First Presbyterian Church (Batavia, New York)
Encyclopedia
The First Presbyterian Church in Batavia
, New York, United States, is located at East Main (New York state routes 5
and 33
) and Liberty streets. It is a joined complex of several buildings. The main one, the church's sanctuary
, is a limestone
Gothic Revival structure built in the mid-19th century. Its congregation was the first church to be organized in Batavia, albeit as a Congregationalist group at that time.
Over the next century various improvements and expansions would be made, using later architectural style
s, reflecting changing styles of American Protestant
worship. This transition was completed with changes to the sanctuary in the mid-20th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2004.
structure faced in rock-cut limestone
blocks with smooth-faced trim. A square bell tower
pierces the wood-shingled low-pitched gable
d roof. Just to the south, the lower Sunday school
wing, also of limestone, has two cross-gables on its roof. A two-story hyphen
connects it to the wood frame
Memorial Service Building, a one-story structure topped by a high hipped roof
with broad overhanging eaves.
On the north (front) facade
, the original church has corner buttress
es. The entrances are heavy wooden lancet arched doors with bevel
ed leaded glass
panels set in angled reveals. Colonettes at the outer edge gradually become convex moldings
at the doors' edge. Above the main entrance is a tripartite lancet-arch Gothic window topped by a blind quatrefoil
in the gable field. The side entrance is separated by a buttress, topped with a small square pinnacle above the roofline and complemented by a larger conical pinnacle rising from the corner buttress.
There are four stages to the bell tower, all set off by smooth-finished belt courses
. Its corner buttresses continue to the top, gradually changing from square to circular as they do and becoming part of the crowning parapet
along with a small pediment
on each side. The stages are fenestrated
, from top to bottom, with a single lancet arched window, double lancet-arched windows, a diamond panel and louver
ed Gothic window.
The church's side elevations have one lancet-arch window per bay separated by buttresses. The Sunday school wing has large single Gothic windows on the west elevation, facing Liberty Street, and paired windows on the first story topped by paired windows in Tudor-arched openings on the other faces. To its south, the Memorial Service Building has wide shingle siding and large tripartite windows.
s divided by a broad center aisle. A serpentine balcony
supported by iron columns covers the northern third, with a glazed screen creating a narthex
. At the south end, a puplit and lectern
front a dais
with Communion
table in front of a dossal curtain is set in a crenellated Tudor Gothic wooden surround between two sets of organ pipes. On either side are the choir
risers. The stained glass
windows are set in a geometric pattern, each one having a diagonal stripe suggesting heraldric
origin, with a floral design in yellow or pink at the top.
A door in the southeast corner leads into the Sunday school wing. It features a two-story atrium
, with the upper level accessible from stairs at a dais on the south end. It is finished primarily in plaster and dark-stained
wood trim. Small classrooms are off to the sides on both levels. In the center of the ceiling is a large recessed circular light glazed with stained glass. The windows are done in marbleized glass in shades of amber or green in the classrooms and clear glass in the offices.
The hyphen has entrances on the east and west. The Memorial Service Building is divided into three spaces. On the east is a lounge and meeting room. The southwest corner has a multi-purpose room with serving counters, and a kitchen. The remainder of the space west of the central hallway is given over to offices and restrooms. Finishes here are also plaster and stained wood.
Society in 1809. Nine years later the society was reorganized as a Presbyterian
church. This change in name was never recorded with the county clerk, which caused problems in 1853 when the church attempted to sell its original property to move into the current building since the property was still in the name of the Congregational Society. It required an act of the state legislature to resolve.
It is not known who designed the current building, though it may have been the builder. The Gothic Revival styles were beginning to displace earlier, classically
inspired modes such as the Federal and Greek Revival
among new Protestant
churches in the mid-19th century. Even denominations such as the more austere Calvinist
denominations that had not embraced the more liturgical
style of worship favored by the high church
Anglican
Ecclesiologists who had been the major proponents of Gothic Revival as the proper form for church buildings, began building churches in that style. The First Presbyterian Church demonstrates this embrace more on the exterior, with its slightly different roof pitch
es, pointed arches and early Romanesque Revival massing and fenestration
, whereas the interior is the open auditorium with dais
reflecting services focused primarily on lengthy sermon
s.
