Commack Methodist Church and Cemetery

About this property

Commack United Methodist Church and Cemetery is a historic Methodist church meeting house and cemetery located at 486 Townline Road in Commack, Suffolk County, New York. It was built in 1789 and is a relatively large, two story, two bay shingled building with a broad, overhanging gable roof. It is the oldest Methodist church in New York State in continuous operation. The surrounding burial ground has graves dating to the 18th century. Methodism in Winne-Comac began in 1783 when a society was formed after a sermon preached by John Phillips, a Methodist local preacher and a tailor in the British army during the Revolutionary War. James Hubbs had heard him in Cow Harbor (now Northport) and invited him to preach in his home. The first conference preacher, Phillip Cox, was appointed to Newton and Comac the following year, holding services in homes, with a total of two dozen members, half of them Negro slaves. In 1785 Ezekiel Cooper was appointed to the Long Island Circuit of which Comac was a part. The Comac Society was the second to be formed on Long Island, preceded only by Newton in 1768. However, the historic building we now call our 1789 Chapel, has the distinction of being the oldest Methodist Church in continuous use in New York in which people still worship in the original building, with but few alterations. For it was in 1789 during the pastorate of William Phoebus that James Hubbs and the community erected "a neat, substantial and commodious house of worship." Others active in the society at that time were Nehemiah Brush, Jacob Wheeler, Charles Peters, Joel Rogers and Jacob Hoff. The land was purchased from Von Hadah Robbins for two pounds five shillings. Featured were a high box pulpit, one center door, and one balcony stairs. Foot warmers were brought by worshippers in the cold winters. In 1791 Harry Hosier, known as Black Harry, preached at the invitation of Jacob Brush, while traveling with Bishop Francis Asbury; and in 1796, Freeborn Garretson was Presiding Elder. In 1803, a group from Winne-Comac with Freeborn Garretson, established a class at the home of Joseph Higby, Little Harbor, later called Centerport, while Sylvester was pastor. In 1806, Mitchell B. Bull and James Cleman, joint preachers of the Long Island Circuit, each preached only 15 times at Comac because of the size of their circuit. In 1810, Comac became part of the Suffolk County Circuit along with Happauge and Sag Harbor, with joint preachers Henry Redstone and Coles Carpenter. A hand written summary of early Quarterly Conferences (1/4", with writer's shorthand) with only the name "Chris Hawkes, 1895" located in the Huntington Historical Society Library, provided interesting sidelights of an 1815 meeting: "On Sunday a.m. services started at 8 or 9 o'clock with a Love Feast. On these important occasions the membership of all the surrounding country came together, and we were given tickets of admission to the communion services by the class leaders. No one could enter these sacred services otherwise, nor those who wore rings on fingers or ears, nor flowers or hats." The circuit riders traveled some 250 miles each month to cover their circuit. Until 1869, a different preacher was assigned to Comac each year, including 1833 when the Smithtown circuit was formed and J. Lovejoy was the assigned preacher. In 1830 services were held every two weeks in Comac.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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