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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Historians oppose a plan to demolish Church
Continued from page 1
monuments in cities such as Memphis
and New Orleans being taken down due
to changing American values. “This is a
story we want to tell people about.”
Plans for Newburgh’s celebration of the
150th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’
jubilee march along Washington Street
are already in the works for 2020, she said.
“It happened in honor of the passing of
the 15th Amendment,” she said, which
granted African-American men the right
to vote in 1870.
That year, Douglass, a revered African-
American statesmen and abolitionist,
visited Washington’s Headquarters and
the Newburgh Opera House on Second
Street, where he gave a speech on the
new amendment. He also visited AME
Zion Church, the first African-American
church in Newburgh and now the oldest
in the Hudson Valley. A monument stands
outside the church, marking the event.
The church was founded in 1827 and
moved to Washington Street in 1833.
Designed by Frank Estabrook, the current
church was built in 1905.
Congregation members including
George Alsdorf and family are believed
to have aided runaway slaves escaping
through the Underground Railroad.
The church survived two attacks by
angry mobs around the time of the
American Civil War. The first took
place on New Year’s Eve, just prior to
the war in 1860, and the second on Jan.
1 in 1863, following President Abraham
Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation
Proclamation.
The church and its congregation would
live to see many other monumental events
occur in the centuries that followed.
“They passed the flame of civil advocacy
for centuries,” said Yaun.
An aged structure
Newburgh AME Zion Church Pastor
Milton Stubbs declined to comment for
this story. In a 2016 interview with the Mid
Hudson Times, however, Stubbs said the
congregation was planning a fundraising
campaign that year to repair the building,
which faced serious challenges even then.
“The bricks are deteriorating due to
age,” said the pastor, motioning to the
crumbling exterior of the building, one
of several problems he pointed out at
the time. Stubbs described issues with a
staircase and other access points. Two
fires in the mid-2000s had badly damaged
parts of the church, he said.
“It seems logical that you would want
to build something that functions in a
City of Newburgh Historian
The AME Church was built on Washington Street in 1833. “Zion” was added to its official title
in 1848.
modern way, that fits the community
today,” conceded Yaun, when the subject
of building safety was raised.
Old church buildings can be
rehabilitated and repurposed, and the
church’s historic status can be used as a
powerful tool for fundraising, Yaun said.
“If a congregation leaves a church, it can
be turned into lots of versatile things.
If you build a modern building without
architectural charm, there is no second
use for it down road,” she said.
“If they tear this building down, that’s
it,” Yaun asserted. “We lose that building.
We are not being good stewards of our
heritage if we tear down an historic
building. We’re not giving the next
generation a chance to market it, reuse
it, adapt it.”
City of Newburgh Historian Mary
McTamaney weighed in on Monday.
“I oppose demolishing the AME Zion
Church because no one has offered a
convincing reason it needs to be torn
down,” she stated in an email. “It is a 1905
sanctuary that has held generations of
sacred and social events.”
McTamaney said hundreds of
Newburghers had contributed to the
construction and maintenance of the
church over the years. “If the interior
entry steps are difficult for the elderly,
put in a chair lift,” she wrote. “Other
multi-level churches have done so. Living
in Jesus Ministry did that on South Street,
so did Grace Methodist on Broadway.”
“If the motivation is to enter a new
era of managing a housing ministry,
there are several housing organizations
already working here to partner with that
have good experience and would welcome
more support,” she wrote.
McTamaney said she understands
that attendance and contributions have
dropped for churches, in ge neral, making
it increasingly difficult for congregations
to maintain church buildings.
If the building is failing structurally
and can’t be rehabilitated, then the
congregation should consider moving
to a different building, she said. “Then
our community can welcome future
generations into the spaces that their
elders treasured,” wrote the historian.
“I believe it is important to stand in the
footsteps and sit in the spaces of those
who came before us. It adds a dimension
of understanding to our history.”
Yaun said plans for the 2020 celebration
to honor Douglass’ visit to the city will
move forward regardless of what happens
with the church building.
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