Saratoga's Stone Abbey: From Sacred to Secular
Introduction
Photo courtesy of Sara Boivin
The name "Stone Abbey" dates only to 1986, when the New England Congregational Church at 125 Circular Street, home to the New England Congregationalist Society, converted into condominiums. The Society formed on Thursday, February 27th, 1880 at a meeting in the home of Reverend Thomas W. Jones, and its first church building was originally erected on Henry Street in 1883. It wasn’t until 1901 that the Stone Abbey itself was built, after the size of the Congregation outgrew the building. Although membership flourished throughout the first half of the 20th century the New England Congregational Church ran into financial problems, mostly revolving around the upkeep and maintenance of the space. The building was ultimately sold in 1969 to the Saratoga Bible Baptist Church, and again a few years later to a man from Glens Falls.
Murder at the Abbey
Courtesy of the SSPL Saratoga Room.
Financial struggles are not the only dark spots in the Stone Abbey’s history. In the wee hours of the morning on December 10, 1936, something decidedly unholy occurred in front of the building. A man, Adam Parillo, was shot four times while walking past the church, and was then loaded into a car and dumped at an entrance to Saratoga Hospital, where he eventually died from his wounds. As if the story is not salacious enough, Parillo was not exactly a model citizen. He was affiliated with the Montreal mob, and had recently finished an eleven-year prison sentence for holding up a bank truck. He had avoided the gallows by snitching on his cohorts, and though the case has never been solved, it is presumed that his murder was an act of retaliation by his former associates. The Parillo case is still talked about in Saratoga, and adds some scandal and intrigue to the story of Stone Abbey. Although these events may be seen in a negative light, they ultimately add a historical character and attractiveness to the space.
The Stone Abbey and Skidmore
The New England Congregational Church provided a platform for community interaction through collective, intellectual discourses of faith and social activism. This was in part thanks to a close-knit relationship between the church and Skidmore College that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Not only was the church close to Skidmore in a geographic sense, it being immersed in the old downtown campus, but their closeness was also exhibited in the friendships between Reverend Voss and the school’s faculty. By establishing relationships with Skidmore President Dr. Val H. Wilson and various other professors and directors, Reverend Voss able to host intellectual discourses of faith and society that were not only relevant, but more importantly public.
Transformation
2012 apartment rental. Albanyhomes411.com
The transition from a place of worship to a place of residence began after the property changed hands from the New England Congregational Church, to the Saratoga Bible Baptist Church, in 1969, and again a few years later to a man from Glens Falls. The transformation accelerated after a developer, Robert Israel, purchased the property. The final product was, and still is worthy of admiration, whether through investigations such as this or walking tours designed for the public. The Stone Abbey’s aesthetic, both inside and out, is seemingly reminiscent of an older age of religion. With its stone construction, Tiffany windows, and spherical dimensions, the building resembles a nearly medieval look that reminds one of a different time. This function of remembrance serves not only the tenants and passers-by today, but similarly served the Congregation at the time of its construction. It is safe to assume that the architecture's medieval aesthetic reminded community members of a different time just as it does for us. Herein lies one of the unique powers of buildings as artifacts: the ability to characterize, embody and preserve a historical climate or way of life that has the potential to otherwise be lost.
Do you see a trend of ‘sacred spaces’ transformed into non-sacred spaces?
"Oh yeah, yeah. I think if you might check the Times Union, there are a number of church is Troy, Watervilet, Cohoes, big huge, huge, immense, beautiful buildings, that the Dioceses, the Catholic Diocese is to sell’em because the congregations have grown too old, died off, or moved to the suburbs. And they’re not coming into uhh… they’re not members of the inner city churches anymore. They might be going to a more suburban church while maintaining the Catholic faith. It’s to get a re-use of it. You have to be very creative. In fact I think theres one over in Schuylerville that’s also been sold and converted into, I believe, a number of apartments. It’s a relatively common thing, but its difficult to deal with because of the very specific use, design use, of the building. You’ve got a huge hall with a huge with huge vaulted ceilings, a real difficult thing to heat. So how do you make that a living space with three of four bedrooms and so forth? So, uh, it’s a challenge, but depending on the size of the building, the architect and the builders involved, some have risen to make it quite successfully."
(Excerpt from phone interview with David Clark, Real Estate agent, and husband to Skidmore American Studies Professor Mary C. Lynn. They're both currently members of the Federated Congregation of the Presbyterian and New England Congregational Church)
(Excerpt from phone interview with David Clark, Real Estate agent, and husband to Skidmore American Studies Professor Mary C. Lynn. They're both currently members of the Federated Congregation of the Presbyterian and New England Congregational Church)