Author: Janet in Troy

I am a former Assistant Pastor and former Volunteer Coordinator - but longtime volunteer - and parrot owner, but most of all, a person curious about a lot of things. I am currently working with another member of the congregation of Christ Church, United Methodist, Troy, NY on our history. Interesting anecdotes, biographies , and notes will find a home here. The primary document for this research is Joseph Hillmans's Methodism in Troy, 1888, available free online in numerous archives, including on the Library of Congress site.

African Methodist / Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Zion/ AME Zion Church of Troy

Extended notes on State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church United Methodist) and the buildings and congregations that came from it.

Of all the societies that came out of the State Street Methodist Episcopal congregation, this is the one that has had the most locations, all but the current one, having disappeared in the 190+ years since its formation.

Joseph Hillman in his History of Methodism Troy from 1888, which includes the engraving of their third location as seen above, writes:

“The origin of the African Zion Methodist Episcopal Church, is traceable to a class connected with the State Street Church, called “the colored class,” which was led in 1830, by John Dungy, an intelligent and pious man of African descent, who in 1831 became the pastor of the small congregation of colored people, which that year was known as the African Methodist Church of Troy. In 1832 the society took the name of the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of Troy. A small wooden dwelling, on Fifth Street, north of Liberty Street, was fitted for a house of worship for the congregation. In 1841, the society purchased a lot and building on Fifth Street, and altered the structure into a church. On February 23, 1842, William Meads, Jacob Brown, Lewis Butler, Littleton Becket, and Lewis Jones were elected trustees of the Wesleyan Methodist Zion Church of the city of Troy. The property was sold about the year 1863. In the spring of 1864, George Bristol purchased for the congregation, the property on the east side of Seventh Street, between State Street and Broadway, the title of which was afterward conveyed to Joseph Hillman, Reuben Peckham, and Adam C. Fellows as trustees. On the resignation of A. C. Fellows, H. Clay Bascom, was elected his successor, and he in turn was succeeded by Henry C. Curtis. On the death of Reuben Peckham, Edward O.House was appointed to fill his place. On the brown stone tablet in the front wall of the brick building, in which the congregation worships, is inscribed : A. M. E. Zion Church, organized, A. D., 1832, erected A. D., 1865. The present membership is 79.” (Hillman. pp 118-20

I have included the entirety of that text, because it illustrates the issues that surface in writing about this congregation: we do not know in what spirit the separation of the State Street society, along lines of race and color, took place. The history gives us tantalizing, but contradictory, information. And when the author was invited to give a historical address in the current Fifth Avenue AME Zion, at one of their historical celebrations, the pastor did so explaining the congregation had few records – other than a founding date a few years earlier than the one mentioned by Hillman.

But the real puzzle for us today, stems from the photograph of the trustees of the congregation as preserved in Hillman’s book: the trustees include two men from the State Street leadership. Was their presence paternalistic? Was their presence altruistic, wanting to advertise the continued friendship of the two congregations, at a time when America was recovering from civil war, but hurtling into its ugly era of Jim Crow laws? Or somewhere between those options: they considered themselves as simply protecting their investment, both financial and emotional, with the African American society? Unless we get a lot of new information we can only guess.

Before we add just a little more information to that discussion, let’s talk about the origins of the congregation, and its various locations.

After looking at the various early maps, and not finding the first two churches named anywhere, all I can conclude from Hillman and other texts, is that the first location: “the small wooden dwelling on Fifth Street and north of Liberty” was a small wooden house typical of the neighborhood at the time – a worker’s home, which later made way for the breweries and factories that would be built there. The congregation had, in any case moved to their next location, also on Fifth Street, according to Hillman. They moved there in 1842. There may yet be records of the location for the sale of that second church, around 1863, as this was a time of massive rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1862. That fire engulfed a huge area, stopping half a block short of the State Street M.E. Church, but engulfing the site of the German M.E. Church, and a Presbyterian Church less than a block away. The biggest clue to location, however, is that in 1834, Troy’s very first church building, a Presbyterian church which stood on Congress Street in what is now Sage Park, was physically moved to Liberty Street, and began to be used as a day school for children of color, with evening classes for their elders. This in turn led to the building becoming the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church – a famous African American congregation. It would make sense that these locations were not too far apart. A number of buildings still standing could be imagined as being modified for a church, as there are a few wooden ones to this day, as well as what could be early brick buildings on the street. Most of that block became industrial buildings around this time: the purchase of the property around 1863 could have been to raze it to build a factory or a brewery, or could still be there, obscured by later renovations

The view north from Liberty Street along Fifth Avenue towards the current Christ Church, United Methodist, on State Street.

