Indeed, Christ Church was organized more than fifty years before St. John the Evangelist, and its first building predates the Carpenter Gothic church in Stockport by forty-four years. The following is quoted from Franklin Ellis's History of Columbia County (1878):
The first formation of a religious society by the Episcopalians in Hudson took place soon after the year 1790, but the precise date of their church organization cannot be given. About the commencement of 1795 the society began to move in the matter of providing for themselves a permanent house of worship, and to that end, in March of that year, their vestrymen, Dr. John Talman and Mr. John Powell, made a formal petition or request to the proprietors that a suitable lot of land should be granted to them on which to erect the proposed edifice. . . . The wardens made selection of a lot, but desiring afterwards to change it, were permitted to do so, and then decided on the lot on the southeast corner of Second and State streets, which was conveyed to them for the society, for the erection of a church building upon it, and for no other use.
The house was commenced during 1795, but, on account of a lack of funds (mainly caused by the dishonesty of a fiduciary in whom the society had reposed perfect confidence), it was not completed until seven years passed. The lot had been granted on the condition that if a church should not be erected upon it within the space of five years it should revert to the proprietors, but those liberal-minded men had no thought of profiting by the church's adversity. The edifice was first occupied for the Christmas services of 1802. . . .When Christ Church moved to its current building at Union and East Court streets in 1857, its original building was sold to the Wesleyan Methodists, who merged with the Zion Methodist Episcopal Church in 1860. Although the 1802 church building no longer stands, the site is still the location of A.M.E. Zion Church.
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Earlier this year it was discovered that the original Episcopal Church on 2nd Street was featured in an 1852 painting by Sanford Gifford, titled "Mount Merino and the City of Hudson in Autumn." It appears that Gifford elongated the steeple for artistic ends:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.albanyinstitute.org/shop/product/id-19982.html
Wow! Thank you for sharing this, unheimlich! But I don't see how the vantage point could be the "family property," quoting what's said by AIHA. What family property? Elihu and Eliza's house was at Sixth and Columbia streets. I lack the imagination to see how Second and State streets, with Mt. Merino in the background, could be seen from there--even if Sanford Gifford was in his belvedere studio on top of the house.
DeleteWhoever owned the actual painting site, Gifford's vantage was on the hill behind what's now Harney & Sons tea on North 2nd Street. This is where you end up after plotting the painting's few existing and also reconstructed landmarks using GoogleEarth. Subsequent visits and photos confirmed the satellite/map studies.
DeleteIt's remotely possible that "Gifford Farm" which was located around today's Riverview Boulevard and Gifford Parkway stretched all the way to 2nd Street, but it's highly unlikely. The Art Institute is making a wild guess.
Spectacular painting
ReplyDeleteif the church is on the national list of historic places, as stated in the register article, why aren't the details of its future available to the public
ReplyDeleteand just what are the "rules" for national historic site to be sold, dismantled and the rest of the story unknown
is there a rotten apple somewhere
and could this be the future fate of a few of Hudson's bldgs. too