Reformed Church of Beacon

The Reformed Church of Beacon, originally the Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill Landing, is a historic and architecturally-significant church in Beacon, New York. The congregation, who no longer occupies the building, claims it is the oldest church in Beacon.[2][3] It is located on NY 9D about 0.5 miles (1 km) south of Beacon's municipal complex and downtown area and overlooks the Hudson River from a bluff. It was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers and built in 1860 using the High Victorian Gothic style, one of its earliest uses in the United States.[4] The church and its cemetery were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It is one of three Withers buildings in the city on the Register and a rare example of his church architecture in this style.[5]Two and a half stories in height and seven by four bays, the church is made from red brick laid in English bond. The main entrance, two large Gothic wooden paneled doors with a small Gothic window between them, is on the east. All but one of the side bays have a large Gothic window with a buttress between them. The west elevation is fully fenestrated, and a small wing projects to south. Near it, the church's spire, a later addition, rises.[1] Inside, a red carpet covers the wooden floor under the sanctuary's 98 oak pews. The walls are plaster, covered to a certain level with narrow vertical wainscoting. They rise to a vaulted wooden ceiling with large trusses. In the rear, behind the altar, are the pipes of the church's manual-tracker pipe organ,[1] the only one in the Hudson Valley.[3] A small gallery, presently the choir room, is off the main entrance. On the west end is a larger room, used as a Sunday school and lecture hall. It is decorated with similar materials as the sanctuary except the wood is painted white and the plaster blue. From the south side, a small kitchen and hallway offer stairs to both the basement and bell tower.

You may also like