Construction of the building cost $35,000 ($ in contemporary dollars), an amount well over the original budget. To furnish the interior, the women of the church gave $675 ($ in contemporary dollars). At the end of construction money was also saved by building the steeple of wood rather than stone.
The first services were held on Thanksgiving Day in November 1855, with the formal dedication taking place the following spring. Within a year of construction, a blizzard
knocked the original steeple over. The undamaged bell was put in the current steeple, built of stone as originally planned and paid for with a donation from a new congregant, John Fisher
, who later represented the area in Congress
.
The church alone sufficed until 1882, when the north half of the Sunday school wing was added on to its rear. Its entrance remains on the west elevation. Six years later the balcony was added to the sanctuary to accommodate a growing congregation.
In 1908, two decades after its construction, the Sunday school wing was doubled in size. In accordance with the Akron Plan
developed by Lewis Miller and other influential religious educational theorists of the day, it also was reconfigured into the form of a two-story rotunda with classrooms surrounding the central space on both levels, to provide for a graded Sunday school
where children could study the same Biblical lesson as their parents, but in a manner more appropriate to their developmental level, and then return to discuss it as a group. This was an increasingly common design or redesign for American Protestant churches of the era.
After World War I
, the last piece of the current complex, the Memorial Service Building, was erected. Its use of the Arts and Crafts
style reflects that mode's pre-eminence at the time, particularly among YMCA
buildings. Elbert Hubbard
, leader of the Roycroft
community in the nearby village of East Aurora
, extolled traditional Protestant virtues of honesty, perseverance and personal responsibility, further contributing to the popularity of the Arts and Crafts style in religious architecture across denominations.
With the installation of a new pipe organ
in 1923, the first changes to the sanctuary were made. The original chancel
had a small organ on one side of the dais with space for a small choir on the right of the pulpit. The newer, larger organ required two sets of pipes, and they were on both sides of the dais, with Tudor Gothic wood screens. A larger space was provided for a choir on the right. These changes reflected the growing use of music in the service.
In 1928 the church reached its peak membership with 1,485 congregants. The last change to the sanctuary, in 1954, was the last step in moving from the sermon-based services of the church's founding to the more liturgical services Protestant congregations had come to prefer. Pulpits and lecterns were added on either side of the centrally located dais steps, and the choir pews were placed behind them. On the wall behind them the original pendant tracery
was replaced with the current rose window
. The original box pew
s were replaced with the current open oak pews.
The church began the first of several renovations near the end of the century. A general renovation campaign began in 1994 and was completed in 1998. In 2003 a yearlong renovation of the bell tower began. Under new pastor Roula Alkhouri, the first Syrian
woman to be ordained
as a Presbyterian minister, the church began assessing needs for a long-term capital project.
Batavia (city), New York
Batavia is a city in Genesee County, Western New York, USA, located near the middle of Genesee County, entirely within the Town of Batavia. Its population as of the 2000 census was 16,256...
, New York, United States, is located at East Main (New York state routes 5
New York State Route 5
New York State Route 5 is a state highway that extends for across the state of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in the Chautauqua County town of Ripley and passes through Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, and several other smaller cities and...
and 33
New York State Route 33
New York State Route 33 is an east–west state highway in western New York in the United States. The route extends for just under from NY 5 in Buffalo in the west to NY 31 in Rochester in the east. It is, in fact, the only state highway that directly connects both cities, although...
) and Liberty streets. It is a joined complex of several buildings. The main one, the church's sanctuary
Sanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
, is a limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
Gothic Revival structure built in the mid-19th century. Its congregation was the first church to be organized in Batavia, albeit as a Congregationalist group at that time.
Over the next century various improvements and expansions would be made, using later architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s, reflecting changing styles of American Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
worship. This transition was completed with changes to the sanctuary in the mid-20th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2004.
