The Fate of the Little Brown Church

Last December, the Register-Star reported that the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Chittenden Road in Stockport was to be dismantled and moved to an unknown location: "Historic church to be moved to new home."

Photo: Arthur A. Baker

The Carpenter Gothic church, known as the "Little Brown Church," was constructed in 1846 and is believed to be the oldest surviving Episcopal church building in Columbia County. In 1972, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was featured in Arthur A. Baker's book Wooden Churches: Columbia County Legacy and also in A Visible Heritage: A History in Art and Architecture, Columbia County, NY, by Ruth Piwonka and Roderic H. Blackburn. Piwonka and Blackburn recount the church's origins:

The parish of Saint John the Evangelist was incorporated in 1845 by the owners and workers of the textiles mills of Stockport. Joseph Marshall, a founder of the Hudson Print Works (the first cotton printing works in the state) was a church warden and, with two others, supervised the construction of this Gothic building. The architect is not known.

The church closed its doors as a place of worship in 2014, and the building was sold in 2017. This morning, a reader sent me these pictures documenting the progress of the church's dismantling.

   

COPYRIGHT 2018 CAROLE OSTERINK 

Thanks to John Knott for providing these photographs