St. John’s receives $6,000
NEW YORK – The New York Landmarks Conservancy, a private non-profit
organization, has awarded Sacred Sites grants to three area historic religious
properties.
St. John’s Episcopal Church in Monticello will receive $6,000 to
help fund a conditions assessment and master plan to guide restoration
of the church, and productive reuse of the historic rectory and barn.
Founded in 1816, the current stone church is the parish’s second
building. Designed by noted architect Henry Dudley, and completed in 1880,
the Gothic-revival, cruciform plan church was constructed of local stone
laid in a random, quarry-face ashlar pattern.
St. John’s hosts a food pantry that helps households in Monticello
with groceries. There are three English and one Spanish-language AA groups.
The church also collaborates with Nesin Cultural Arts to provide no- or
low-cost art and music instruction to children in the community.
The First Reformed Church of Athens, an 1825 building that was later altered
in the mid-19th century with Gothic-revival details, was pledged $10,000
toward repairs to the steeple and formers.
First Presbyterian Church in Hudson was pledged $25,000 toward structural
repairs of the roof at the mid-19th century church constructed of locally
quarried limestone.
“Religious institutions combine architecture, history, personal
and communal memories that help define our localities,” said Landmarks
Conservancy President Peg Breen. “They are important to preserve
for all these reasons, as well as for the cultural and social service
programs so many religious buildings house.”
