St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Peekskill, New York, United States, is located on the north edge of the city's downtown. It is a three-building complex of stone Late Gothic Revival buildings on a half-acre (2,000 m²) dating to the late 19th century and added onto at successive later dates. The church itself was established in nearby Van Cortlandtville before the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

as Old St. Peter's Church. Its current home is the third building on the site, designed by architect Richard M. Upjohn in an

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

recalling the churches styled after English country parish churches his father had designed early in his career. In 2003 it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Property

The church property is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Howard and North Division streets, just outside the boundary of the Peekskill Downtown Historic District. Pugsley Park is to the east. The land slopes gently upward to the north.

Church

There are three buildings on the property: the church hall with

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

, church house and parish house. All are considered contributing to its historic character and the National Register listing. The church's

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is a one-story rectangular structure of coursed

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. It has a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof with slate

shingles Shingles, also known as herpes zoster or zona, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. T ...

and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

ed west gable. Two shed-roofed additions run the length of the north and south profiles. The lychgate and bell tower, both of which open to North Division Street and were added later, are to the north and south respectively. The lychgate has a wooden gabled top. The 16-foot (4.8 m) square tower is faced in similar stone to the nave, and has Gothic

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a window blind or window shutter, shutter with horizontal wikt:slat, slats that are angle ...

ed vents below its crenelated roofline and stepped

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es at the corners from the bottom of the vent to ground level. Double doors on the west side open to steps down to the street. Inside, the nave follows a traditional linear plan with a central aisle between wooden pews. Wainscoting rises to the ceiling and its exposed

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

es, all darkened by finishings. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

has a tiled floor and vaulted ceiling finished with wainscoting. It has a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

altar and

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

. There are 12 triple- lancet

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows on the walls, and a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

behind the altar.

Outbuildings

Howard House, the former

parsonage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, pa ...

, is located on the northwest corner of the lot. It is a two-story, three- bay

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

house sided in brick laid in

Flemish bond Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...

trimmed in

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

. An

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

addition to the north has a two-story

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

with intermediate

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. There is also a one-story brick wing on the rear. The front of the main block has

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

-band vents at the roofline below a bracketed

. The main entrance has a classically-inspired surround with transom light. Inside it retains much of the original plaster finishing and decoration, including eared door and window surrounds. Behind it along Howard Street, at the northeast corner of the property, is the Frost Memorial Parish House, a two-story Tudorbethan five-bay–long

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

walls and half-timbers. Its roof, gabled with a half- hip at the south and gable-on-hip at the north (front) end, is shingled in slate. A similar flat-roofed one-and-a-half–story addition projects from the south. The main entrance at the north end is a two-story symmetrical projecting bay with raised

. Its first floor interior is an open meeting space with

linoleum Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a Hessian fabric, hes ...

tile flooring, plaster walls and imitation exposed ceiling timbers. The second story is divided between church offices and day-care classrooms.

History

St. Peter's was founded during the Colonial era, and its first church was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

in 1767 and remains in use today. In 1838 Ward Howard, a resident of what was then the village of Peekskill, offered the church land behind the house he had built a few years earlier. A wooden Gothic Revival church was built on the site. In 1882 the church acquired Howard's house and converted it into a parsonage. Seven years later, in 1889, the congregation voted to replace the church on the land he had donated to it. They chose a design by Richard M. Upjohn, son of Richard Upjohn, an English immigrant who had designed many notable churches and houses. The younger Upjohn's design recalled the simple Gothic English country parish churches that Upjohn and other architects of the mid-century had advocated and built for Episcopal congregations in the Northeast and elsewhere, under the influence of Ecclesiogical movement in church architectureWithin the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...

, see Upjohn's St. Philip's Church in the Highlands. St. Luke's, in

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

, by Frederick Clarke Withers, uses a design similar to that of St. Peter's. Unlike other neo-Gothic government and institutional buildings of the late Victorian era, decoration is minimal. The tower, possibly an unbuilt element of Upjohn's original design, was added in 1905, after his death. In the 1910s, the wing was added to the rear of the Howard House. The parish house was built in 1913. Hobart Upjohn, Richard's son, designed the interior renovations that were made in 1926. The reredos, painted by a local Episcopalian nun, was added in 1934. The last alteration to the buildings was the wing added to the parish house in 1964. It is architecturally sympathetic, but due to its recent construction is not considered to contributing.

References

External links