The Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program recently pledged 19 Sacred Sites Grants totaling $289,800 to 17 historic religious properties throughout New York State. These included two grants totaling $37,000 to New York City congregations: Hebrew Tabernacle in Washington Heights and the Museum at Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side.
We’ve listed these grants alphabetically by the name of the institution.
Baptist Temple Church in Newburgh, received $10,000 to help fund masonry repairs. Completed in 1890, the Baptist Temple Church retains historic finishes, fixtures, and stained-glass windows. Outreach programs such as AA/NA meetings, clothing drives, and food distribution serve about 1,500 community members annually.
Brockport United Methodist Church received a $10,000 grant to help fund architectural services for roof replacement. Prominent Rochester architect Andrew Jackson Warner, in partnership with James Goold Cutler, designed the Brockport United Methodist Church in 1876-1877, with two additions expanding the church in 1912 and 1982. The local DAR chapter added a clock to the church’s south tower in 1914. The church reaches about 550 people annually through activities such as 12-step meetings, scout troops, a community theater group, a community library, and clothing distribution.
Facing the village green in the Suffolk County town of Brookhaven, the Caroline Church dates from 1723. A grant of $3,000 will help fund a window conditions survey. Architect Richard Haviland Smythe completed a 1937 campaign of modifications as part of a larger 40-year project to recreate a nostalgic interpretation of colonial-era Long Island. The church serves about 900 people a year through activities such as a food pantry, Long Island Pops Concerts, Celtic music concerts, and the annual Setauket Country Fair. This grant was made possible with generous support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
Central Church of Christ in Rochester received a $2,800 to fund an architectural survey of the slate roof. Renowned Rochester architect Andrew J. Warner designed the Gothic Revival-style church for the First Presbyterian congregation in 1871. The Central Church of Christ has owned the building since the early 1970s. The church reaches about 500 people through partnerships with the Rochester City School District and the United Way, a health & wellness series, and food and clothing distribution.
Christ Episcopal Church in Duanesburg received a total of $47,000 in two grants to help fund envelope restoration and architectural work for the project. Local carpenter Jeremiah Purdy completed the church between 1791-1793. The church is architecturally significant as an outstanding example of an 18th century, New England style meeting house and is the oldest intact Episcopal church in New York State. Christ Episcopal Church reaches about 575 local residents with activities such as yoga classes, AA meetings, concerts, and rummage sales. Additionally, the church is a site of the New York Landmark Conservancy’s Annual Sacred Sites Open House.
A $7,000 grant pledge will help the Museum at Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side to install new storm windows. Architect brothers Peter and Francis Herter designed the Eldridge Street Synagogue (K’hal Adath Jeshurun) in 1887. The building was the first purpose-built synagogue in the neighborhood specifically constructed for the Orthodox Eastern European Ashkenazic community, reflecting the growing Jewish immigrant population on the Lower East Side. The not-for-profit Eldridge Street Project was established in 1986 to raise funds to restore the synagogue and use the site for educational and arts programs focusing on the religious, social, and architectural history of the building and its immigrant population. The museum’s programming reaches about 31,000 people annually.
Two grants totaling $45,000 will assist the First Presbyterian Church of Niagara Falls with belltower and turret restoration and architectural work to guide the project. Located on First Street in downtown Niagara Falls, First Presbyterian is a transitional Gothic Revival-Romanesque Revival church of locally quarried, granite-block construction. The design-build partnership of architect Calvin Fay and carpenter/mason Lewis Barger completed the church in 1849. The congregation, however, was founded in 1824 and the current church is the congregation’s second building. First Presbyterian Church reaches about 125 people a year through activities such as a drumming circles, a hand-bell choir, clothing collections, and, in conjunction with other local churches, community suppers.
The First Reformed Church of Bethlehem in Selkirk received a $15,000 grant pledge to help fund stained-glass window restoration. Completed in 1890 to the designs of Albany architect Ernest Hoffman, the church is congregation’s third. First Reformed Church of Bethlehem reaches over 8,000 people a year through programming such as a food pantry, AA meetings, scout troops, concerts, and a feeding program. An outdoor pavilion is open seasonally for picnics and gatherings. The congregation supports a mission program in Oman and Ghana, loans medical equipment within the county, and serves as a polling place for elections.
Good Ground Family Church, formerly St. Agnes Roman Catholic church, received a $13,000 pledge to assist with a conditions survey. The church is a red-brick, Gothic revival cruciform-plan building completed in 1891 by local builders Neary & Stanton Construction Company of Cohoes. Good Ground Family Church reaches about 5,000 people a year through extensive community activities intendend to end the poverty cycle in Cohoes. The Connect Center for Youth (CCFY) programming includes computer science, culinary arts, music, journalism, and engineering workshops, focusing on career-transferable skills, as well as life skills workshops. Good Ground partners with a local food bank that uses space at the church to provide groceries, hygiene, and household supplies and works with the Cohoes School District to deliver weekend groceries to food-insecure households via a “Backpack Project.” In 2022, the program delivered about 19,000 meals throughout Cohoes. The original parish of St. Agnes closed in 1997 and the Diocese of Albany sold the church to Good Ground Family Church in 2001.
