The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has included two Hudson Valley properties among the 13 sites to be recommended for inclusion on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The Messiah Baptist Church in Yonkers was recommended for its architectural and social history. Constructed in 1880 as the site of Westminster Presbyterian Church, the property was praised as a “robust example of a late-19th-century Gothic Revival Protestant auditorium church.” The building was sold in 1965 to the Messiah Baptist Church, the oldest Black church congregation in Westchester, and during that year it gained national attention as the host of a Negro American Labor Council rally with speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council, and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality.
Dutchess County”™s Tioronda Estate-Craig House Historic District in the City of Beacon and the Town of Fishkill was also recommended for register inclusion. The 69-acre property is best known for Tioronda, a mid-19th century estate that was acquired in 1915 to become the Craig House Sanitarium, a privately owned institution that advocated the moral treatment approach to mental health care.
“New York’s built environment reminds us of our state’s rich and diverse history,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul in a press statement announcing the register recommendations. “These nominations reflect parts of our past and demonstrate New Yorkers capacity for growth, innovation, demonstration, and change. Adding these sites to our historic registers emphasizes the roles that they have played ”“ and will continue to play ”“ in New York’s story.”
Photo: Messiah Baptist Church by Jim Henderson / Wikimedia Commons
