History

Elijah Hunter, a captain in the Revolutionary War who founded Ossining, started holding Baptist prayer meetings at his house in 1786. This grew rapidly, and four years later, 33 congregants formally incorporated the church. They continued to meet in homes until Hunter donated the land for a small meeting house on the present site in 1815. During the early years, slaves and their masters attended services. Both were considered full members of the congregation, and treated equally in the church.
The original building was altered in 1834, and again in 1850. Originally the church had no facility for baptisms, so those took place in a small cove on the Hudson River just south of where the village’s train station is now. In 1865 the present white marble baptistry was installed.

By that time the church was beginning to outgrow its original structure, and the congregation began considering a new one. Brooklyn architect J. Walsh’s Gothic Revival design, with triangles and quatrefoils representing the Trinity and the four Gospels respectively, was dedicated in 1874. It had cost $75,000 ($1.59 million in modern dollars) for local contractor John Hoff to build. The church was able to finance it purely from donations from the congregation, without taking out a mortgage.

Later in the 19th century the church continued its early tradition of support for the local African-American community. At its centennial celebrations in 1890, an itinerant African-American minister requested the church’s help in establishing a ‘black’ Baptist Church in the village. First Baptist and its congregation responded, and Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church was established on South Spring Street.

In 1916 the church was wired for electricity. Almost a century later, after its 200th anniversary celebrations, the church and donors were able to restore all the original stained glass windows.

Two significant features of the building, in addition to its Gothic design and the beautifully carved interior woodwork, are the steeple and the stained glass windows. It is truly one of the most recognizable buildings in Ossining.