Mt. Zion Methodist Church (Somers, New York)
Coordinates: 41 ° 18 ′ 8 " N , 73 ° 42 ′ 52" W.
Mount Zion Methodist Church is a church building on Primrose Avenue ( NY 139 ) in Somers , New York in the United States . This is a white building clad with clapboards , built at the end of the 18th century and extensively renovated around 1860. In 1970 the building was badly vandalized .
It is the oldest church structure in Somers and is important for the development of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York as the dominant church in north Westchester County for a long period of its history. The community has ceased to function at the end of the 19th century, and both the building and its cemetery are owned by the city. In 1990 the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places .
estate
The church building is located on a 1.4 acre (2,800 square meters) comprehensive parcel at the Ostseit of Primrose Avenue, south of Rice Park, which falls on a small hill, it raises across the street at the site of the south easily. The building is surrounded on three sides by a cemetery. All property boundaries are marked by stone walls .
Church building
The church is a two-and-a-half storey half-timbered building with a gable roof on a slightly exposed foundation . The approximately 9 by 12 m building is not decorated and has no church tower ; only a small chimney made of bricks rises at the northern end. The roof is covered with tar paper and has an overhanging eaves , which is complemented by a simple frieze and cornerboard.
In all three yokes, on both full floors on the east and west side, there are double hung sliding windows with twelve over twelve panes each. On the north and south sides there are only two windows on each floor and one in the gable field . The main entrance in the middle of the south facade is formed by a double door, which is surrounded by an attached architrave .
A narrow vestibule leads from the entrance into the central hall, from where two narrow stairs lead up to the gallery. Outside the vestibule, the pine floor is unpainted. The walls on the ground floor are paneled with wooden boards connected by tongue and groove , and the walls on the first floor are plastered.
There are three rows of pews on the ground floor, all facing forward, with the exception of those benches on either side of the pulpit , pointing towards the center. The pulpit itself is a wooden platform with a lectern flanked by pillars . Is on the wall, a sofa from mahogany and horsehair . A wooden communion railing with balusters runs across the front and bends slightly on the sides. Cast iron stoves with protruding tubes are located at the southern end of the nave.
The gallery has a floor with wide overlapping pine boards. The three rows of pews are all facing the pulpit. A kerosene- powered chandelier hangs from the ceiling.
graveyard
The graves in the cemetery are all close together and are well maintained. They date from the period between 1793 and 1959 and reflect the architectural trends of their respective times. The oldest eleven graves were made from brown sandstone before 1816 and have arches with flanking finials. With the exception of an urn on one of the graves, there is hardly any cemetery art.
Grave stones of marble are typical of the period from 1812 to 1908. This can be divided into three groups. The largest group with graves from the period from 1812 to 1929 has mostly simple stones, the inscriptions of which are made in block letters. In the period from 1819 to 1863, a more classical form was preferred, with urn and willow motifs and italic inscriptions. A small group from the Civil War era includes the most ornate graves in the cemetery. A grave of a Union soldier is decorated with a cannon .
Granite has replaced marble as the preferred material for most of the graves from the 20th century . Many are massive and in the shape of pyramids and pillars. There are three family graves within the cemetery, one of which is only separated by its original fence posts.
history
Methodism had arrived in America before the American Revolution and continued to develop during and after it. Before churches were organized, denominational ministers traveled around and visited the cities where they had won followers. These districts ( circuit ) were eventually adopted by the church as a formal organizational structure.
In 1787, the New Rochelle Circuit was formally founded by Freeborn Garrettson on the direction of Bishop Francis Asbury . When the church in Somers was built in 1794, it was the first church in town and the fifth of seven Methodist church buildings on the New Rochelle Circuit.
All of these structures were intentionally built to be as simple as possible to save costs. It was also in line with Methodist philosophy when they broke away from England. Asbury had declared that all Methodist places of worship should be "plain and subtle, but not more expensive than absolutely incompatible." Many of these church buildings were simple white timber frame constructions, like Mt. Zion in Somers, and looked more like houses or barns than churches. Only its large windows and the influence of the Federal Style indicated that it was used as a church. Of the district's original seven churches, only Mt. Zion and the Bethel Chapel in what is now Croton-on-Hudson have retained most of their original form and furnishings.
As Methodism gained popularity, so did the churches. The districts were redefined and Mt. Zion became the Croton Circuit in 1803 and the Cortlandt Circuit in 1809 . In the latter position, the church was the central church for the surrounding communities. This continued into the 1840s when the churches to the west at Shrub Oak and Peekskill were given their own parish. In 1860 the church building was extensively renovated and some classical style decorations were added. The pulpit and gallery were also added.
Mt. Zion's regional influence on the churches in the rural towns north and east of Somers lasted until 1861 when the parish was dissolved. At that time the Lewisboro Church became independent and Mt. Zion only served local believers.
This and the growth of the towns on the Harlem Valley Railroad (now the Metro-North Harlem Line ) ushered in the decline of the parish. Although it experienced a renaissance in the 1880s, thanks to a few committed new pastors, and gained a few hundred new parishioners, the expansion of the water supply to New York City in north Westchester County ended that recovery as land was acquired to build water reservoirs. As a result, many of the local farmers who had made up the lion's share of the community since its inception moved away. The last regular service was held in 1897.
The church building came under the care of the Methodist congregation in nearby Katonah , who maintained it for a period in the early 20th century and held a service once a year. This ended in 1930 and the building began to fall into disrepair. In 1970 it was heavily vandalized, with the original mahogany organ and the balusters around the pulpit being destroyed. The windows were broken.
Three years later, the city bought the building from the Methodists to prevent further incidents and to preserve it as a historic site. It is now maintained by the Somers Historical Society.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Robert Kuhn: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Mt. Zion Methodist Church ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . March 12, 1990. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ↑ Somers Historical Society Celebrates 50th Anniversary ( English ) Somers Historical Society. 2006. Retrieved April 25, 2012.