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St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Troy, New York)
Encyclopedia
St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy
, New York, United States, is located at Third (northbound US 4
) and State streets. It is home to one of the oldest congregations in the city. In 1979, the church and two outbuildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places
. Seven years later, when the Central Troy Historic District
was created and added to the Register, it was listed as a contributing property
.
It was built in the mid-1820s as a direct copy of Ithiel Town
's Trinity Church in New Haven, Connecticut
, making it one of the earliest churches in America to embrace Gothic Revival elements. Today, due to changes in the original, St. Paul's is closer to Trinity's original appearance than Trinity itself. During renovations in the late 1890s, stained glass
and other interior work by Louis Comfort Tiffany
was added.
. The church is supplemented by the Guild House to the east, and the Martha Memorial House attached to the northeast corner serves as the parish
offices.
The church itself is rectangular in shape, five bays
long by three wide. It is faced in limestone
blocks laid in a random ashlar
pattern with dressed pilaster
s at the corners. There are five lancet window
s along the south profile and four along the north. Both the west and east facade
s have three similar windows apiece. A horizontal course
connects all the north and south windows at the lancet's spring. The roofline is marked by a decorated
wooden cornice
. A hundred-foot-high (30 m) tower
rises from 12 feet (4 m) above the main entrance on the western facade. Inside its crenellated top is a 2200 pounds (997.9 kg) bell
.
The front entrance doubles as the Wayside Chapel. Inside the plate glass doors, the church's sanctuary
divides its pew
s with three aisle
s. Chandelier
s illuminate each section, and a colored -glass lamp hangs over the altar
. The high ceiling is supported with wooden truss
es; they and the clerestory
screens are carved and decorated with gold-tone aluminum leaf.
The Guild House, originally the Parish House, is a three-story three-bay limestone building meant to be sympathetic to the church to its west. Its interior woodwork and windows are original, although other renovations have taken place. The Martha Memorial House is similar in size and shape but faced in brick
. It has been more extensively modernized, but a second-floor chapel is intact as are its windows, woodwork and a staircase.
, a touch of the contemporary Picturesque
styling.
It resembles Town's Trinity Church in every way save the use of a different stone in a different color. Since Trinity's tower has been replaced since it was built, it now reflects the original appearance of Trinity more than Trinity itself does.
as a village. With financial support from New York City
's Trinity Church
, and the leadership of its first rector, the Rev. David Butler, it built its first church in 1804 at what is now the intersection of Third and Congress streets. That building was noted in 1818 as having the city's only organ
. In 1826, its membership swelling due to the rapid growth of what was now a city, the congregation commissioned the new building.
The contract specified that the new church was to be a copy of Ithiel Town
's Trinity Church in New Haven, Connecticut
, finished in 1817, except where otherwise noted. The only significant difference between the two was their facing: Trinity used brown granite whereas St. Paul's used blue-gray limestone quarried
in nearby Amsterdam
. Ground was broken in 1826; the church was in use two years later.
In the years after the Civil War
the church began renovations, starting with the Parish House, now the Guild House, in 1869. The battlement
s and pinnacle
s on the cornices were removed, and the bell tower modified, when a new bell was installed in the 1870s. In 1881, the construction of Martha House (to which a second story was added six years later), originally a residence for the nun
s associated with the church, cost it the easternmost window on the northern profile. Otherwise, the exterior is as it originally was.
On the inside, a brass pulpit and new marble were added later in the 1880s. These led to the major renovations to the interior early in the 1890s, after money was raised to fix structural problems from the original construction. Hidden steel pillars shored up the church, and the ceiling was opened up, its trusses now visible. The rector at the time had recently returned from a tour of Europe's great Gothic churches, and so Louis Comfort Tiffany
's company was hired to redecorate the interior afterwards, adding much of the glass and woodwork done by local craftsmen to Tiffany's designs. The stained glass windows were added shortly afterwards.
The 20th century saw a few more changes. A third story was added to Guild House in 1914. The church itself got its current organ in 1921, the Wayside Chapel in the 1940s, and the glass doors in the 1960s.
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, New York, United States, is located at Third (northbound US 4
U.S. Route 4 in New York
U.S. Route 4 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from East Greenbush, New York, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In the U.S. state of New York, US 4 extends from an intersection with US 9 and US 20 in East Greenbush to the Vermont state line northeast of Whitehall...
) and State streets. It is home to one of the oldest congregations in the city. In 1979, the church and two outbuildings 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...