Their third church was the brick edifice, in the engraving at the top of the article.It was on the east side of what was Seventh Avenue, between State Street and Broadway, an area just north of the current County Buildings (formerly a school). The 1885 Sanford map, which can be viewed online at the Library of Congress, shows it in the center of that street, at a location very similar to one which had previously been used by the Ladies’ Home Mission, which Weise tells us was burned in the Great Fire of 1862. The whole area was rebuilt after that massive devastation, which destroyed homes, businesses, churches, the RPI building of that time, and the train station.

The Hart Cluett website has a page on Black Religious Societies with some information, which differs from my research, especially on the location of Troy High School and this church at the time – but thought that it was razed for the High School. Today, the site is under a parking lot, behind mid twentieth century offices.

From there, the AME Zion congregation moved to the former Ninth Presbyterian Church, in North Central Troy. It stood on a now empty lot at the NW corner of 5th Avenue and Jay Street, having burned down in 1969. The next – and current – home of the Fifth Avenue A.M.E. Zion Church of Troy, is in what had been St. Savior’s Lutheran Church, (formerly a Unitarian Church), which had closed in 1968. The vibrant and socially active A.M.E.Zion congregation has served the local community from this building, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, for over 50 years.

It is so appropriate that the history of this congregation has mostly centered on Fifth Street (now Avenue.) Fifth Street was one of the boundaries of the two fields where Jacob D. Vanderheyden, allowed the annual 6-day Pinkster or Pingster festival – meaning Whit Sunday or Pentecost in Dutch. Sylvester, in his book “The History of the City of Troy”(1880) quotes Henry Rousseau, who recalled: “In my early days there were many slaves in the state of New York. “Pingster” was the slave’s great holiday. The slaves of the four counties – Columbia, Albany, Schenectady, and Rensselaer – united in its celebration.”

As for the split between their congregation and the downtown Methodist congregation, historians of African Americans church history write that, by the 1820’s, all Protestant denominations were starting the process of splitting into separate white and black denominations. The State Street congregation seems to have done so later than many, but its timing, not longer after building a new brick sanctuary with a gallery level, does make me ponder if the church also introduced segregated seating at the end of the 1820’s, as that was one of the reasons other non-Methodist congregations had split a few years earlier. However, with the introduction of pew fees in the lower sanctuary space, to pay off the debt on the construction, I suspect there was plenty of reason for discontent. All we know, is, that the trend that had begun a few years earlier, spread to State Street.

I can imagine there was sadness when it happened, especially for the oldest members. Race – or class-based racism – may have been a matter of conversation for some Trojans, but was not seen as a subject of contention within the congregation. Hillman reports: “From the organization of the society not a few colored people were members of the church.” The inclusion of Africans in the congregation from the earliest days is corroborated by the “young daughter” of Caleb Curtis, an early founder of the society. She felt the need to defend the congregation from outsiders criticizing it, and at least some of those attacks were based on the racial identity of the members, as she felt the need to give a list of the notable person of the then village who attended, concluding:“I have thus been particular because it was asserted at a love-feast that the first society was composed of the lower order of person, and, at the same time, it was said that the time was when there was no place to hold prayer- meetings except in the basement of a house occupied by a black family. it is true that the prayer-meetings were held there sometimes. Ritta (the negro woman) was considered pious and had considerable gift in prayer. Her room was ample and decent. The person who made the statement must have been misinformed” (Phebe Curtis, quoted by Hillman, pp 13-4) Of course she knew the group actually chose to meet in Ritta’s room – her short history of the congregation, so often quoted by other authors in the following century, was based on the meetings often held in her father’s home, but also in other homes; at the very least the Curtis home was always available.

