Interviewee: Kyle St. Clair
Date of birth/age at interview: unknown
Interviewer: Sally Jagoe
Interview date: February 2, 2005
Interview location: unknown
Interview length: 42 minutes
Time span discussed: 1980 to 2000
Summary: This interview is a short review of the Vicar’s 20 years of service at St. Phillip’s Church. He mentions past congregation members and issues in the life of a pastor of a small church. The interview includes reminiscences of the beaver dam built behind the church in 1985 and the controversy it raised.
Time markers
00:00 – introduction: what it is to be a vicar of small country chapel
01:00 – vicar of 21 years speaks of fixing machines, faults, and repairs in the chapel; “should have had training in seminary!”
01:45 – plumbing event marks Good Friday
02:39 – last rites of an animal in the sump pump
03:37 – replacing an oil tank
05:43 – opossum in the chapel house
06:43 – raccoon in the chapel house
07:31 – interviewer offers a story
09:12 – story of chapel building evolution since 1815-1820
12:00 – building acquired about 1920, one of five new congregations in Episcopal Church’s Center County Missions strategy
14:00 – origin of pews, from Solebury School’s tennis courts; Marshall and Bertha Cole
14:40 – story of church bell
17:41 – Beaver War events (12 second break in tape)
18:55 – memorials in chapel
21:38 – long story about Larry Meck and Marshall and Bertha Cole
33:37 – interviewer tells a story
34:57 – tape concludes with small talk about congregation members: Betty Chardon, Mary Martin, Gertrude and Isaac Walwerk, Gwen and John Grimm
39:50 – impending retirement