. Seven years later, when the Central Troy Historic District
Central Troy Historic District
The Central Troy Historic District is an irregularly-shaped, area of downtown Troy, New York, United States. It has been described as "one of the most perfectly preserved 19th-century downtowns in the [country]" with nearly 700 properties in a variety of architectural styles from the early 19th to...
was created and added to the Register, it was listed as a contributing property
Contributing 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...
.
It was built in the mid-1820s as a direct copy of Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town was a prominent American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the first half of the 19th century. He was high-strung, sophisticated, generous,...
's Trinity Church in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, making it one of the earliest churches in America to embrace Gothic Revival elements. Today, due to changes in the original, St. Paul's is closer to Trinity's original appearance than Trinity itself. During renovations in the late 1890s, 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...
and other interior work by Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
was added.
Church complex
There are three buildings on the church's lotLot (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 church is supplemented by the Guild House to the east, and the Martha Memorial House attached to the northeast corner serves as the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
offices.
The church itself is rectangular in shape, five bays
Bay (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:...
long by three wide. It is faced in 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 laid in a random ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
pattern with dressed 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 at the corners. There are five lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s along the south profile and four along the north. Both the west and east 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"....
s have three similar windows apiece. A horizontal course
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:...
connects all the north and south windows at the lancet's spring. The roofline is marked by a decorated
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...
wooden cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
. A hundred-foot-high (30 m) tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
rises from 12 feet (4 m) above the main entrance on the western facade. Inside its crenellated top is a 2200 pounds (997.9 kg) bell
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
.
The front entrance doubles as the Wayside Chapel. Inside the plate glass doors, 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...
divides its 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 with three aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
s. Chandelier
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
s illuminate each section, and a colored -glass lamp hangs over the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
. The high ceiling is supported with wooden truss
Truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...
es; they and the clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
screens are carved and decorated with gold-tone aluminum leaf.
The Guild House, originally the Parish House, is a three-story three-bay limestone building meant to be sympathetic to the church to its west. Its interior woodwork and windows are original, although other renovations have taken place. The Martha Memorial House is similar in size and shape but faced in brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
. It has been more extensively modernized, but a second-floor chapel is intact as are its windows, woodwork and a staircase.
Aesthetics
The building's original decoration was believed at the time to be consistent with a house of worship. It also shows the influence of 16th-century English churches and, in its rough surfacing and irregular masonryMasonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
, a touch of the contemporary Picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
styling.
It resembles Town's Trinity Church in every way save the use of a different stone in a different color. Since Trinity's tower has been replaced since it was built, it now reflects the original appearance of Trinity more than Trinity itself does.
History
The congregation was organized in 1795, not long after the city itself was first incorporatedMunicipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
as a village. With financial support from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Trinity Church
Trinity Church, New York
Trinity Church at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
, and the leadership of its first rector, the Rev. David Butler, it built its first church in 1804 at what is now the intersection of Third and Congress streets. That building was noted in 1818 as having the city's only 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 1826, its membership swelling due to the rapid growth of what was now a city, the congregation commissioned the new building.
The contract specified that the new church was to be a copy of Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town was a prominent American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the first half of the 19th century. He was high-strung, sophisticated, generous,...
's Trinity Church in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, finished in 1817, except where otherwise noted. The only significant difference between the two was their facing: Trinity used brown granite whereas St. Paul's used blue-gray limestone quarried
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
in nearby Amsterdam
Amsterdam (town), New York
Amsterdam is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 5,566 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.The town is adjacent to and borders the city of Amsterdam on three sides...
. Ground was broken in 1826; the church was in use two years later.
In the years after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
the church began renovations, starting with the Parish House, now the Guild House, in 1869. The battlement
Battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...
s and pinnacle
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
s on the cornices were removed, and the bell tower modified, when a new bell was installed in the 1870s. In 1881, the construction of Martha House (to which a second story was added six years later), originally a residence for the nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
s associated with the church, cost it the easternmost window on the northern profile. Otherwise, the exterior is as it originally was.
On the inside, a brass pulpit and new marble were added later in the 1880s. These led to the major renovations to the interior early in the 1890s, after money was raised to fix structural problems from the original construction. Hidden steel pillars shored up the church, and the ceiling was opened up, its trusses now visible. The rector at the time had recently returned from a tour of Europe's great Gothic churches, and so Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
's company was hired to redecorate the interior afterwards, adding much of the glass and woodwork done by local craftsmen to Tiffany's designs. The stained glass windows were added shortly afterwards.
The 20th century saw a few more changes. A third story was added to Guild House in 1914. The church itself got its current organ in 1921, the Wayside Chapel in the 1940s, and the glass doors in the 1960s.