Question: Can you identify the location of this photo and give an approximate date? What do you know about the scene?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo shows White’s Chapel located at the intersection of Cold Springs Road (Route 370) and Doyle Road. The photographer stood on Cold Springs Road facing north. The dark structure in the left background is a carriage shed.
Erected in 1860 and dedicated the following year, the little church was called White’s Chapel and also White Chapel. Indeed, the church was painted white. And it was also White’s Chapel. Its story begins with pioneer George White.
In 1811, George White traveled by foot from Vermont with his family in tow and settled on 200 acres of wilderness in the Lysander area known as Cold Spring. White soon became a leader in both religious and educational affairs. Religious services were held in a schoolhouse. In 1850 talk began about building a church.
George White donated the land and other family members provided funding. In 1860, carpenter Silas Nichols built the church at a cost of $1,400. It was topped with a 20-foot steeple. A balcony ran across the rear of the church to accommodate the organ and the choir. Two wood burning stoves provided heat. On the Doyle Road side of the building four sheds sheltered rigs and additional hitching posts were available in the yard.
Some years later the balcony was removed and the front of the church was reconfigured. New features included an altar rail and a platform with a raised altar and space for the organ and choir on the right and the church library on the left. A small kitchen was added on the north side.
For its first 100 years the church was a mission with occasional services. By covenant, at least one service had to held there each year if the property were to be kept for church purposes.
Originally dedicated as “non-denominational,” most of the chapel’s first century was served by the Methodist Conference. The little chapel was also a community center. Services became less frequent as ministers were stretched to cover their primary assignments.
New life came in 1951 when the Lutheran Church leased the building and the mission of St. Mark’s was born. Roof repairs, new ceiling, lights, tiled floors and a heater were all installed. Scouts landscaped the grounds. And a bell was finally mounted in the belfry which had stood empty for 90 years. Ten years later an educational wing was added; a new heating system, running water, replacement windows and telephone service were put in place.
St. Mark’s flourished and in 1965 the congregation broke ground for a permanent home on Cold Spring Road, closer to the village.
The little chapel continued to welcome worshippers. White’s Chapel Christian Reformed Church met there from 1966 until 1972 when that congregation built a permanent church (Cold Spring Christian Reformed Church) on Hicks Road. That was followed by the Marantha Chapel in the late ‘70s.
The chapel doors opened again in 1991 when Methodist minister Rev. Terry Millbyer arrived to establish a church committed to contemporary worship. The altar gave way to a stage, sound system, theater lighting and multi-media services. With its official name Cornerstone United Methodist Church on the sign, today the church is more popularly known to many as “the church with the purple doors.”
The hitching posts and wood stoves of 1860 are history, but George White’s gift continues to welcome worshippers yet today.
Bob Scherfling was the first person to contact the Messenger with the correct answer. He recalled attending Sunday school at White’s Chapel as a child and said the bell that now hangs out front came from a church in Cato. The original bell was sent for scrap metal during World War II.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 332 with your guess by noon Friday. If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s newspaper, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