The Conservancy pledged $30,000 to Hebrew Tabernacle in Washington Heights to help fund door restoration. Architects Cherry & Matz designed this Art Deco-style church for the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist in 1931-1932. Washington Heights became a Jewish enclave following WWII when a wave of German-Jewish Holocaust refugees and survivors settled in Washington Heights. As neighborhood demographics continued to shift in the later 20th century, the synagogue merged with the nearby Reform congregation Temple Beth Am in 2002. The congregation serves about 2,800 people annually through activities such as a Hebrew school,art exhibitions, and theater, opera, and choral performances. Working with The New York Landmarks Conservancy and NYC Performers in Sacred Places (a program started by Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places) a choreographer used space in the building at the pandemic’s height in 2020-2021.
The Ketewamoke DAR Hall will use a $4,000 grant to help fund a conditions survey. Constructed as the First Universalist Society by builder Jarvis Lefferts in 1837, the current owners, Ketewamoke Daughters of the American Revolution, has used the building as a Chapter House since 1914. The building serves about 1,700 people a year through activities such as food drives, “Wreaths Across America,” collections for the USMC Toys for Tots program, cemetery cleanups, school-supply collections, a book drive, and a scholarship program. This grant was made possible with generous support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
Messiah Baptist Church in Yonkers, received a $30,000 grant to help fund roof replacement. Noted New York City-based ecclesiastical architect Lawrence Valk designed the church as the Westminster Presbyterian Church in 1880. Messiah Baptist Church has owned the church since 1965. Founded in 1875, Messiah Baptist Church is the oldest predominantly Black church congregation in Westchester County and has played a central role in both the Yonkers and Westchester County Black community since the late nineteenth century. The congregation reaches about 1,000 people a year through activities such as a feeding program and youth programming.
Peekskill Presbyterian Church received a $5,000 grant to help fund a conditions survey. The church is one of the oldest congregations in the city, with its first sanctuary completed in 1799, and the present church constructed in 1846. Additions to the current sanctuary in 1858, 1884, and 1964 enlarged the building to the rear. The mid-19th century Fowler House just west of the sanctuary building provides church office space. The congregation serves about 250 people a year through activities such as a Head Start program, AA and NA meetings, a youth group, a food pantry, and a book club.
A $10,000 grant pledge to St. Michael’s Greek Catholic Congregation in Binghamton will assist with tower masonry restoration. Local builder Charles Saldun completed St. Michael’s Greek Catholic Church in 1916. The church’s interior features painted biblical scenes on the barrel-vaulted ceiling, and an elaborate altar screen, or iconostas, contained within a full-height round-arch opening that divides the nave from the sanctuary and altar. The majority of the interior iconography is original to the church’s dedication in 1916. St. Michael’s reaches about 3,500 people a year through activities such as a food pantry, community meals, and grocery distribution.
The Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton will use an $8,000 grant pledge to help fund roof replacement. Architect Horace White designed the present Romanesque-revival church following an 1876 fire that destroyed the congregation’s 1834 building. Construction of the present church in 1878 used twenty-five hundred tons of quarry-faced, blue limestone laid in random ashlar coursing from a Clinton quarry and fifteen hundred tons of cut limestone from Syracuse for trim. The Stone Presbyterian Church reaches about 35,000 people annually outside its membership through activities such as the Fair Trade Shoppe with profits supporting two local food pantries, Hope House, a refugee program, World Vision for Ukraine, and the Life School Foundation in Guatemala. There is a girl-scout troop has about 15 members and the Optimists Club. The church holds fundraisers to support The Neighborhood Center, Abraham House, the Rescue Mission of Utica, and the Thea Bowman House.
Longtime Conservancy grantee Tabernacle Baptist Church in Utica received a $25,000 grant to help fund side aisle and chapel roof replacement. Although the congregation that became Tabernacle Baptist Church was founded in 1819, the present church was constructed in 1867 to the designs of Boston architect George F. Meacham. The congregation reaches about 800 people annually through its extensive partnernship with the Burmese-refugee community. The church has been a strong, early supporter of this community since 1999 when its first members arrived. Tabernacle Baptist offers services in the Karen language, English-language support services and a Burmese language school. The Midtown Utica Community holds events in the church. The “Caring Corner” program has a food pantry, donated clothing and household goods.
Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo is an outstanding example of mid-twentieth century modern design applied to an ecclesiastical building. A $25,000 grant will assist with exterior masonry restoration. Architect Max Abramowitz designed the synagogue in 1964. Mid-twentieth century artist Ben Shahn completed windows, a metal menorah, and interior mosaics. Temple Beth Zion reaches about 12,500 people a year through activities such as Jewish history events, often held in conjunction with the Holocaust Resource Center and the Cofeld Museum; periodic concerts as part of the Community Music School and Music in Buffalo’s Historic Places; theatrical performances with Theatreworks; adult education classes and speakers. The synagogue makes its space available to local non-profits for events such as Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Rotary Club, and Hispanic Heritage Month. A local church, True Bethel, uses space at the synagogue for its large Easter service.
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