It is thanks only to the Frozen Alliums Man (hereinafter to be known as FAM), that we are able to submit this church as a contributing building to the Cambridge Historic District. It was he who dug up the documents which certify it to be a contributing building, so Thank You, FAM, I think you deserve an assist on this one.
In the absence of a complete nomination or registration form from National Parks (it hasn't yet been digitized) I was able to find an adaptation of the original nomination document, which states as follows:
The Cambridge Historic District encompasses much of the area of habitation as depicted in the 1866 atlas [of the Village of Cambridge]. There are approximately 240 primary structures within the district... Besides residences and commercial buildings, there are four churches, ...
[The four churches are:]
Among the first to be organized were the United Presbyterian Church [this church] (1785) and the First United Presbyterian Church (1793)...
...The Baptist Church [which no longer exists] was built in 1844 (3 West Main) and the Methodist Church of 1838 rebuilt in 1661 (47 East Main)...
...St. Luke's Church (4 St. Luke's Place)...
From Living Places
I lifted this Waymark from Uncategorized, initially posted by Marine Biologist. They had submitted it to
Unique Steeples,
Bell Towers and
Presbyterian Churches, but not
This Old Church, or even
Victorian Era Architecture. Possibly they had not found documentation of its construction date. The church's website offers no pertinent information, but we managed to find the
photo below, captioned
New Presbyterian Church ~ Cambridge NY ~1874, which indicates that it was "new" in 1874.
Marine Biologist's description:
This beautiful white, wooden church is located in downtown Cambridge on the site of the old military training grounds in the Old Cambridge District. There are two red doors of the same size on the front of the church, a central door and one on the right side of the church at the base of the tall steeple. The steeple includes both a bell tower and spire. On the left side of the church is a smaller tower.
Sunday School: 9:00am
Sunday Service: 10:00am
Fortunately, thanks to the FAM we now have a bit more information than did Marine Biologist and can state with reasonable assurance that the church, built at a cost nearing $30,000, was formally dedicated on March 6, 1872. This church, though, definitely exhibits Renaissance Revival elements, in the Roman arched windows, steeply pitched roof and detailing such as hoods over all openings. Methinks that, but for the shape of the openings, this would be a Gothic Revival building. While more commonly done in masonry, this example of Renaissance Revival was carried out in wood, a technique more commonly found in the western part of the country.
