DUANESBURG — James Duane’s big plans for Duanesburg never quite materialized, but the modest wooden church he built about a mile west of the small hamlet named after him has endured for more than 200 years.

Christ Episcopal Church, built in 1793, stands now much as it did two centuries ago. The only major difference is a tower that was added in 1811, the money for that coming from one of Duane’s daughters. Situated on Route 20 at Duanesburg Churches Road in the town of Duanesburg, the church is a plain but dignified two-story white building that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

“There are four very special historic buildings in Duanesburg, and that church is foremost among them,” said town of Duanesburg historian Arthur D. Willis. The Duane Mansion, the North Mansion and the Quaker Meeting House round out his list. “You can tell a lot of care went into the building of that church, and the congregation and the different ministers over the years have done a great job taking care of the building and preserving it.”

While little adorns the outside of the building except its windows, there are a number of ornate objects inside the church, the most dramatic a wine-glass pulpit that places senior minister Shaw Mudge well above his parishioners. The box pews, white with brown trim, seat 102 people, while upstairs a balcony goes around three-quarters of the interior and makes room for 40 more people. The high ceiling has a chandelier that hangs over the front row of pews, not too far from the pulpit, and much of the walls, all white, are covered by historical markers. The other distinguishing characteristic of the building is its many windows, including two palladium frames behind the pulpit.

“The wine glass pulpit and the shape and number of the windows we have here are always something people notice,” said Mudge. “When I first saw it, I thought to myself, ‘What a great Colonial church,’ and then I went inside and saw the pulpit and all the memorial plaques on the wall. You can tell there’s a lot of history associated with this place.”

Capital idea

If Duane had had his way, the church would have been smack dab in the middle of the capital of New York state. A powerful politician and the first mayor of New York City following the American Revolution, Duane held title to most of the land in the town, even though he actually never lived there himself. He died in 1797 in Schenectady, shortly before work on his home in Duanesburg began, thus ending his dreams of making Duanesburg the state capital.

“He was so well connected he might have been able to do it, but there were plenty of other people in New York, including the powerful Dutch in the Albany area, the Livingstons, the Van Rensselaers, who had their own ideas,” said Willis. “So things didn’t quite work out the way he would have liked. But if he had lived longer, and with two sons-in-law like William North and George Featherstonhaugh, two very prominent people, maybe he could have made Duanesburg the capital.”

North, a general during the American Revolution, married Duane’s daughter Mary, and Featherstonhaugh, the first U.S. geologist and the man mostly responsible for the first railroad line between Albany and Schenectady, married a second daughter of Duane’s, Sarah. Both Duane and his wife, also named Mary, are interred in the crypt below the sanctuary, along with North and his wife, their daughter Mary, and Cathy Livingston Duane, another Duane daughter who never married.

“When you travel throughout Europe, you see that sort of thing all the time,” said Willis. “People are buried in coffins under stone in the cellar of the church.”

According to Mudge, the coffins have remained there undisturbed.

“When you walk into the main sanctuary, you can see the memorial plaques on the wall, and their coffins are right there, below them and underneath our basement,” he said. “They are actually buried underground, and our basement has been shored up and is no longer accessible.”

There is also a small cemetery behind the church on Mudge Road, while just to the east is a large carriage shed with room for six automobiles. While it was Duane who supplied the cash, the shed and church were actually constructed by master builder Jeremiah Purdy, who also built the North Mansion nearly three miles to the east.

Keeping it maintained

“It’s a wooden building. So there is a fair amount of maintenance to take care of it,” said Mudge, who began his ministry at Christ Episcopal in 2002. “We’ve strengthened the floor, and the back wall was reinforced a while ago so it has been kept up very well. They’ve also from time to time put some new slates up on the roof, but I could tell when I got here there had been a lot of love given this building.”

Along with the front steps leading up to the main entrance, the building has a long access ramp to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

“We got an award a few years ago for our preservation work, and one of the things that really impressed the people was the access ramp,” said Mudge. “It really blends in with the church.”

View better than the vision

There is little out there now along that stretch of Route 20 except the church and a beautiful view to the east.

“I think that Duane thought the town would eventually grow out to where our church is,” said Mudge. “It never happened, but when you’re out here and you see this beautiful view, you get the sense that somebody had some big plans for this area. It’s a great spot.”