It is not surprising that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were attracted to this young denomination: slave-owners were simply not allowed to be members of the society, following the work of the founder of Methodism. John Wesley had long campaigned for a law preventing the owning of slaves in Britain, while fighting a moral battle with those who profited from shipping slaves from Africa to the New World, many of whom lived in Bristol, where he spent much time.

As for John Dungy, “A class exclusively formed of persons of African descent was led, in 1830-31, by John Dungy, an intelligent and pious colored man.” (Hillman, pp 55) He includes him in the list of leaders of the State Street M.E. church in 1830-1 (p.176) and in the list of Methodist ministers, he is listed as the pastor of the African M. E church for 1831, 1832, 1833 and 1834 (Hillman, p. 288) after which the ministers no longer appear in his book. “The History of Troy and Lansingburgh” by A. J. Weise (1886), as well as the website of the current A.M.E. Zion congregation, lists the first minister appointed by their conference to the Zion M.E. Church of Troy, in 1834, as being Rev. R. Noyes. The only other reference found for John Dungy was a listing in the Troy City Directories for 1830, where he is listed as living at 4 Franklin St, occupation: shoemaker, and then for the years, 1831,1832,1833 and 1834 as the Rev. John Dungy, Pastor of the African Church, still living at the same address. His name is italicized which indicates him being a free person of color. He appears neither in the first city directory of 1829, nor in the 1835 one.

Nothing is known of the relationship between the white and black congregations after Hillman wrote his book in 1888, but it was doubtless far from ideal. However, during the author’s time with Christ Church, there were three occasions where the AME Zion congregation hosted its multi-district annual conference at the State Street location, where they filled the sanctuary and balcony with energetic singing, enthusiastic preaching, loud hallelujahs. It was a sight to behold, and an experience we were glad to participate in – not to mention the great smells coming from the busy kitchen and Fellowship Hall! It seemed a fitting time to welcome them back on site – and of course, the usual, mostly white, Christ Church congregation rejoiced to have their turn at being seated in the balcony…

The source book for most of the quotations is Joseph Hillman’s 1888 book ‘Methodism in Troy” which can be read online free of charge at a number of websites, including the Library of Congress. It includes the photograph of the 1887-8 Trustees of American Zion Church, with their names. Original Troy City Directories can be viewed at the Troy Central Library, and in facsimile at the Hart-Cluett Museum. Photographs are by the author.

Searching for the First Methodists in a City Not Yet Created.

An engraving of the first of the 3 Methodist sanctuaries to be built on State Street, between Williams Street (alley) and Fifth Avenue, in Troy NY.

Searching the earliest records for a settlement that was only recently declared a village, and a decade before becoming an early northeastern city, turns out to be no simple matter.

Troy, New York had not long since chosen its name, when the people we are seeking arrived in search of a new life. Fellow congregation member, Alice Rose, and I have many questions we would like answered. However, even at these early stages of our research, we are learning a lot about the people who so determinedly created, and grew, a Methodist society in this new place. This is part of the story of State Street Methodist Episcopal Church. 230 years after the first followers of John Wesley showed up on State Street, we still worship there – at Christ Church, United Methodist.

How many hundreds of times did this story play out as the United States developed, in the decade or two after the Revolutionary War? How many thousands of stories could we tell about the earliest settlers of these villages, towns and cities, if we only had the journals and records of those women, men and children, itinerant preachers and circuit riders, who grew our denomination and without whom, we might not be Methodists today?

So what do we know? Well, we know these were adventurous people.

Most of the earliest Methodist members of the State Street society came from New England, and specifically from Connecticut. They arrived to find an unpaved, barely inhabited site, where farmers brought their corn to be weighed, and then shipped down the Hudson to New York City. Native Americans still hunted, fished and gathered the ample food supply growing along the flood plain of the Hudson River. Only three homesteads were located on the land that would become Troy: the three buildings designating the division of land between the 3 Vanderheyden patroons. The New Englanders who made the journey into what looked like nowhere, created a village, then city, from the farm lands of the Vandeheydens. That city became one of the third or fourth richest in the US in the following one hundred years, showing the first settlers to be not only adventurous, but resourceful and enterprising – and extremely hard-working.

