From Sparkill Creek to Cayuga’s Waters

One hundred fifty years ago, the newly founded Cornell University was on the cusp of an architectural renaissance, one that recently culminated in the completion of award-winning Milstein Hall, designed by the internationally famous Rem Koolhas, and home to its School of Architecture Art and Planning on its Ithaca campus—as well as the planned construction of a state–of–the-art Technology Center on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

What wasn’t known until very recently was that part of Cornell’s rich tradition in architectural excellence is traced 200 miles to the southeast, to the tiny Rockland County community of Sparkill.

“It now seems likely that the construction of Christ Church was a prelude to the creation of the Cornell campus as we experience it today,” notes William Plumb, a practicing industrial designer since the early 1960s, and the keynote presenter at the event. Plumb, who was graduated from the AAP College in 1954 with a degree in sculpture, is a Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

Christ Church was built in 1864 in the Gothic Revival style, and was designed by the Reverend Charles Babcock (1829-1913). Babcock went on to found Cornell’s School of Architecture, along with Andrew Dickson White, co-founder of the University. Together they created the first-ever four-year course of study in the architectural discipline.

Babcock designed many of the Ithaca campus’s signature buildings. These include Sage Hall, Lincoln Hall, Franklin Hall, and the hauntingly beautiful Sage Chapel, whose rose window bears an uncanny resemblance to the window at Christ Church.

Babcock appears to have designed Christ Church as an early solo project after a long association with the renowned design firm of Richard Upjohn (which designed New York’s famed Trinity Church, among many others), and not long after his ordination as a priest. Notably, Babcock furnished the plans for Christ Church at no charge.

Babcock was also listed as chief architect of a number of churches upstate, but Christ Church is a rare such example of his work in the New York City area. It was listed last year on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Wednesday night’s event is free and open to the public.

Christ Church is in Sparkill near the corner of Union Avenue and New Street, just off Route 340 and less than a quarter of a mile from Route 9W. Visitors are always welcome. For information or directions from major parkways, visit www.christchurch-sparkill.org.