The Old Chelsea Festival Cook Book. Compiled by Ladies of the Universalist Church, 1909

[Chelsea, Mass.]: The Church, 1909. Octavo (23.5 x 15.5 cm.), [17] pages. Title and statement of responsibility from cover. FIRST & ONLY EDITION. A church collection of one hundred seventy-five brief recipes, half of them attributed, gathered (in all likelihood) in support of a rebuilding project. A great many standards–Spice Cakes, Sally Lunns, Hermits, Cabbage Salad, Piccalilli–occasionally interrupted by a eyebrow-raising novelty: Bread Sandwiches (exactly what they sound like, bread inside bread), Botzen Omelette (with marmalade; note: "brand with iron"), Turkish Fruit Paste ("flavored with checkerberry extract"). The Universalist Church at Fourth and Chestnut Streets in Chelsea–across the Mystic River from Boston–appears to have been known simultaneously as First Universalist and Church of the Redeemer from at least the post-Civil War era. Universalists established themselves early in Boston (1630, in fact, according to the annals of First Church there), and so an early pedigree may be assumed, despite records in Chelsea dating only to 1842. What is known is that a great fire on 12 April 1908 left only ruins, and that in the aftermath funds were raised for a replacement. The antecedent of the phrase "Old Chelsea Festival" remains, for the present, unknown, as do also the location of the second church of 1909 and the disposition of whatever archives it possessed. Wherever it was, city archives record that it was demolished in 1969. Sewn in black-lettered, brown paper wrappers. Owner's signature in ink on flyleaf: "Ellen Grier". Fine. Unrecorded. [OCLC reports no copies; not in Brown, Cook, or Cagle].