St. George's Church

About this property

St. George's Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal church located at 319 Front Street (NY 102) in Hempstead, New York. It was constructed in 1822 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as St. George's Church. The Rectory of St. George's Episcopal Church is an historic rectory located at 217 Peninsula Boulevard in Hempstead. It Founded in 1702, the church was re-erected in 1734 to replace the original. However, its current edifice was built in 1822 following the second church's destruction. In 1735, it received a charter from King George II. During the American Revolution, Hempstead was a hotbed of British sympathizers or Tories, as they were known. The British attempted to occupy Hempstead after the Battle of Long Island and used St. George's as a headquarters as well as a place to worship. Local folklore has it that the rooster weather vane atop the steeple has sixteen bullet marks placed there by Hessian mercenaries who used it for target practice. American troops occupied the church for a period under Ezekiel Cornell from Rhode Island. Cornell "converted the Episcopal Church into a store house, forbid the parson to pray for the King or any of the Royal Family and made use of the communion table as a convenience for his Yankees to eat upon." Both the church and its rectory are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On April 2, 1734, John Mott and Thomas Gildersleeve, by order of the town, set apart half an acre for a new church, west of the old one. At first, the church was only half pewed; there were eighteen pews, presumably square. The first pew was given to George Clarke, Secretary to the Governor, who lived in Hyde Park (the modern nearby village of New Hyde Park, which was then called Hyde Park) and was a benefactor to the church. On November 1, 1734, at a town meeting, the majority voted to move the seats out of the old church into the new. On Tuesday, April 22, 1735, the Governor, with his wife and family, set out for Hempstead to be present at the consecration of the church. Along with him came: his son-in-law and daughter, the then-Secretary George Clarke, the Chief Justice Delancey, Reverend Vesey, some of the clergy, and a great many of the principal merchants and gentlemen and ladies of the City of New York. About six miles west of Jamaica, the Governor was met by the troops of horse, who escorted him to Jamaica, where dinner was provided for him and all of his company. In the afternoon, he proceeded to Hempstead, (escorted as before), where he arrived in the evening and was entertained by the Reverend Robert Jenney, St. George's minister.

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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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