A forgotten community and a July 4th tradition
Once the hub of a 19th-century hamlet, the Mekeel’s Corners Chapel sits alone, the only building at the intersection of Route 9 and Route 301, three miles east of Cold Spring.
The tiny church is closed 364 days of the year, but on Tuesday (July 4) at 10 a.m., its caretakers will continue a decades-long tradition by opening the doors for a non-denominational worship service.
Built in 1867, the picturesque chapel was an integral part of a small community that included homes, a school, a blacksmith shop and a hotel. It was initially known as the Philipstown Methodist Episcopal Union Chapel, or the Union Church. According to a newspaper account, the first service was held in November 1867 and the building also hosted public meetings because the schoolhouse was too small.
A news clipping from 1950 noted that the chapel had fallen into disrepair and was being used “as a refuge for knights of the road.” It was restored in the early 1950s with funds donated by Helen Fahnestock Hubbard, who owned the property next door, and a nonprofit association for its upkeep was created in 1961, following her death. The building has never had electricity or plumbing.
Mark Forlow, who is president of the association and the Town of Philipstown historian, believes construction of the church marked somewhat of a population boom at the crossroads that began in the 1850s. “People didn’t want to travel 3 miles to the nearest town just to go to church.”
There were several Mekeels living nearby, but Forlow said he hadn’t been able to identify whom the hamlet was named for.
“I have a tintype of Willis Mekeel, and he was prominent,” Forlow said. “But it was probably a collective naming.”
It was actually a renaming.
The crossroads had been known as Budd’s Corner and Griffin Corners, likely for the proprietors of a hotel and tavern located just north of the chapel. The Budd family established the hotel in 1769 and operated it for 25 years, followed by John Griffin in the 1790s. It was later operated by Thomas Mekeel.
According to one history, Philipstown’s first schoolhouse, a simple wooden building, was relocated to Griffin’s Corners around 1816 and a second one built closer to Cold Spring. A brick schoolhouse constructed on the east side of Route 9 a short distance north of the corner is now part of Fahnestock State Park.
In an August 1975 letter to the Putnam County News & Recorder, Mrs. Edward Hommel, then 79, recalled attending the school around the turn of the century. Her teachers included Lizzie Jaycox, Ethel Hustis, Eda Meeks and Mr. Barnum, and her classmates included a number of Mekeels. “In winter we sat by the stove where we were taught arithmetic,” Hommel wrote. “Nothing else mattered.”
An abandoned cemetery containing more than 70 graves lies south of the chapel. Most of the tombstones are from the 19th century, with many predating the structure. Lillian McElrath, who died in 1941, may have been the last person buried there.
The oldest surviving tombstone is crudely etched and marks the life of an infant, Mary Budd, who was born May 6, 1770. Other early stones remember pioneers such as James Nelson (born about 1742), Jemima Lane (1735), Joshua Mead (1749) and Absalom Early (1728).
“Many stones have been knocked over,” Forlow noted. “It would be a big conservation project to restore the cemetery.”
Forlow believes the chapel, which can accommodate about 50 people, was multi-denominational. “My understanding is there wasn’t a full-time pastor,” he said. “It would have been a traveling pastor who may have been shared with other small churches in the area.”
The Fourth of July service will include a reading of “A Prayer for the Nation,” by Preston Pittman, a trustee of the Putnam History Museum; a closing prayer read by Cold Spring resident Karen Kapoor; and music by Fred Martin of Garrison. (Reservations are required; see bit.ly/chapel-July4.)
Forlow hopes the building can host more events, noting that requests for weddings are considered. Donations for upkeep can be made through the Putnam History Museum, 63 Chestnut St., Cold Spring, NY 10516, with checks made out to MeKeel’s Corners Chapel.
