Saint Regis Presbyterian Church Saint Regis Presbyterian Church Address: Keese Mills Road, Paul Smiths.

Also known as: Adirondack Presbyterian Church

Year built: 1898-99

Architect: William L. Coulter

The church was founded by the Reverend William B. Lusk, who first conducted services in the Keese's Mills schoolhouse, and served as pastor from 1899 to 1906. Paul Smith donated land on the St. Regis River and summer residents on the St. Regis lakes donated the funds used to construct the church.

In 2014, the church was sold to a party from Canada, owners of the Northbrook Lodge.  The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.

Memories of the Early Days of St. Regis Presbyterian Church

By Rev. William B. Lusk, Courtesy of Ruth Gould Hoyt

Since my coming to Paul Smith, in Spring of '97, I held services for the guides every Sunday in the Keese Mill school house. It was surprising that so many well known guides and people of the settlement, not noted for their interest in church affairs, attended those services. I recall Joe Newell and his sons, Lovell, Sam and Sylvester, Elias Hall, Irwin Jacquis, Harvey Hyde, Abner Tyler and his son, Wortley, Jim Cross and his son Will, Moses Sawyer, the Otis brothers, Fred, Myron and Albert, Jack Martin, Tom Clark, Harry Thompson, Orvis Crary, Tommy Redwood and, occasionally, George Skiff. These men, with their wives and families, crowded the little school house, the seats of which were so uncomfortable that most of them preferred to stand around the walls, so I became eager to have a church erected and already had my eye on a site, a little knoll on the St. Regis River, almost surrounded by water. It looked very unpromising as it was overgrown with bramble and the stumps of old pine trees showed up over the entire to. but I detected is possibilities. This was just a dream that I did not think would be realized for years but a call made by me, which I shall now describe bought it to pass sooner than anyone expected. Church building began after Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes arrived on Birch Island for the summer of 1897, and donated $2,500 to Lusk to build a church. Paul [Smith] gladly gave the land, and the architect, William L. Coulter, of Saranac Lake, was forthwith engaged.

When a satisfactory sketch of the proposed building was ready and other preliminaries arranged, ground was broken and the structure rushed to completion. The new church was ready for dedication July 15, 1899.

Source: Reverend William B. Lusk, "Memories of the Early Days of St. Regis Presbyterian Church, Paul Smith’s, N.Y., 1899-1949" (Paul Smith’s, N.Y.: St. Regis Presbyterian Church, 1949). Adirondack Collection, Saranac Lake Free Library.

A plaque inside reads: In Grateful Remembrance of Jane Trowbridge, wife of Henry L. Hotchkiss, died at New Haven, Conn., April 20, 1902.

On April 24, 2014, the church was bought by Maison Saranac SAC/Saranac Lake House LP of Westmount, Quebec; the same organization bought Northbrook Lodge in 2012.

Plattsburgh Republican, December 24, 1898

Ground was broken last Saturday for a new Presbyterian church at Keese's Mills, near Paul Smith's. It will be built of logs at an expense of about $1800 with a seating capacity of 300 [!], and the pastor will be Rev. W. B. Lusk, Presbyterian missionary to the Adirondacks.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 7, 1948

PAUL SMITHS

The young people of the St. Regis Presbyterian church, accompanied by the Rev. and Mrs. Douglas Gray were taken in cars owned and operated by Alfred Beaney, Gordon Tyler and Elmer Beaney through Harrietstown, Gabriels, Rainbow, Easy Street, Otisville and Keeses Mills to sing Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve.

 

Adirondack D​aily Enterprise, July 18, 1953

CHURCH MARKS ANNIVERSARY

The St. Regis Presbyterian Church of Paul Smiths will observe its 54th anniversary with a special service at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow to be followed by a picnic lunch on the church grounds.

All members and friends of the church are cordially invited. Rev. Erville Maynard, rector of St. John's In-The-Wilderness Episcopal Church at Paul Smiths will preach the sermon and Rudolph Rauch, junior warden of St. John's, will speak informally on behalf of the summer campers with whom Mr. Lusk was associated for many years.

In the church for the first time this Sunday will be a new Hammond spinet organ, a memorial to the Rev. William B. Lusk, given by the members of his family to the St. Regis church of which he was the founder and first pastor from 1899 to 1906. The Westminster Fellowship recently presented a new hymn board to the church as their gift for 1953.

Edward Russell senior elder, will speak for the congregations he unveils a bronse tablet which they have placed in the church in memory of Mr. Lusk.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 3, 1999

Lake Clear News

By Deborah Donaldson

[...]

In the spring of 1897 with the arrival of Rev. William B. Lusk to Paul Smiths, marked the beginning of church services for the guides and their families in the Keeses Mill schoolhouse.

Some of the local people at that time were Joe Newell and sons, Lovell, Sam and Sylvester; Elias Hall, Irwin Jaquis; Harry Hyde; Abner Tyler and son Wortley; Jim Cross and son Will; Moses Sawyer; the Otis brothers, Fred, Myron and Albert; Jack Martin; Tom Clark; Harry Thompson; Orvis Crary; Tommy Redwood; and George Skiff. Note it was all men!

In the summer of 1898 Paul Smith donated land situated on a Knoll overlooking the old mill dam on the St. Regis River to build a church. William L. Coulter of Saranac Lake was the architect. After a lot of hard work by the whole community the St. Regis Presbyterian Church was completed and dedicated on July 15, 1899.

Paul Smith himself was at the dedication.