As adventurous people, it is not so surprising that we found many so hard to locate because they simply continued their adventures – their sought-for better lifestyle – by moving on. Others were hard to find in the records because they were female, or African American, who, whether freed or enslaved, simply did not count enough to be counted and recorded. A few of the newcomers had already accrued some money. A lot more became wealthy in the city, inspired by the ingenuity of their fellow citizens. Many were the necessary tradespeople, providing the necessary needs of the population, shoes and coats and wheels and houses, earning a respectable and steady income from their craft. Others arrived, with only rural skills, seeking new trades, and often took their new skills even further west as new areas opened up.

The William McBurney family is one such case.

Joseph Hillman tells us that one of the earliest residents seeking a Methodist church was an Irishman, William McBurney (McBerney.) His descendants did some of the work to trace William, which I was able to confirm in my own research, but there was good reason I could not locate much about him in Troy.

William left County Down, Ireland, arriving in New York City in May, 1804, on the brigantine Sally (not the infamous slave ship of Rhode Island – that one had been wrecked a few years earlier in Barbados.) He came with his wife Alice, and 3 children: the “muster roll” quoted on geni.com states all children were under 5. William was 35, and Alice was 32. They were farmers, and most likely from the area around the small town of Dromore, some 21 miles from the port of Newry, which is cited as the port the ship left from. Newry and Donaghadee, 32 miles from Dromore, were popular ports for Irish ships bound for the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The 2 leading preachers of Methodism had both visited that area in the preceding decades: Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism followed his then chief substitute, Rev. George Whitefield, and preached in Lisburn, Co. Down in 1756. He returned every two years until his death in 1791. Methodism remains very strong in Lisburn to this day, and its main church is billed as the “mother church” of the younger Dromore Methodist congregation, just 10 miles away. It seems very possible that Willliam saw Wesley himself – at the very least, he surely must have known people who did.

Once in the US, the McBurneys wasted no time in moving to Troy. In our major historical source for our church – Methodism in Troy by Joseph Hillman, published in 1888, we read that “in 1806, William McBurney joined the class” of Caleb Curtis, one of our earliest members. When John Wright enquired about a Methodist society in the village a “colored woman informed Mrs. Wright that she knew an Irishman, named William McBurney, who was a Methodist. While in search of his house, John Wright heard a number of persons singing together a familiar Methodist hymn, and without attempting to repress his joyful feelings, he abruptly opened the door of the dwelling in which the voices were united in praise, and identifying the small company of men and women as Methodists, he gladly exclaimed, ‘Now I have found you!’ ”

In the list of official members of the Church in 1821-2, William McBurney is mentioned as one of the 12 “Leaders.” However, by the time we come to the first Troy City Directory, in 1829, which listed businesses and residences, only one McBurney- James- a “laborer,” is mentioned.

The family speculates, with good reason, that the family, left Troy, in the early 1820’s and followed the Erie Canal west, as did so many others. William is next found in the censuses as being in Ira, Cayuga County, home of a well-known local potter of the same name. The family located a reference, in one of William Ketchum’s books on New York State Potters, to a William McBurney, making and selling stoneware in Troy in 1820. They wonder if the well-known Cayuga potter, therefore, is “their“ William. Certainly, the newly-arrived William purchased land in Ira in 1825, and other members of the family, having disappeared from Troy records, seem to be in Ira and nearby Jordan, which is just to the south, on the Erie Canal. Indeed, a James McBurney is recorded as being in Jordan, right after the name disappears from the Troy City Directories.

This all reminds me that Troy’s fame as “The Collar City,” so much tied to the Cluett heritage, happened, in part, because Mrs. Cluett became sick on the Cluetts’ own journey to Western New York, and they simply stayed, after her recuperation in the city. Interestingly, the Cluetts were also leading Methodists and a big part of the State Street congregation for many decades. It is a story for another day, but like many other families, once they became wealthier, most of the family left Methodism – to become Episcopalian! At least, before leaving, they put the spire onto the tower – and probably left us a rare and magnificent Steinway piano…all for another day…

Today, many people who find themselves in the Methodist congregation on State Street, are also passing through the city. Visitors, looking for a Methodist congregation downtown, frequently stop in. Hundreds of students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Russell Sage College have worshiped with us over the last 230 years, before graduating and moving on. The position of the church downtown, with the closest residences now being apartments, has also created a more transient community, held together by loyal and determined long-term members, and the legacy of the first Methodists – like William McBurney – who settled in what would become the City of Troy and practiced their Methodist faith on State Street..

