Hyde Park Reformed Dutch Church
Encyclopedia
Hyde Park Dutch Reformed Church is located on US 9 in the center of Hyde Park
, New York, United States, just north of the post office
and the junction with Market Street at the center of town. It is a complex of several buildings on a 2 acre (0.809372 ha) lot
.
The congregation traces its roots to a union church established in the community in 1789. It was formally organized within the Dutch Reformed Church
three years later. The main church building was constructed in 1826 in the Federal style. In 1993 it, the church cemetery, parsonage and lecture hall were added to the National Register of Historic Places
.
to the listing.
frame
building on a slightly exposed stone basement. It is sided
in clapboard
with an asphalt-shingled
gable
d roof topped by a four-story blunt steeple
on the western (front) elevation. The northeast corner is pierced by a brick chimney.
A simple cornice marks the roofline around the entire building, with modillions in the end gables. On the front side, the central bay projects to form the base of the steeple. All three bays on the front elevation have a red paneled double wooden door surrounded by fluted
pilaster
s with a projecting cornice on top. Above each one on the second story is a window topped with semicircular fanlight. At the attic is a decorative circular light. This is echoed by a round-arched louver
ed vent on each side of the steeple.
The north and south sides both have recessed round-arched stained glass
windows — four on the north and three on the south. All have wooden surrounds and sills. There is a small entrance on the southern side.
Inside the pew
s are arranged with a center aisle leading to the raised pulpit
, flanked by a pipe organ
and backed by a decorative entablature
with flanking pilasters. A wooden stairway leads to the balcony, supported by round wooden Doric
columns with a frieze
around the balcony's edge. The ceiling is embossed tin. Many of these finishes are original.
The lecture hall is located to the south of the church. It is a one-story frame building sided in clapboard with a gabled roof and pilasters at the corners. A plain cornice and frieze mark the roofline. There is a triangular vent in the east gable, and the main entrance on the west has a vestibule
with pedimented roof and corner pilasters. A modern wooden door has a decorative surround. A one-story wing projects from the north side.
West and south of the church is the last of its contributing resources, the cemetery. It contains over a hundred tombstones, of sandstone, granite and marble, from a 200-year period starting in 1790. Their funerary art
ranges from plain with a few death's heads on the earlier ones to a full range of common 19th-century motifs, such as urns and willows, on later ones.
A fellowship hall connects the east end of the church and the south side of the parsonage. There is also a small maintenance shed on the property. Architecturally sympathetic, they are of modern construction and considered non-contributing.
, but had few residents until just before it. After the war, the residents of the small community known at the time as Stoutenburgh's Landing, after one of its major landowners, realized they needed a church. They built a union church, for all denominations, with the understanding that the first one within it that built a congregation large enough to support its own building could have the union church. Three years later, in 1792, the Classis
of Kingston
recognized the Dutch Reformed Church in Hyde Park as a separate congregation, and they got the church. Luke Stoutenburgh donated the half-acre (2,025 m²) to its south, and the new church grew.
The new church became known as the Reformed Church of Stoutsburg following the settlement's decision to call itself that in 1803. In 1817 it followed the village in adopting the name Hyde Park. Eight years later, by 1825, the original union church was too small for the congregation, so it was torn down to make way for the current building, completed the following year. The church is less ornamented
than other Federal-style buildings in the Hudson Valley
, owing to its use for religious purposes.
In 1833 the church bought the land to the north and built the parsonage on it. Two years later the church building itself was expanded by 17 feet (5.2 m) to the east and the current mahogany altar, given by another church in New York City, was added. There have been no renovations to the exterior since then.
Church records suggest the newest contributing resource, the lecture hall, was added sometime prior to 1858. Unlike the church and parsonage, it uses the Greek Revival
style
, which had come to displace the Federal style. In 1885 the last major renovation to the church, the addition of an Odell tracker
pipe organ, came. It was necessary to cover over one of the south windows to accommodate the new instrument.
The fellowship hall connected the church and parsonage about 1960. In the early 2000s, a member of the congregation took it upon himself to restore the organ. Pieces were sent to a Maryland company for tuning; a North Carolina woman repainted the pipes.
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
, New York, United States, just north of the post office
U.S. Post Office (Hyde Park, New York)
The U.S. Post Office in Hyde Park, New York, serves the 12538 ZIP Code. It is a stone building in the Dutch Colonial Revival architectural style, located on East Market Street just east of US 9....
and the junction with Market Street at the center of town. It is a complex of several buildings on a 2 acre (0.809372 ha) lot
Lot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
.
