That brick building by the National Grand Bank.
You know, sort of across from the Riptide.
Yeah, it’s attached to the Warwick.
That is how you might refer to 107 Pleasant St., which is at the corner of Pleasant and School streets.
This building actually has a name, and that name is Rechabite Block.
Rechabite Block was born out of the ashes of the 1888 fire, according to the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. It was constructed to match the height of shoe factories in the surrounding area.
Where the building stood out was in its exterior. The architect (hitherto unknown) used a style called Panel Brick to ornament the building.
According to “Houses of Boston’s Back Bay: An Architectural History” by Bainbridge Bunting, Panel Brick style “utilizes brick masonry in which a variety of decorative patterns have been worked by means of projecting or receding brick panels.”
This decoration can be seen particularly between the second and third floors, as well as above the topmost windows.
But 107 Pleasant St. is not just a pretty face-ade.
As well as being built in 1889, that was also the year the Rechabite Society received the deed to the building.
The Rechabite Society, or the International Order of Rechabites (IOR) was a temperance society that has its origins in the Bible — namely Jeremiah 35 and 2 Kings 10:15 and 23 (King James Version).
The biblical group of Rechabites, descendants of Rechab, denounced drinking alcohol, thus making themselves the ideal for those centuries later who also were teetotalers.
The more modern group’s exact origins are murky, but scholars seem to agree that this obscure group organized in 1835 at Salford in Lancashire, England. Chris Knights’ journal article “Rechabites Ancient and Modern: A Study in the Use of Scripture” claims the IOR was a breakaway from the Total Abstinence Movement after said group was not actually totally abstinent from alcohol.
Knights also writes that the group’s members sought to spread their anti-alcohol message internationally by aligning with other fraternal organizations, such as the Oddfellows.
But it was not all anti-alcohol for the Rechabites. Rather than having chapters or branches of the organization, they used the term “tents.”
This goes back to the Bible again, wherein Jeremiah 35 10:8-10 (KJV) states, “thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.”
Furthermore, like many similar societies at the time, the IOR created sick funds for the less fortunate.
Eventually, the movement made it to the United States, according to MACRIS, in 1842. This appears to have become the most prominent group, with various sources reporting upwards of 990,000 members at the beginning of the 20th century.
The movement in Marblehead is known to have included three men, who were trustees: John Sparhawk Martin, William Franklin Nutting, and William R. Thrasher. Martin came from a long line of a prominent Marblehead family, Nutting was a shoe-factory worker turned selectman, and Thrasher was a shoemaker who became a railroad ticketmaster.
Eventually, with the end of Prohibition in the U.S. and the creation of more social-safety nets, the IOR was no longer needed. In 1905, the Rechabite Society conveyed the building to the Rechabite Building Association for the consideration of $1. The Building Association would then do the same in 1976 to Eastern Yacht Sales and Charters Inc.
Many businesses and organizations had inhabited Rechabite Block in those 71 years, from dry goods to dentistry. Other fraternal organizations had rooms in the building and, perhaps, let the IOR hold its meetings as the membership dwindled.
Now, the IOR is but a shadow of its former glory. The only two contemporary groups I could find were in Australia. The Queensland District of the Independent Order of Rechabites Friendly Society shuttered in 2022. The Victoria District of Rechabites seems to still be active, according to the website, with the latest membership diminished to 17 tents.
So, let us all raise an empty glass to the Rechabites of Marblehead for their participation in this obscured, but seemingly good-natured, fraternal society.
