area or, in good weather,
under an oak on a half-acre of land given to the church by William D.
C. Murdock. In 1875, a rough mission chapel was built in the shade of
the oak tree. A parish house was added in 1900 with a stage and a circulating
library. At that time, about 200 families used the chapel’s spiritual
and recreational resources. In 1904, St. Alban’s Jubilee Year,
the chapel was given the name of St. Columba’s, for the Irish-born
missionary to Scotland.
St. Columba’s community progressed and took over its own support in 1921, becoming an independent parish in 1924. On St. Columba’s Day, June 9, 1926, the cornerstone was laid for the present church building and the first services were held in it in April, 1927. The Albemarle Street wing of the present parish hall was completed in 1959. In 1981 the church interior was repaired and renovated and a new tracker organ, built by the Flentrop Company in the Netherlands, was installed. The Albemarle Street parish hall wing was renovated in 1989 and the Butterworth Street wing and Common were added.
Principal clergy serving the parish have been:
- William Welton Shearer, 1915–1930
- Emmanuel A. Lemoine, 1931–1941
- Charles Randolph Mengers, 1942–1969
- William Edwin Swing, 1969–1979
- William McDonald Tully, 1980–1994
- James M. Donald 1995–2005
From the time of its founding, St. Columba’s has been a neighborhood church and a center for the community. During the rectorship of Randy Mengers, the parish planned for growth, opening St. Columba’s Nursery School and building a new parish hall. In the 1970s, under Bill Swing, growth accelerated with the reorganizing of the Sunday School based on a revitalized 9:15 am service, the systematic building of choirs and other musical and drama groups, and with a variety of small groups. In the late ‘70s, St. Columba’s became the largest parish in the diocese.
In the 1980s, under Bill Tully, growth continued with added emphasis on outreach, small groups and personal spiritual growth, stewardship education, and ministry to newcomers, as well as the near-doubling of our physical space. In the 90s, the church has continued to grow — in many dimensions — and the decade has also brought a desire to participate more fully in the life and needs of Washington, D.C. That focus has led to development of a transitional program for women who have been homeless, a program to help support a city elementary school class through college, and a partnership with Holy Comforter Parish.