Centennial celebration of the United Presbyterian (the old white) Church of building 1797-1897 : Salem, Washington County NY, November 9th, 1897 . seemed to them too muchmoney to waste on mere adornment. Therefore offered to pay the whole cost. The painting wasexecuted ; and though the tesselated floor, also the curtainwith tassels, slightly suggestive of the stage, might havebeen criticised as incongruous, it certainly did give an ideaof space. So good was the perspective, that one man wasentirely certain that the front pillars were veritably builtof wood; the rest he knew was only a
Centennial celebration of the United Presbyterian (the old white) Church of building 1797-1897 : Salem, Washington County NY, November 9th, 1897 . seemed to them too muchmoney to waste on mere adornment. Therefore offered to pay the whole cost. The painting wasexecuted ; and though the tesselated floor, also the curtainwith tassels, slightly suggestive of the stage, might havebeen criticised as incongruous, it certainly did give an ideaof space. So good was the perspective, that one man wasentirely certain that the front pillars were veritably builtof wood; the rest he knew was only a picture. Thepicture held its own for twenty years, till other changesnecessitated its removal. In 1867—the year that the centennial of the congregationwas celebrated, that is to say, of its immigration to thiscountry: it having been in existence in the North ofIreland many years before—there was erected a platformto accommodate the speakers from abroad. This was leftto stand afterwards for more than a year. Some thought itan addition which was no improvement; but it will be evermemorable from the assembling there, the following spring,. THE OLD MEETING HOUSE OF OLD WHITE CHURCH. 35 of eleven young men, who came forward to confess Christ,and, standing upon it, in full view of the great Congre-gation, received the ordinance of baptism from the hands ofRev. J. C. Forsythe, and next sat together at the table of theLord. Subsequently five more came, and six more after that. In 1876 very great changes were accomplished: a cellarwas dug beneath the Church, the whole building raised,a higher foundation put under, and furnaces put in thecellar; a recess was added behind, with study and roomseach side. Some years later the room over the vestibulewas modernized: benches taken out and chairs put in, andsliding-doors inserted between the audience-room andlecture-room. This was before the organization of the ImprovementSociety, but was carried out through the energy and per-severance of
Size: 1757px × 1422px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcentennialce, bookyear1898
