The Duane Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located at Duane,

Franklin County, New York Franklin County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. To the north across the Canada–United States border are the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, from east to west. As of the 2020 census, the county popul ...

History

The church was built between 1883 and 1885. The church was in use for almost a century, and in the 1940s the Town of Duane began storing archives in the basement and also using the basement as a

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photographs''
/ref> In 1982 the church was closed due to declining membership and funds. It was purchased by the town, and since then has been used for meetings, weddings, and other events.

Architecture

The

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

architectural design of the church draws from a New England meeting house design. The rounded dome of the steeple with the arches of the cupola is modeled after

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

's work, and is typical of New England meeting houses. Double doors lead into the vestibule of birch and maple. Double oak doors allow for entry into the main chapel. The walls and ceiling graduate from twelve feet to seventeen feet in height. There are eight stained glass windows (6'6" x 32") and square nails are used in the fluting frames of these windows. The walls are of birch and maple combined with wainscoting. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1991.

References

Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Churches completed in 1885 Romanesque Revival architecture in New York (state) Methodist churches in New York (state) Churches in Franklin County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Franklin County, New York {{NewYork-church-stub