The congregation traces its roots to a union church established in the community in 1789. It was formally organized within the Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
three years later. The main church building was constructed in 1826 in the Federal style. In 1993 it, the church cemetery, parsonage and lecture hall were added to 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...
.
Property
There are five buildings and the church cemetery on the lot, a flat grassy area with some tall trees. The cemetery and three of the buildings are considered contributing resourcesContributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the listing.
Church
The main church building is a two-story, three-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:...
frame
Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
building on a slightly exposed stone basement. It is sided
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....
in clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
with an asphalt-shingled
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
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 topped by a four-story blunt steeple
Steeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
on the western (front) elevation. The northeast corner is pierced by a brick chimney.
A simple cornice marks the roofline around the entire building, with modillions in the end gables. On the front side, the central bay projects to form the base of the steeple. All three bays on the front elevation have a red paneled double wooden door surrounded by fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s with a projecting cornice on top. Above each one on the second story is a window topped with semicircular fanlight. At the attic is a decorative circular light. This is echoed by a round-arched 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 vent on each side of the steeple.
The north and south sides both have recessed round-arched 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 — four on the north and three on the south. All have wooden surrounds and sills. There is a small entrance on the southern side.
Inside the 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 are arranged with a center aisle leading to the raised pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
, flanked by a 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...
and backed by a decorative entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
with flanking pilasters. A wooden stairway leads to the balcony, supported by round wooden Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
columns with a frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
around the balcony's edge. The ceiling is embossed tin. Many of these finishes are original.
Other buildings and cemetery
To the north of the church is the parsonage, built a few years later. Its main block is similar in form and materials to the church. It adds a two-story western wing with a wraparound flat-roofed porch, supported by turned posts on the rear. Its interior finishes are original.The lecture hall is located to the south of the church. It is a one-story frame building sided in clapboard with a gabled roof and pilasters at the corners. A plain cornice and frieze mark the roofline. There is a triangular vent in the east gable, and the main entrance on the west has a vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
with pedimented roof and corner pilasters. A modern wooden door has a decorative surround. A one-story wing projects from the north side.
West and south of the church is the last of its contributing resources, the cemetery. It contains over a hundred tombstones, of sandstone, granite and marble, from a 200-year period starting in 1790. Their funerary art
Funerary art
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside...
ranges from plain with a few death's heads on the earlier ones to a full range of common 19th-century motifs, such as urns and willows, on later ones.
A fellowship hall connects the east end of the church and the south side of the parsonage. There is also a small maintenance shed on the property. Architecturally sympathetic, they are of modern construction and considered non-contributing.
History
Hyde Park received its name before the RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, but had few residents until just before it. After the war, the residents of the small community known at the time as Stoutenburgh's Landing, after one of its major landowners, realized they needed a church. They built a union church, for all denominations, with the understanding that the first one within it that built a congregation large enough to support its own building could have the union church. Three years later, in 1792, the Classis
Presbyterian polity
Presbyterian polity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply...
of Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
recognized the Dutch Reformed Church in Hyde Park as a separate congregation, and they got the church. Luke Stoutenburgh donated the half-acre (2,025 m²) to its south, and the new church grew.
The new church became known as the Reformed Church of Stoutsburg following the settlement's decision to call itself that in 1803. In 1817 it followed the village in adopting the name Hyde Park. Eight years later, by 1825, the original union church was too small for the congregation, so it was torn down to make way for the current building, completed the following year. The church is less ornamented
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
than other Federal-style buildings in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
, owing to its use for religious purposes.
In 1833 the church bought the land to the north and built the parsonage on it. Two years later the church building itself was expanded by 17 feet (5.2 m) to the east and the current mahogany altar, given by another church in New York City, was added. There have been no renovations to the exterior since then.
Church records suggest the newest contributing resource, the lecture hall, was added sometime prior to 1858. Unlike the church and parsonage, it uses the 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...
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...
, which had come to displace the Federal style. In 1885 the last major renovation to the church, the addition of an Odell tracker
Tracker action
Tracker action is a term used in reference to pipe organs and steam calliopes to indicate a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipe of the corresponding note...
pipe organ, came. It was necessary to cover over one of the south windows to accommodate the new instrument.
The fellowship hall connected the church and parsonage about 1960. In the early 2000s, a member of the congregation took it upon himself to restore the organ. Pieces were sent to a Maryland company for tuning; a North Carolina woman repainted the pipes.