Janet Douglass

A sad postscript, to this story is that of a very early Methodist preacher in the area William came from – a John M’Burney who may be related, but we cannot know. John M’Burney was beaten and killed for being a Methodist. The brutal attack is detailed in ‘The Centenary of Methodism”(p.160ff) published in Dublin in 1839 , and details how, even as his assailants beat him, he forgave them. The book can be read free of charge on Google books. The website of the Irish Methodist Church lists John as a preacher from 1772 to around 1779.

Joseph Hillman’s book, Methodism in Troy, can be read free of charge at number of online archives. The book has been our starting point. However, one of the resources Hillman used, and which we would love to locate, is a publication by the “young daughter” of Caleb Curtis, mentioned above. Phebe Curtis’ “Rise of Methodism” has been much quoted through the years, but we have not found a copy. If you happen to know of such we would be grateful to know where we can access it.

The above illustration is an engraving taken from Hillman’s book showing the first of the 3 Methodist sanctuaries that have stood on the piece of land on State Street, between William Street (alley) and Fifth Avenue, in Troy, NY.

Maggie Van Cott (Margaret Newton Van Cott): early woman preacher & evangelist.

Maggie van Cott (1830-1914), seen here in a screen shot of her biography on Wikipedia.com, was the first woman in Troy Conference to be given a license to preach, and became famous throughout the North East as a leader of revivals, and even made tours out West. She received her license to preach in 1869, which was obviously controversial, and yet also very popular. In the book “The Harvest and the Reaper” written from her recollections, there are contemporary reviews of her preaching, and whilst some criticize her lack of training as an orator and theologian, (and talk about her “womanly logic” – meaning lack of it,) they all have to admit to her success at her goal of “bringing souls to Christ.”

In March and April,1876, Maggie van Cott visited the State Street, Troy, NY congregation, staying with the Hillman family. Both Maggie and the Troy Praying Band, under Hillman, had visited the Springfield, MA Methodists in the past to run revivals.

The Troy Daily Times reports the revival events, reporting that the church was full for some, and that the one – weekday – afternoon, when they reported a smaller crowd, it still numbered several hundred. The pastor’s wife, Mrs. Kimball, and Mrs Joseph Hillman held some women only events, in addition to those open to the general public.

Joseph Hillman records in his book, Methodism in Troy, both his home and that of the pastor, Rev. H.D.Kimball, were robbed during the revival at the church: “the writer took the most complacent view of the loss as was possible, and proposed that the hymn “Hallelujah, ‘tis done” should be sung.” (Hillman, p.73.) He then continues to speak of the revival being a “glorious success” and how it also gave the Presbyterian church some new members.* Several of the revivals, at State Street Methodist Episcopal do appear to have been led with some support from the local Baptists congregations.

Revivals were not always seen positively in the Presbyterian denomination, as can be read at the link below, so it is interesting that the friendly relationships between denominations, praised more than half a century earlier by Frederick Garresttson when visiting Troy, seems to have continued to some extent. The objections by the Presbyterian denomination included the inordinate “enthusiasm” which so often was a criticism of Methodist worship, but also the preaching. The nature of revival preaching made it less likely to be on the theology of Calvin. Revivalists were often Methodists, and their founder, John Wesley, had written many treatises in direct opposition to Calvinism, contrasting it with his own theology of the Four Alls, a traditional summary of Methodism teaching which underpins British Methodism to this day:

She was born in New York City, but it is widely reported that, on the death of her husband, moved to Greene County, which she deemed a better base for her revival work, and died at Catskill. A Maggie Van Cott does appear on the list of city residents in the 1830s, which hints that maybe she moved first to Troy and, as her travels and fame grew, moved to Greene County.

By her 50th birthday she had supposedly traveled 143,417 miles, held 9,933 revival meetings, and given 4,294 sermons, but the total was far greater as continued her work until her eighties.

The New York Annual Conference of the Methodist Church created a bulletin insert for Women’s History Month in 2016, and it can be accessed at their site.

