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