Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church (New Rochelle, New York)

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Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Trinity Saint Paul's Episcopal Church of New Rochelle-5.jpg
The clock tower at Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church
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Location311 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, New York
Coordinates 40°54′34.2″N73°47′4″W / 40.909500°N 73.78444°W / 40.909500; -73.78444
Area1.6 acres (0.65 ha)
Built1862-1864
Architect Richard Upjohn & Son; F. Carlos Merry
Architectural styleGothic Revival
NRHP reference No. 06000576 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 12, 2006

Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. It is located at the northwest corner of Huguenot Street (also known as the Boston Post Road) and Division Street. This church represents the body of the majority group of New Rochelle's founding Huguenot French Calvinistic congregation that conformed to the liturgy of the established Church of England in June 1709. King George III gave Trinity its first charter in 1762. After the American Revolutionary War, Trinity became a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America.

Contents

The present building is the third church erected by the conformist congregation. It is the immediate successor of a wooden church building erected in 1823 - 1824. It stands on land that was conveyed to the church wardens by Aman Guion in 1743. The cornerstone was laid on August 13, 1862, the church was opened for worship September 13, 1863, and the tower completed November 30, 1864. The church was designed by Richard Upjohn & Son, known for their gothic revival architecture.

A parish house was added on the western side of the church in 1892. Constructed of the same granite and brownstone materials as the church, the structure was designed by architect Frederick Carles Merry, who also designed the New Rochelle Trust building on Main Street. [2]

Church heirlooms

Within the stone walls of the church are a number of artifacts, or 'heirlooms', that have been handed down through generations of this 300-year-old congregation. They highlight the long history of the church and of the New Rochelle community. A silver chalice presented to the church by Queen Anne of England, received after its conformation to the Church of England in 1709, is inscribed "Anne Regina". [3]

The stained glass windows in the chancel are memorials to Rev. Bondet, Rev. Pierre Stouppe and Rev. Michael Houdin, Trinity's first three ministers. Many other stained glass windows, some of which were crafted by Tiffany, grace the church. The 19th and 20th century congregants, for whom the windows were dedicated, include such names as Iselin, Weyman, Davenport, Thorne and Lathers.

The old bell originally in the French Huguenot Church, Eglise du St. Esperit, on Pine Street in New York City, is preserved as a relic in the tower room. In 1823, it was presented to Trinity Church, New Rochelle, and hung up in the tower of the wooden church erected in 1823 - 1824.

Huguenot Burying Ground

The grounds of the church and the Parish House has a rich history that spans three centuries. On Trinity's land, three former town cemeteries now exist as one. Beginning with the first burial, that of James Bertine's daughter in 1802, a cemetery was established just west of the present Parish House and became known as the "Trinity Graveyard". Just north of the church site was the private burial ground of the Allaire family, founding members of the community. A monument to "Alexander the Huguenot" marked the plot and the grave of its first burial. Captain Allaire died in 1782, and his descendants continued to be buried in the family plot until the 1940s. The third and oldest cemetery, the Huguenot Burying Ground, was located just beyond the Allaire's at the southwest side of Division Street at the corner of Union Avenue. The plot was part of the farm of Louis Bongrand, one of the first Huguenot settlers of the Town. In 1693 he gave the plot to the future residents of New Rochelle for a churchyard to bury their dead. [4] The land southeast of the plot was eventually acquired by Trinity Church and all boundaries between the three cemeteries were erased. The arrival of the New York-New Haven railway line in 1849 had carved its way through the village, physically splitting the two once more. A large tract church land had been acquired by Westchester County which ran along the north side of the right of way of the railroad for the route of the projected Pelham-Port Chester Parkway. Although the parkway had not yet been built, the purchase required to removal of the bodies and tombstones from it to the church land on the south side of the railroad. The old burial ground had become otherwise nearly obliterated due to a long period of neglect, the destruction of headstones, and the laying out of new plots over older, unmarked ones. By the time of construction of the New England Thruway in 1956, just one of the final resting places was left to remain, with the Huguenot Burying Ground and the Allaire family cemetery being eliminated for the new six-lane highway. [5]

After much litigation and negotiation, the graves of the two cemeteries were removed, an endeavor paid for by the New England Thruway, and coordinated by Rev. Philip M. Styles of Trinity Church. The early New Rochelleans and their descendants were dug up, placed in special boxes and reburied on the church's land. Although 178 graves were opened, it is estimated that more than 400 Huguenots and Siwanoy Indian "friends" had been buried in the first cemetery. [6] A monument in the Trinity yard marks the re-interred graves of the unknowns, and the extant stones moved along with the remains are placed nearby. The church's "Huguenot Memorial Cemetery", or "Huguenot Burying Ground", has since been recognized as an historic cemetery that is the resting place for a wide cross section of the Huguenot founders, early settlers and other prominent citizens. [7]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middletown (New Rochelle)</span> Former hamlet in New York, United States

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The Churchland or Church is a cultivar of the European pear, it was developed in New Rochelle, New York in northeastern United States. It is believed to have originated as a seedling raised by one of the early Huguenot settlers of the village in the late 17th century. The original tree stood on land which was owned by the Trinity St. Paul's Church of New Rochelle, hence the naming of the fruit "Church". The fruit was so luscious that it was universally liked and, by grafting, the tree soon had extensive propagation throughout the country. An early account of the tree appeared in the proceedings of the American Pomological Society in 1856.

Seacord Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Wykagyl section the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The cemetery is located to the south of the First Methodist Episcopal Church building at 1228 North Avenue. By the year 1787 the group which formed this church had become strong enough to buy a piece of property and erect a church. The graveyard adjoining the church on the south and west dates from the purchase of the church lot. The burial plot north of the church building is a family burying ground founded by Israel Seacord, owner of the farm.

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St. John's Burying Ground was a cemetery bounded by Varick Street, Leroy Street, Hudson Street and Clarkson Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The ground was connected with St. John's Chapel of Trinity Parish from 1834 to 1898, although many of the burials predate the cemetery's acquisition by the church. The last burials were in about 1860. It is estimated that about 10,000 people were buried there.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Nichols, Herbert B. (1859). Historic New Rochelle. The Board of Education, New Rochelle. p. 135.
  3. Seacord, Morgan H. (1938). Historic Landmarks of New Rochelle. New Rochelle, New York: Huguenot and Historical Association. p. 62.
  4. Town Records of New Rochelle 1699 - 1828, Jeanne A. Forbes, The Paragraph Press 1916, page.112
  5. Nichols, Herbert B. (1859). Historic New Rochelle. The Board of Education, New Rochelle. p. 122.
  6. Seacord, Morgan H. (1938). Historic Landmarks of New Rochelle. New Rochelle, New York: Huguenot and Historical Association. p. 86.
  7. Robert Hershenson, Church and a Huguenot Cemetery Move Toward Landmark Status, The New York Times, Sunday, January 6, 1991