St. Peter's Presbyterian Church
St. Peter's Presbyterian Church is a church at the intersection of New York State Route 203 and South Street ( Columbia County Route 7) in Spencertown , New York in the United States . It is a tall, timber- framed church building similar in style to those found in New England , the home region of most of the settlers who settled in the village in the early 18th century. Directly to the east of the building is the Spencertown Cemetery , the oldest grave monuments of which date from around 1760, i.e. shortly after the area was settled and the community was founded.
The church was built in 1771 but was on the other side of the street. It was moved to its current location in 1826 and slightly expanded. During the 19th and 20th centuries the building was renovated and slightly redesigned several times. In 2002 the building and cemetery were inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places .
description
The church and cemetery are located on a roughly 2.2 hectare large plot on the south side of Route 203 at the intersection with South Street. It is located opposite the Town Hall of Austerlitz and several other buildings in the small rural hamlet . The church is only a little set back from the road. To the south, the terrain slopes slightly towards the Punsit Creek gorge and offers a view of the hills in this direction. The cemetery is separated by a cast iron fence. Both the church and the cemetery are contributing elements of the register entry.
church
The church has five by six bays and is two-story. It is 18 m long and 12 m wide, the greatest height is 21 m. The facade with planks verschindelt . A centrally arranged bell tower sits on the gable roof . A brick chimney rises on the outside of the building's east wall. The three central yokes protrude slightly on the north facade. A gable triangle sits above them . The centrally located main entrance is surrounded by profiles and above it is a neoclassical cornice . Windows frame the entrance, a Palladian window, which is framed by two sliding windows on each side, lies above. There is also a wheelchair ramp .
The bell tower is three-tiered. The bottom step is square, with a side length of three meters. It is clad in a similar way to the rest of the church facade and on three sides is a clock with Roman numerals . The two steps above are octagonal . The middle step has green blinds and white segmental arches and corner posts. The top step also has green, but oval blind openings. A metal ball and a weather vane sit on the hexagonal top of the church tower .
At the rear there is a window on the first floor, three windows on the second floor were closed with boards. Modern fire doors are next to the window on the first floor. In the gable field there is a small window to the attic . Both sides of the church have full windows.
The double doors of the entrance open into a vestibule that stretches across the width of the building . There are two-flight staircases on either side with the original handrails and balusters . An elevator for the disabled has been installed in the southeast corner. The elevator and stairs lead up to a partitioned room, where the rope to the bell hangs through a hole in the ceiling. From there you get to the balcony with the paneled ceiling. A smaller, narrower staircase leads up to the attic, where bracing beams support the rafters. On the top step of the bell tower is a bell cast by the Meneely Bell Foundry with the date "1858" stamped on it. It hangs in an iron frame.
Doors in the corners give way to the side aisles that lead to the raised chancel, past white pews with walnut railings . Further railings made of this wood and white balusters extend along the front edge of the platform in the chancel. Behind it is a long, recessed arch.
graveyard
The grave stones of the cemetery comes in part from the time when the church was still on the street. The oldest grave stone is that of Hannah Lawrence, dating back to 1760. The existing in this cemetery cemetery art ranges from the usual in New England in that period skulls to arabesques and engraved Roman letters. Later tombstones from the late 19th century contain human figures or angels.
Some of the deceased have more elaborate tombs erected, including two tall obelisks , one from 1772 and the other from the 1870s and 1880s. Almost at the far end of the cemetery is a low stone crypt .
history
The history of the church can be divided into three sections: from its founding to its relocation to its current location, from then to the renovation in the mid-20th century and finally the time to the present.
1760–1826: foundation and construction
The area was settled by people from New England around 1750; The resulting place was soon named after one of these settlers, "Spencer's Town". The settlers started a company and divided the land into 40 hectares each. Ownership of these “rights” legitimized the owner to vote on the company's decisions. In 1760 the settlers decided that the first pastor to settle would receive one and a half "rights". A year later it was Jesse Clark. The records of the meeting at which his salary was determined and in which he and the settlers attended are also the first mention of the cemetery, which therefore already existed at least a year before.
It was decided that another meeting would determine the place for a place of worship to be built, but that meeting did not take place. Services were held in private homes until the local carpenter William Babcock built the church in 1771 on a green area in the city facing northwest. At that time the church was a yoke shorter and had no steeple.