Online copy of her book: The Harvest and the Reaper can be read online, free of charge, at Google.com/books

Online copy of The Life and Labors of Mrs. Maggie Van Cott by John Onesimus Foster can be read free of charge, online, at Google.com/books

For more information on the Four Alls, one resource is the “What is Distinctive about methodism” page of the British Methodist Church.please visit the Methodist Church site at methodist.org.uk

The image at the top of the page comes from Wikipedia.com and is the title of their boigraphical sketch of the Mrs. Van Cott. The image of the “Four Alls” was created by the author.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Troy, NY: Levings Chapel/ Fourth Methodist Church/ Levings Church.

Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church ( now Christ Church, United Methodist.)

Fourth Methodist Church/ Levings Chapel, 63 Mill Street, South Troy, NY

In the mid 1830s, Methodists who were working in the nail factory on Mill Street, began to ask for a church to be erected closer to their place of work and homes. According to Hillman, they were holding worship services at the nail factory. On September 24, 1838, they met at the factory and designated themselves as the “Trustees of the Levings Chapel in the city of Troy,” also known as Fourth Methodist Church of Troy.

In 1850, they erected a sanctuary opposite the factory. Two years later, the Rev. Tobias Spicer, another early Methodist from the State Street church, and who was appointed as pastor of the Levings Chapel society, spoke unflatteringly of his work there: “My labors this year were mostly in South Troy, where we had a feeble society, which had lately built a church. “ None the less, by the early 1860’s the church had a membership of 140, and in 1888, at the publication of Hillman’s book, the number had swelled to 212 members, by which time the church had been renamed “Leving’s Church” though the old name of Chapel was often used.

The congregation continued until the 1960’s, when the decision was made to close it, rather than execute the much needed expensive repairs. The remaining members merged with the Green Island Methodist Church, now called Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, and anyone looking for genealogical materials from Levings Chapel could start there.

The last service was held on Palm Sunday, 1968, and the decision seemed prescient, given that during the following Winter the roof collapsed during a heavy snow storm and shortly afterward the church and manse were torn down. The lot for the two buildings remains empty, and stands on the corner of Mill and Erie Streets, and across Erie Street from the Woodside arts center, which was previously Woodside Presbyterian Church. The photographs below show the site, now obscured from the road by trees – the blue marks delineate the platform which remains and the two disused paths leading to it, one covered in gravel and the other metallized. The tower of the neighboring former Woodside Presbyterian Church can be seen beyond the trees. The platform can also be glimpsed behind current homes from the top of Erie Street.

The substantial buildings of the nail factory and Albany Steel Works, which lined the Wynantskill at the time, have also long-since disappeared. Today there is a walk around Burden Pond, down beside the Burden Falls and then on toward the Hudson River. If you look for them, there are still bricks and a few ruins of the old mills, in places. The location is famous for the giant Burden Water Wheel that used to stand there, purportedly the most powerful water wheel ever built. Several websites give those details, and also tell how an RPI student used his knowledge of this wheel, and his engineering skills, to build the first fairground pleasure wheel for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition in 1893. His name was George Washington Gale Ferris. For the first members of Levings Chapel however, it was simply one of the amazing pieces of new technology, which made them so productive and helped create Troy’s wealth.

As for the Rev. Noah Levings, this early convert to Methodism by the State Street faithful, while still an apprentice blacksmith, will need to have a brief history of his own at later date.

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.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: Fifth Avenue/ North Second Street

Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church, United Methodist.)

“The expediency of taking advantage of the growth of the city northward of Grand Division Street, and of having a church in which the seats were free, caused the State Street society to give consideration to the project of providing a place of worship in the north part of Troy. On May 23, 1831, the Quarterly Conference appointed a committee ‘to provide a place for preaching somewhere in the bounds of the fourth ward.’ On August 8, that year, the committee reported ‘that the only place to be had ‘ was ‘the dwelling-house’ of Stephen Monroe. A committee of five persons was then appointed ‘to provide a place or places for meetings in the first and fourth wards of the city (…) Considering that the lot on the northeast corner of North Second and Jacob streets would be an eligible site for a church.” (Hillman, pp 87-8)

On the evening August 13, 1831, the trustees of the State Street society “resolved that a subscription should be circulated throughout the City of Troy and elsewhere for the purpose of building a Methodist Episcopal Church in the fourth ward of the city ‘with free seats.” showing that the idea of having paid seating in the “mother church” on State Street had become an issue for some of the congregation.

