On May 20th and 21st, St. Stephen’s, the church that founded the hamlet of Armonk in 1842, will participate in The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Open House weekend. Our church will be open for tours on Saturday, May 20th from 10am – 3pm and on Sunday, May 21st from 12 noon – 3pm. There will also be demonstrations of our new organ, installed just this month, on the hour.
Prior to 1842, many Christians in the Episcopal tradition in North Castle had to travel to Mount Kisco or Bedford for services, and wanted their own place of worship. A farmer in the Mile Square area of North Castle, Elisha Sutton, donated a quarter-acre to allow the building of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, which was founded through the leadership of the Reverend Robert Harris of Grace Church, White Plains. In around 1850, when Elisha Sutton died, St. Stephen’s acquired the other fourteen acres of his farm (largely occupying what is now Armonk Square) and parceled it into lots for sale. Thus they created the first subdivision in the area, effectively establishing modern-day Armonk.
The church was built in the Greek Revival style popular at the time, and then enlarged in 1889, with the addition being in the Neo-Gothic style. Stained glass windows were added throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, including two as a memorial to John Wesley, who died in 1861 aged 22, and who was the son of the co-founder of the New York Times.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is at the heart of the Bedford Road Historic District, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. We will be one of dozens of religious institutions throughout New York State participating in the Open House weekend May 20th and 21st.
Since 1986 The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program has supported more than 750 religious institutions throughout the state which have received over $9.3 million in matching grants. Sacred Sites is the country’s oldest and largest statewide grant program to help landmark religious properties. In recent years, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church received a grant from the Sacred Sites program to renovate the impressive Doric columns on our recessed portico.
For additional information on the Sacred Sites Open House Weekend, contact the New York Landmarks Conservancy at 212-995-5260 or sacredsites@nylandmarks.org