The further development of the Church and the community stalled when the American War of Independence began and some of the families went to Canada because they were loyalists . Settlement activity revived after the war, and the first trustees were elected in 1789 when the church became the focus of communal life in the city. The number of parishioners grew under a new pastor, David Porter, and in 1803 the parish was formally incorporated . This was mainly used congregationally at the time , just as it was in the towns of New England, where most of the residents came from. Since it was the only church in Spencertown, the Anglicans and Presbyterians also gathered there .
A map indicates that the church tower was added in 1808, but the marking can also be based on a cartographic convention, so that the representation does not reflect the actual condition of the building at that time. The Town of Austerlitz was established by the state in 1818 and Spencertown was in the center. In 1826, an African American woman named Lilla Van Buren was baptized and became a full member of the parish.
1826–1956: relocation and expansion
Also in 1826, Joel Osborne began his work as the new pastor. He oversaw the relocation of the dilapidated building across the street. The former building site became the local green area again and is still today.
The local building contractor Philo Beebe not only carried out the relocation of the structure to its current location at a cost of US $ 2,500 (in prices at the time, according to today's purchasing power: US $ 68,000), but expanded it and added the current front entrance and the cantilevers in federal style . The church was still facing the street, but now oriented to the east, as is often the case with Christian churches. The church tower was also added at this point, with the appearance being based on the bell tower of Philip Hooker's North Dutch Reformed Church in Albany .
The church was rededicated on New Year's Day of 1827 and became a Presbyterian church four days later. Congregational believers who wanted to continue to follow this belief instead went to a congregational church that was built in 1792.
The entrance in neoclassical style was probably added later, probably between 1835 and 1840. At that time, the building was also used for community functions, such as markets. Timothy Woodbridge, who wrote memoirs of his work as a pastor between 1843 and 1852 under the title Autobiography of a Blind Minister , tells of a flourish wreath of flowers on the back wall above the altar. These decorations are believed to date from 1824 and no longer exist, although traces were uncovered during renovations. During his tenure with the New York State Legislature, Woodbridge successfully campaigned for the creation of the Spencertown Academy , just a short distance east, for the training of teachers.
A cemetery society was founded in 1850. It followed the usual development in the county, ignoring the fact that the cemetery was included in the incorporation of the Church 46 years earlier. It could have been done with the intention of preserving the non-denominational definition of the cemetery.
Further repair and renovation work was carried out around 1863. It was probably then that the bell was installed. The work cost around $ 2,500, but the exact scope of the work is no longer known. Presumably a new back wall was installed and the floor plan changed. Since these measures were carried out during the Civil War , which led to a scarcity and increase in the cost of materials, it is assumed that the repairs were necessary and not work that had been planned longer in advance.
The iron fence around the cemetery was added around that time; at least that is how it is portrayed in an 1878 chronicle by a county historian. In 1905 the trustees of the church transferred the shares in the cemetery to the cemetery society.
Church documents contain no evidence of major repairs during the first half of the 20th century. The building was fitted with electric lights in 1926 and a basement was built three years later to provide more space for social events and a kitchen. Bones and tombstones were found during the excavations for the cellar, so it can be assumed that when the church was moved, it was built over existing graves. The bones were reburied elsewhere in the cemetery.
Community women founded the Tower Club in response to the Great Depression in 1930. The name results from the fact that this social association initially met in the tower of the church. They later began raising funds so that the building could be insured , a piano could be bought, and the kitchen could be fitted out. After the Second World War , they started collecting money for the organ, which could be purchased in 1954. The association still exists today and still contributes to its preservation.
1956 – today: renovation and maintenance
In 1956 the parish decided that a commission should examine the interior of the church and lead the renovation of the building. After studying similar churches in nearby Bennington , Vermont, and Connecticut , the commission recommended that renovations take into account their appearance after they were laid in 1826, rather than the original condition in 1771. Removal of a wall in the tower room as well the relocation of the organ and the choir steps from the rear balcony to the side balcony is recommended. These suggestions have been fully implemented. Traces of paint were discovered in the rear of the church, which indicate the wreath of flowers described by Woodbridge.
Since this renovation there have been a few other repairs and changes. The bell tower was renovated again in 1974 and part of the balcony was partitioned off in 1989 to serve as an office and meeting room. In the early 1990s , a wheelchair ramp, elevator, and a few other handicap adaptations were added for accessible access, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act . At the same time, the building was also painted and the ceiling stabilized.
See also
swell
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Peter Shaver: National Register of Historic Places nomination, St. Peter's Presbyterian Church and Spencertown Cemetery ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . May 15, 2000. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
Coordinates: 42 ° 19 '23 " N , 73 ° 32' 46" W.