Buildings and grounds
The church occupies a 1.2 acres (4,856.2 m²) parcel on the southeast corner of the intersection. A historic house separates the church property from another house of worship, First Baptist, to the east, with other old houses filling out the block to Swan Street. Another church, Resurrection Parish, is opposite, at the Summit Street Corner. West of the intersection are the commercial buildings of downtown Batavia. South of the church is another commercial building, with parking lots in the interior of the block to the southeast.Exterior
The main church building consists of three separate sections, now joined. At the north, set back from East Main, is the original church, a three-by-five-bayBay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
structure faced in rock-cut limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
blocks with smooth-faced trim. A square bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
pierces the wood-shingled low-pitched gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof. Just to the south, the lower Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
wing, also of limestone, has two cross-gables on its roof. A two-story hyphen
Hyphen (architecture)
In architecture, a hyphen is a connecting link between two larger building elements. It is typically found in Georgian style architecture, where the hyphens form connections between a large central house and end pavilions in the Georgian five-part house, which was in turn derived from Palladian...
connects it to the wood frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
Memorial Service Building, a one-story structure topped by a high hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
with broad overhanging eaves.
On the north (front) facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, the original church has corner buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es. The entrances are heavy wooden lancet arched doors with bevel
Bevel
A beveled edge refers to an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they may sometimes be differentiated as shown in the image at right.-Cutting...
ed leaded glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
panels set in angled reveals. Colonettes at the outer edge gradually become convex moldings
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
at the doors' edge. Above the main entrance is a tripartite lancet-arch Gothic window topped by a blind quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
in the gable field. The side entrance is separated by a buttress, topped with a small square pinnacle above the roofline and complemented by a larger conical pinnacle rising from the corner buttress.
There are four stages to the bell tower, all set off by smooth-finished belt courses
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
. Its corner buttresses continue to the top, gradually changing from square to circular as they do and becoming part of the crowning parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
along with a small pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
on each side. The stages are fenestrated
Building envelope
The building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. Another emerging term is "Building Enclosure". It serves as the outer shell to help maintain the indoor environment and facilitate its climate control...
, from top to bottom, with a single lancet arched window, double lancet-arched windows, a diamond panel and louver
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
ed Gothic window.
The church's side elevations have one lancet-arch window per bay separated by buttresses. The Sunday school wing has large single Gothic windows on the west elevation, facing Liberty Street, and paired windows on the first story topped by paired windows in Tudor-arched openings on the other faces. To its south, the Memorial Service Building has wide shingle siding and large tripartite windows.
Interior
The sanctuary has two sets of pewPew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s divided by a broad center aisle. A serpentine balcony
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
supported by iron columns covers the northern third, with a glazed screen creating a narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
. At the south end, a puplit and lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
front a dais
Dais
Dais is any raised platform located either in or outside of a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary....
with Communion
Communion (Christian)
The term communion is derived from Latin communio . The corresponding term in Greek is κοινωνία, which is often translated as "fellowship". In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with...
table in front of a dossal curtain is set in a crenellated Tudor Gothic wooden surround between two sets of organ pipes. On either side are the choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
risers. The stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows are set in a geometric pattern, each one having a diagonal stripe suggesting heraldric
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
origin, with a floral design in yellow or pink at the top.
A door in the southeast corner leads into the Sunday school wing. It features a two-story atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
, with the upper level accessible from stairs at a dais on the south end. It is finished primarily in plaster and dark-stained
Wood stain
A wood stain consists of a colorant suspended or dissolved in a 'vehicle' or solvent. The suspension agent can be water, alcohol, petroleum distillate, or the actual finishing agent...
wood trim. Small classrooms are off to the sides on both levels. In the center of the ceiling is a large recessed circular light glazed with stained glass. The windows are done in marbleized glass in shades of amber or green in the classrooms and clear glass in the offices.
The hyphen has entrances on the east and west. The Memorial Service Building is divided into three spaces. On the east is a lounge and meeting room. The southwest corner has a multi-purpose room with serving counters, and a kitchen. The remainder of the space west of the central hallway is given over to offices and restrooms. Finishes here are also plaster and stained wood.
History
The church, the first to be organized in the newly settled community, began as the First CongregationalCongregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
Society in 1809. Nine years later the society was reorganized as a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
church. This change in name was never recorded with the county clerk, which caused problems in 1853 when the church attempted to sell its original property to move into the current building since the property was still in the name of the Congregational Society. It required an act of the state legislature to resolve.
