STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Three hundred fifty years is a huge amount of history, so members of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church on Staten Island, located in a stunning landmark building at 54 Port Richmond Ave., gathered together Sunday afternoon to celebrate the church's long centuries of worship, fellowship and service to the community.
This classic Greek Revival-style church was built in 1844 to the designs of Staten Island builder James G. Burger, and enlarged in 1898 with a Colonial Revival-style Sunday School addition designed by architect Oscar S. Teale, according to the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The classic building is one of the few surviving Greek Revival-style churches on Staten Island and the oldest church on the North Shore, the LPC reports.
The church's congregation is the borough's oldest, says the LPC. Its first church building was erected on the Port Richmond Avenue site in 1715, and the three cemeteries on the property included gravestones with the names of many North Shore notables families.
BOROUGH'S FIRST COLONIAL SETTLERS
The first European settlers on Staten Island were English, French and Dutch, the church explained in an informative handout to people arriving for Sunday's 3 p.m. service.
They arrived here from the Palatinate region of southwest Germany, after centuries of religious persecution.
Here's why:
"On June 7, 1629, the Dutch Staats General passed the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which established patroonships providing land grants to populate the colonies (in North America) established for trade purposes, entitling settlers to live by and freely practice their religious beliefs," the Reformed Church's handout reads. "As the predominate influx of settlers came from Holland, they were assimilated into the Dutch Church."
MORE HISTORY
"In 1818, following an unusually harsh cholera outbreak on Staten Island, then-Gov. Daniel Tompkins (later 6th vice president of the U.S.) and a member of the Port Richmond church, implored his minister, Rev. Peter Van Pelt, "to begin preaching to the poor wretched souls at the Quarantine (in present-day Tompkinsville) -- so badly affected and so utterly abandoned," where conditions were grossly overcrowded.
Van Pelt heard the message and started administering at the Quarantine.
And soon thereafter, with a grant of land from Gov. Tompkins, the Reformed Church of Brighton Heights was established, followed by the Reformed Church of Huguenot Park and the Reformed Church in Prince's Bay.
"Thus, every Reformed Church congregation on Staten Island can trace their roots to that small group of settlers, with a covenantal faith," who worshipped in Port Richmond in the 17th century, the church's brochure reads.
TRIBUTE TO ORGANIST WHO SERVED OVER 65 YEARS
Sunday's program also included special recognition of John M. Braisted Jr., who served as the church's choir director and organist for over 65 years.
Church elder Warren MacKenzie explained that Braisted was hired in 1929 as the church organist, with a salary of $1 every Sunday, including choir rehearsal.
"Not long after that, the Great Depression caused the church to eliminate his salary," MacKenzie told the congregation. "Mr. Braisted remained faithful to his call for over 65 years, even though the salary was never reinstated."
SPEAKERS
Sunday's event started with greetings from Edward Wegener, a church Elder.
Rev. Msgr. Peter Finn -- a native Staten Islander with 19th-century family roots in Port Richmond, and co-parochial vicar of Staten Island and pastor of Blessed Sacrament R.C. Church in West Brighton -- delivered the gospel lesson.
The well-received sermon was delivered by guest speaker Rev. Dr. Michael Edwards, senior pastor at DeWitt Reformed Church in Manhattan.
Ret. Rev. Paul Lorentzen, pastor of Transfiguration Life Together Lutheran Church, also spoke to the congregation.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Environmental-justice issues in Port Richmond, and elsewhere on Staten Island's North Shore, were highlighted by guest speaker Beryl Thurman, president and executive director of the North Shore Waterfront Conservancy.