Lake Luzerne United Methodist Church

Lake Luzerne United Methodist Church, 1852
(photo 5/7/2011)

A plaque by the front door says the congregation was established in 1807, the building built in 1852.
The steeple was struck by lightning in the 1990's and a smaller steeple was placed on the bell tower.

Historical marker in front of church:
First Methodist
Episcopal church built in 1852 by James Hedgeman and Silas Dayton.
First pastor the Rev. Henry Williams.
Now the United Methodist Church

Hadley Luzerne Wesleyan Church, Lake Luzerne

Hadley Luzerne Wesleyan Church, 1985/2006
(photo 5/7/2011)

From the church website:

Our local church began in the 1800's located on the Stony Creek Road. In 1985 the church moved to its current location. In 2005-06 the latest addition to our church (the new sanctuary and community room) was added.

Rockwell Falls Presbyterian Church, 1882

Rockwell Falls Presbyterian Church, 1882
(photo 4/28/2011)

The core of this church located on Bridge Street in Lake Luzerne just steps away from the bridge that overlooks the confluence of the Hudson and Sacandaga Rivers is done in a High Victorian style.

The congregation dates to 1856, its first pastor Rev. Charles H. Skillman. The  church burned on December 21, 1926 and was rebuilt in 1927 with an addition in 1958.

This photograph taken on the day of highest flow in the Hudson River in living memory.

St. Mary's Episcopal Church

St. Mary's Episcopal Church,  Lake Luzerne 1874-75
(photo 10/26/2008)

Congregation founded in 1865, the cornerstone was laid on August 25th 1874 and construction lasted about a year. There is a concise history at the churches website:
http://www.stmarysluzerne.org/pg_history/

The August 25th date is pertinent. To this point I haven't included many recently built churches.  Older churches seem more dignified, more architectural. Why?

Of course it is about people, the congregation, the founders.  Here in the Adirondacks congregations are often comprised of two groups; the locals and the "summer people." Often it was the tourists, the some-time Adirondackers, the people with summer camps who largely funded the construction of churches. There was and still is a divide between those groups.

More recent churches built within the Blue Line tend to glorify the architecture far less than in the past. My thesis is that these are churches built and paid for by locals opposed to the more elegant structures of the sometime residents. I expect this will be a running thread.

St Mary's built in "downtown" Lake Luzerne, directly on Rt. 9N is a good place to represent this dichotomy. More on that later.

Bruno LaVerdiere, Church of the Holy Infancy, Lake Luzerne

Bruno LaVerdiere (Brother Bruno) was a monk and resident artist at St. Martin's Abbey in Washington State from 1955 to 1969. A graduate of St. John's University in Minnesota he worked with Henry Takemoto while in Washington.

 He studied at the Art Students League from 1965 to 1967,  eventually married and moved to Hadley NY where he worked as an artist and taught at Skidmore College and Adirondack Community College as well as other institutions around the US as well as  in France and Italy.

Bruno created a large chandelier, several candle-holders/pavement lights, and a large Pascal candleholder for the Church of the Holy Infancy--guessing at the date, ca 1977.

LaVerdiere currently is retired from teaching but lives and works at his home and studio in Hadley, NY. He is the father of Julian LaVerdiere who with Paul Myoda created the Tribute in Light at the site of the World Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Church of the Holy Infancy

Church of the Holy Infancy, Holy Mother and Child Parish 1929/1956; formerly Church of the Infant Jesus. Catholic.
Lake Luzerne  (photo 9/24/2010)


Originally built under the leadership of Father James A. Kelly in 1876 as one of three nearly identical churches (St. Charles Borromeo in Wevertown, now Beaver Brook Outfitters; St James Catholic  in North Creek---only  St. Charles Borromeo building still exists) the current church, built in 1929, stands on route 9N in Lake Luzerne.