It is not known who designed the current building, though it may have been the builder. The Gothic Revival styles were beginning to displace earlier, classically
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
inspired modes such as the Federal and Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
among new Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
churches in the mid-19th century. Even denominations such as the more austere Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
denominations that had not embraced the more liturgical
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
style of worship favored by the high church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
Ecclesiologists who had been the major proponents of Gothic Revival as the proper form for church buildings, began building churches in that style. The First Presbyterian Church demonstrates this embrace more on the exterior, with its slightly different roof pitch
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
es, pointed arches and early Romanesque Revival massing and fenestration
Building envelope
The building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. Another emerging term is "Building Enclosure". It serves as the outer shell to help maintain the indoor environment and facilitate its climate control...
, whereas the interior is the open auditorium with dais
Dais
Dais is any raised platform located either in or outside of a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary....
reflecting services focused primarily on lengthy sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
s.
Construction of the building cost $35,000 ($ in contemporary dollars), an amount well over the original budget. To furnish the interior, the women of the church gave $675 ($ in contemporary dollars). At the end of construction money was also saved by building the steeple of wood rather than stone.
The first services were held on Thanksgiving Day in November 1855, with the formal dedication taking place the following spring. Within a year of construction, a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
knocked the original steeple over. The undamaged bell was put in the current steeple, built of stone as originally planned and paid for with a donation from a new congregant, John Fisher
John Fisher (politician)
John Fisher , iron founder, manufacturer, was a politician, both in Canada and the United States. He had one son....
, who later represented the area in Congress
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
The church alone sufficed until 1882, when the north half of the Sunday school wing was added on to its rear. Its entrance remains on the west elevation. Six years later the balcony was added to the sanctuary to accommodate a growing congregation.
In 1908, two decades after its construction, the Sunday school wing was doubled in size. In accordance with the Akron Plan
Akron Plan
Akron Plan for church buildings was popularized by architectural pattern books in the late 19th and early 20th century. The plan is typified by an auditorium form worship space surrounded by connecting Sunday school classrooms spaces on one or two levels. The plan promotes efficiency of movement...
developed by Lewis Miller and other influential religious educational theorists of the day, it also was reconfigured into the form of a two-story rotunda with classrooms surrounding the central space on both levels, to provide for a graded Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
where children could study the same Biblical lesson as their parents, but in a manner more appropriate to their developmental level, and then return to discuss it as a group. This was an increasingly common design or redesign for American Protestant churches of the era.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the last piece of the current complex, the Memorial Service Building, was erected. Its use of the Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
style reflects that mode's pre-eminence at the time, particularly among YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
buildings. Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he met early success as a traveling salesman with the Larkin soap company. Today Hubbard is mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an...
, leader of the Roycroft
Roycroft
Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the USA. Elbert Hubbard founded the community in 1895 in the village of East Aurora, Erie County, New York, near Buffalo. Participants were known as Roycrofters...
community in the nearby village of East Aurora
East Aurora, New York
East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. The Village of East Aurora lies in the eastern half of the Town of Aurora.The population was 6,673 at the 2000 census...
, extolled traditional Protestant virtues of honesty, perseverance and personal responsibility, further contributing to the popularity of the Arts and Crafts style in religious architecture across denominations.
With the installation of a new pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
in 1923, the first changes to the sanctuary were made. The original chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
had a small organ on one side of the dais with space for a small choir on the right of the pulpit. The newer, larger organ required two sets of pipes, and they were on both sides of the dais, with Tudor Gothic wood screens. A larger space was provided for a choir on the right. These changes reflected the growing use of music in the service.
In 1928 the church reached its peak membership with 1,485 congregants. The last change to the sanctuary, in 1954, was the last step in moving from the sermon-based services of the church's founding to the more liturgical services Protestant congregations had come to prefer. Pulpits and lecterns were added on either side of the centrally located dais steps, and the choir pews were placed behind them. On the wall behind them the original pendant tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
was replaced with the current rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
. The original box pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s were replaced with the current open oak pews.
The church began the first of several renovations near the end of the century. A general renovation campaign began in 1994 and was completed in 1998. In 2003 a yearlong renovation of the bell tower began. Under new pastor Roula Alkhouri, the first Syrian
Syrian people
The Syrian people are the inhabitants and citizens of Syria. Syrians are tied together by geography, linguistic heritage, religion, and similar Eastern Mediterranean ethnicities...
woman to be ordained
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
as a Presbyterian minister, the church began assessing needs for a long-term capital project.