All Saints’ Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church in Briarcliff Manor, New York. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. John David Ogilby, whose summer estate and family home in Ireland were the namesakes of Briarcliff Manor, founded the church in 1854. The church was built on Ogilby’s summer estate in Briarcliff Manor.

Richard Upjohn designed the church building, which was constructed from 1848 to 1854 and expanded in 1911. The church has several memorial windows, including one by John LaFarge and a rose window by Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studio.

It’s the second oldest church in the Village and the oldest functioning church since St. Mary’s closed in the 2015. For more pictures see: All Saints Day Service at All Saints Church, Briarcliff Manor.

Taken with a Sony RX100 III

The Briarcliff Manor Congregational Church was an outgrowth of a Sunday School that was held at the early White School. George A. Todd, Jr. was the schoolteacher, and later superintendent from about 1867 to 1906! Todd, sensing that locals needed a more permanent place to gather and worship than the small one-room schoolhouse, approached Walter W. Law with the idea for a brand-new church. Law, perhaps eager to bolster his real estate empire, jumped at the chance to help. Law gave the land and Todd donated the stones to build it. Others contributed lumber and labor to the project. The church was officially dedicated and incorporated in 1897 and “opened” as a Congregational Church. It’s the fourth oldest church in Briarcliff Manor (the other three: St. Mary’s Episcopal; All Saints Episcopal; and Scarborough Presbyterian) are all on the other side of the village near the Hudson River.

In 1898 Law gave the first Tiffany stained-glass window. There are 17 stained glass windows in all, representing several well-known studios and decorative arts companies: J&R Lamb, NY; William C. Willett, Philadelphia; John Hardman Studios, Birmingham and London; Woodhaven Studios, Bermuda. Perhaps the most well-known among these is Tiffany Studios. BCC has 7 magnificent Tiffany windows, installed between 1898 and 1906.

For more information on the church see: Mr. Law, We need a church.

Taken with a Sony RX100 III

It’s St. Philip’s Church in the Highlands in Garrison, NY.

According to the Church’s website St. Philip’s Church:

…began as a modest wooden chapel, a northern outpost of St. Peter’s Church in Peekskill. Built in 1771 for the residents of what is now Garrison, the chapel was called St. Philip’s partly to honor the Philipse family, the largest landowner in the area. St. Peter’s itself was founded only a few years earlier, in 1767; it received a royal charter from King George III in 1770.

Beverly Robinson, a vestryman of St. Peter’s, gave the land for St. Philip’s. Although a good friend of George Washington, he was a Loyalist and was heavily involved in Benedict Arnold’s treasonous plot to turn West Point over to the British in 1780. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Robinson fled to England, losing all his property.

In 1775, the Loyalist rector of St. Philip’s fled to Canada, so no services were held. There is a story that, during the Revolutionary War, Washington was riding past St. Philip’s when one of his officers said, “That is a Tory church,” to which Washington, a loyal Anglican, said, “It is my church.” (A stained-glass window portraying Washington is in the vestibule today.) The chapel was dismantled during the war and its materials were used to help construct the small fort at West Point. The chapel was reopened in 1786, and a larger wooden church was built in 1837. St. Philip’s officially became independent from St. Peter’s in 1840, reflecting the growth in Garrison’s population.

The Hudson River Railroad was finished in 1849, bringing new residents to the Garrison area: families named Fish, Osborn, Sloan, Livingston, and Toucey, who worshipped at St. Philip’s and are buried here.

In 1860, renowned British-born architect and vestryman Richard Upjohn designed a superb Gothic Revival church as a gift to his parish, St. Philip’s. A founder of the American Institute of Architects, Upjohn championed the Gothic Revival ecclesiastical style and is best known for Trinity Church in New York City. A noted Scottish stonemason, Smeaton Forson, came from Scotland to build the new St. Philip’s. Completed at a cost of $9,350 in 1862, it continues today, beautiful and steadfast, to inspire all who worship here.

Dedicated to St. Philip’s, Upjohn also designed a wooden Rectory, built in 1854. It was replaced in 1911 by the present stone building, the cost of which was donated by the family of railroad executive Samuel Sloan, a vestryman and warden. The stone Parish House was built in 1900, a substantial gift from the Toucey family. Generous contributions from William Henry Osborn and Stuyvesant Fish added the Sexton’s House in 1917, so that, by then, our buildings and grounds looked essentially as you see them today.

Taken in April 2012 with a Sony Nex 5n and Sony 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6

This path is directly across Revolutionary Road from the Scarborough Presbyterian Church Manse. I’ve no idea where it leads to (some grand house I imagine). I liked the stone pillars, the wrought iron gate and the way the path just leads away…to nothing. I’ve taken pictures of it before. In spring bright yellow daffodils grow alongside the path.

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50

“The Church House, given by Mrs. Edith Shepard and designed by Augustus D. Shepard, was completed in 1908.” (Mary Cheever. The Changing Landscape. A History of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough, p.53

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50