This building was a brick structure and included a basement. As soon as it was built the Sunday School which had been organized nearby, in the school-room of Miss Annie Manwarring, was moved there and prayer meetings began. “On Sunday afternoon, August 30, 1835, Bishop Elijah Hedding dedicated the church.“ (Hillman 87-88.) The congregation having grown in number, this church building was replaced with a grander structure, which was originally slightly less grand than the drawing found in Hillman’s book. The original aspect of the church can be seen in this 1869 map by William Barton which can be seen online at the New York Public Library website. The private house next door in that drawing, appears have become the parsonage.

The congregation chose to re-merge with the State Street congregation in the 1920’s, at the same time as the German Episcopal Methodist church. The merger of these three churches occurred in 1925, and is recalled by an unknown member of State Street Methodist Episcopal, upon the 125th anniversary of the church in 1939:“Time passed on with greater or less success to Methodism in Troy, until the year 1925 when the mother church grew lonesome for her children and it was decided to unite the congregations of State Street, Fifth Avenue and the German Church under one head whose name should be the Fifth Avenue-State Street Methodist Episcopal Church.”

(quoted by Rev. Dr. James Fenimore in his 1998 paper: “Christ Church, United Methodist – a Church on the Edge of an Apocalypse” from a letter to the church entitled “To the Pastor and People of State St. Methodist Episcopal Church.” This paper is available online.)

The building and its parsonage became the property of St. Peter’s Armenian Apostolic Church in 1927. That congregation left the building when they constructed their new church in Watervliet, in 1971. An African American congregation then worshiped in the church, until it became suddenly and dangerously unstable, and was razed by the City of Troy in the 1999. The parsonage was demolished a little later.

In 2024, the lot which was occupied by the church and parsonage, is used for parking. It is located between Federal and Jacob Streets on Fifth Avenue, in the area now known as Columbus Square.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: East Side Church/ Pawling Avenue.

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.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: Third Street Church.

Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church, United Methodist.)

Third Street Methodist Episcopal Church, corner 3rd and Monroe Streets, South Troy.

In March 1844, trustees were elected for a separate congregation named “the Third Street Methodist Episcopal Society of the City of Troy” and a Sunday School was organized. The following year “a lot on the northeast corner of Third and Monroe Streets was purchased by the society to build a church. “ (Hillman, p.96) “The small society which had organized in 1843, began its erection in 1847(…) On Christmas day, that year, the building was dedicated.” (Hillman p. 66)

“The origin of the Third Street Methodist Episcopal Church can be traced to a statement made by William Barrett, a class-leader of the State Street Church, at the leaders’ meeting held on May 2, 1842 (…) he suggested the suitableness of the house belonging to him in that part of the city for preaching.” “ In1873, the church was enlarged by the construction of a lower story of brick, on which the wooden structure of the first edifice was placed.” (Hillman, 96-99)

Prayer meetings had been conducted in William Barrett’s house for a while, and when Daniel Hudson, an experienced Sunday School Superintendent, moved “from the northern part of the city,” a class of Methodists was formed. A “class” was the usual Methodist term for a neighborhood group of adults and families with children. The Trustees of the State Street congregation, seeing the success of the class, started to look for a building in earnest, meanwhile paying William Barrett for the use of his house for prayer meetings, preaching and a Sunday School. This saved South Troy participants from trudging the one mile each way to the State Street church, or not quite as far a walk for many – but up a steep hill – to Levings Chapel.

Like other new congregations, the decision came at a time of dissension that pew rentals were being charged in the State Street building, usually reported by Hillman as temporary fees to pay for new buildings, but always mentioned with hints that the decision was not universally approved. Certainly the cost to rent a pew could have dissuaded attendance by the workers of South Troy, many of whom worked in the steel mills and foundries of the area. In fact, Hillman tells us this would-be congregation decided not to accept State Street’s appeal for money for their building, but to create its own Board of Trustees and become a separate church.

