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Built between 1835 and 1837, the Dutch Reformed Church in Newburgh, New York, sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River and is a reminder of the wealth that came early to settlements in New York. (...)

Built between 1835 and 1837, the Dutch Reformed Church in Newburgh, New York, sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River and is a reminder of the wealth that came early to settlements in New York. Newburgh may be somewhat forgotten today, but the town served as George Washington’s headquarters during a pivotal point in the Revolutionary War and the area’s prosperity allowed the congregation to hire a famous and prolific architect to design its church.

Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) created an early example of Greek Revival architecture for the Newburgh’s Dutch Reformed Church. Davis told a local newspaper that the church’s portico, seen from the Hudson River, “will henceforth serve as a conspicuous and characteristic landmark indicative of the taste, discrimination, and sense of classical beauty of the inhabitants of Newburgh.”

The mid-20th century brought a period of socioeconomic decline to Newburgh, leading the congregation to vacate the church in 1967. Since then the vacant structure has faced inadequate maintenance, vandalism, and threats of demolition. In 1998, former First Lady Hillary Clinton announced the award of a Save America’s Treasures grant for the church and in 2001, the building was named a National Historic Landmark.