Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church, United Methodist.)
Pawling Avenue/ East Side Methodist Episcopal Church
“The first Methodist meeting house at Albia, in the fifth ward of the city, was erected by the trustees of the State street society, for the purpose of providing its members with a convenient place for hearing preaching and for holding prayer -meetings, when they were precluded from attending religious services at the State Street Church.“ The trustees of State Street formed a committee to build a meeting house in Albia, on August 15, 1826. The first reported sermon was preached there in 1829 (Hillman. p 83.)
This Methodist “society” – congregation- was not only the the first satellite church of the State Street church, but of all of those churches, is the only one still in operation today, in a building within sight of the location of the original one. It was needed because the mill workers would have had a xxx mile work to downtown Troy, and then walking back up a steep valley side, not only taking a lot of time and effort, but on unpaved roadways and in all weather, it must have been a dangerous and difficult journey. It is remarkable that up to this point some actually had made it!
The original building was made of wood, and Hillman reported that the stone tablet above the door read that the church was erected in 1827, and rebuilt in 1858. Maps show it as being a little smaller than the still-standing original Presbyterian Church, now labeled as a Church of Christ, though not in use, just a hundred yards away at the junction of Pawling Avenue and Winter Street. The site of the East Side Methodist Church became home to the Oddfellows Society, and the structure still visible at the site does have the appearance of a chapel, but one made of brick, not wood. It now appears to be a home.
The site of the original East Side Methodist Episcopal Church on the east side of Pawling Avenue.
The view from the junction of Pauling Avenue and Winter Street, with the Wynantskill immediately behind the photographer. These banks were lined with mill buildings, and some remains are visible looking over the bridge as well as on adjacent properties.
The congregation adopted the official name of the “Pawling Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church” in 1868, and in 1888 Hillman reported a membership of 166 persons.
A few years after the publication of Hillman’s book, the current brick church, known locally as “The Welcome Church,” was constructed on the western side of the road, less than half a mile to the north. This congregation continues to welcome neighbors and friend to worship and community meals, and can be contacted on Facebook and the web. If your genealogical search leads you to this congregation, you should start by asking what records they have, as operational UMC churches usually hold their records.
Many of the imposing brick structures of the mills, including those first erected by Mahlon Taylor not long after his arrival in Troy in 1789, and their successors, were still standing beside the Wynantskill into the 21st Century.
Line drawings and quotations are from “The History of Methodism in Troy” by Joseph Hillman, 1888, available as a PDF, free of charge, at a number of online archives, including the Library of Congress. Photographs are the author’s.
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