In October, 1844, the Sunday School reported having 15 teachers, in addition to two superintendents – one for males and one for females – and a secretary-librarian, even though Hillman estimates membership of the society being around 35, with 75 students in the Sunday School. The first sermons were preached on the steps of the partially-built church, and the sanctuary was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1847.

After a time as a separate charge, the congregation reunited with State Street and operated under the name of Wesley Chapel. When attendance climbed again, peaking at 151, under the able leadership of its superintendent, Daniel Klock Jr., they once again took a minister and revived their Third Street name. The Sunday School had 288 members in 1888, and the school rooms were enlarged. Sadly, it was not to last.

The congregation which had struggled, revived, and struggled and thrived for a few years, then struggled again, closing its doors at the end of the19th century, not so long after its best years.

Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with a similar shaped, but brick, building now occupies the lot.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, New York: N.Troy/ Vail Ave/ Grace

Extended notes on State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church United Methodist) and the buildings and congregations that came from it.

1852 – North Troy Methodist Episcopal Church: Grace (Vail Avenue) Church, Troy.

“… a number of Methodists began holding meetings of prayer and exhortation in the school-house in the tenth ward of the city, and they organized themselves on May 15, 1852, as a society known as ‘the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Troy’. The schoolhouse was on Glen Avenue (...) The first meeting-house of the society was erected in 1858 on the west side of Vail Avenue, between Douw Street and Turner’s Lane, and was dedicated on December 10th of that year.” (Hillman, p.112)

The third sanctuary of the “mother” church on State Street (now Christ Church, United Methodist) still stands, the same site being used for all 3 buildings. In South Troy, the church currently standing where members from State Street Methodists seeded a congregation, bears similarity in layout to the original church, but brick replaced wood long ago. In the case of Vail Street we can still see the original brick building of 1858 – once you know what to look for…

Grace Methodist Church, was the final name of several names for this congregation, and the final name came with its construction of a large brick church and parsonage complex half a block south of the 1858 building. This imposing structure was being built, but not yet opened, at the time of publication of Hillman’s book. The corner-stone was laid on August 16th, 1888, and the church was dedicated on Sunday, June 2nd, 1889. It stood on the corner of Douw and Vail Streets (now 6th Avenue) half a block north of the (now closed) St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church.

The origins of the congregation go back to a Sunday School class in 1843 in unknown premises but in the 1840’s moved into the district school house on Turner’s Lane ( now Glen Avenue.) In 1852, Hillman records that some of the Methodists who had been worshiping moved form a congregation at the site, and elected trustees, including Titus Eddy and Oliver Boutwell.

By 1888 this congregation had 506 members, and was about to move to its new building, build a second and larger parsonage and later had plans to expand upon the site behind it to create community rooms.

In the 20th century, the church became known for a walking club started by one of its more popular pastors, and it received publicity for their various climbs of the Adirondack Peaks. If you have family history in the congregation, this club especially made the newspapers on a number of occasions.

Sadly, the building was gutted by fire shortly after it had celebrated its 75th anniversary. Some of the members came back to State Street, others choosing to attend the Methodist Church in Lansingburgh, then known as St. Mark’s. The lot where it stood remains empty, to this day.

However, the 1858 building, photographed below in 2024, can still be seen at 3165 Sixth Avenue, and its original purpose glimpsed above the facade and down the side of the building. These photographs shows the 1852 building, in use by the current family business for over 60 years, and secondly, its proximity (extreme right) to the 1888 building which was – not as previously stated – on a large empty lot behind a man in a bright orange top, but across the road from him, on the east side of the road, behind a large garden fence, just north of the junction of 6th Avenue and Douw Street.. The towers of the former St. Patrick’s RC Church are beyond the location of Grace Church and on the opposite side of the street: south and west of the Grace lot. I am gratefl for people helping me correct the post

This congregation also used the following names: Batestown Mission; Methodist Episcopal Church of N. Troy; North Troy ME Church, Vail Avenue ME Church before becoming Grace Methodist Episcopal Church of Troy, N.Y. in 1888 (Hillman, p 112).

Turner’s Lane is now known as Glen Avenue, and Vail Street is Sixth Avenue, Troy.