Because many of the campers were attending the worship services and they had help support the new church, a boat landing was constructed. The first one was about a mile down from the knoll that the new church was on and then another one was constructed at the back of the church, making it much easier for the campers to come to the worship service.

In 1900's the old Skiff residence, which was across the road, was acquired to be used as a clubhouse. As time went on it was evident a much safer place was needed and in 1965 what is now called Lusk Hall was constructed below the church.

As The Rev. William B. Lusk had started the St. Regis Presbyterian Church it was only fitting the new hall be named for him.

For many years there were large Sunday school classes and youth groups, so Lusk Hall was put to good use.

During the summer months it is used by the Adirondack Canoe Expedition sponsored by Presbytery of Northern New York. For several years during the winter months church services are held in Lusk Hall.

So after 100 years of worship service the St. Regis Presbyterian Church is still serving the community of Paul Smiths and I am sure will be there for another 100 years.

Christian Education, 1900 - 2000

by Ruth Hoyt

Christian education formally began in 1897 when William B. Lusk was graduated from Princeton Seminary and assigned to a job as Superintendent of the Adirondack Mission – fifteen little churches scattered over Essex, Franklin, and St. Lawrence Counties. In time, money was raised and a little church was built and was ready for dedication July 18, 1893.

Rev. Lusk writes from his "Memories of the Early Days of the St. Regis Presbyterian Church":

“The services of our church reflected my views (to be friendly and helpful to people, young and old) and while the grows ups were not neglected or ignored, we featured the young. At every service about twenty of the children and young people would come forward, form a semi-circle in front of the chancel, and each would recite a verse or two from the Bible, for which I gave them five cents a verse.

The eager faces of those little ones, as they stood up nearly fifty years ago to recite their verses, come vividly to mind every time I think of the Keeses Mills church. I can still roll call the roll, as follows: Hardy, Wayne, and Claude Sweet, Beulah, Cora, and Carrie Sawyer, Gordon and Dorothy Tyler, Randy and Christine Martin, Bessie and Sylvia (actually, Fannie) Newell, Howard and Clarence Newell, Johnny Hall, Maud  and Jerrard Crary; and the Harvey Hyde children."

Several years later there was a summer school for these children. Five teachers from Chicago came to Paul Smiths for two months and taught art, music, drama, science and social hygiene. It was different from regular school and at the class of summer school the children presented the play, Rip Van Winkle, in a natural amphitheater in the woods.

In time the church bought a house across the road from the church and named it the “Club House.” Here the pastor and campers (St. Regis Lake) established a library for the guides, held Sunday school classes, and had church dinners. The Rev. William Watson and Mrs. Watson were teachers (1920-1925).

Gould and Ruth Hoyt moved to a home on Keeses Mills Road September, 1950 with infant daughter, Jane. It wasn't long before Ruth was teaching Sunday school classes and playing the piano and organ.

Nine years later, in 1963, a decision was made to build a Christian Education Building. Rev. William MacCready, pastor, called on Mrs. Dart and reported that we needed this facility and we also needed a "sizable gift” of money to get started. Church members would do the work. Mrs. Dart replied that she would give a gift and it would be a sizable amount $2500.00. Mrs. Post responded with another gift and it went from there. Other gifts came in, the building was planned, and college students were recruited to work Saturdays starting September 28, 1963. Gould made a trip to the campus not knowing how many or who would come. Sometimes we had 10-12. Ruth would go to the building site, count the workers and then go to town to buy food. Daughters Jane and Ruth would cook a roast beef dinner for all, and a good time was had by all. Chris Cook and Lois Drum, coeds, would help clean up, and most of all they recruited workers for the job. The last entry in our Time Book is March 7, 1964 - Don La France was finishing the plastering. Men from the church helped too; it was a community affair. Harold Newell, Roldy Martin, John Martin and Newell Parker to mention some.

Now we had a big assembly hall, a fine room with kitchen on the top floor and a bath room and a bathroom on the lower floor. The building was well insulated and easy to heat. We could have dinners and church school in comfort in a room with excellent acoustics with perforated wall board squares on the ceiling.

But guess what? By the time the building was ready for use, the congregation had dwindled, especially the children. So what then? A pastor, Janice Morris, got the idea of combining the youth from all three churches in the Adirondack Parish! We did with Sessions approval. We bought a used school bus, budgeted the gas money, and found a volunteer bus driver. What a joy that was! How many? A bus full, maybe 40 plus or minus. It didn’t last long - a year or two, maybe longer, but it was a good idea - a costly idea with no additional church revenues (ed. - to support it). We tried “Monday School” in Lake Clear and it worked for a while. There were so few teachers and sometimes they moved away.

For good many years the Christian Education Building, Lusk Hall, has been the winter time church - so easy to heat. It is still a beautiful building. Church members have maintained it and keep it clean and shiny - God's house. You might ask why Lusk Hall for its name. Probably as many as 8 to 10 gave money. We couldn’t name it for any one of them. Rev. Lusk had raised the money for the church building, and Rev. Lusk's daughter, Helen Lusk Munson, was living on the lake at the time. She and her husband were very active in the church. A handsome portrait of Rev. Lusk hangs in the hall.

Prepared by Ruth M. Hoyt, March 25, 2001

 

The following list is from The Brighton Story, pages 88-89, by Geraldine Collins.

Minister (all "The Reverend"):

See also

External links

Comments

2011-07-18 18:30:36   We have had the privilege of worshiping in this beautiful church for many years until Parkinson's took a toll on Bruce's health. We miss our visits but are blessed with many fond memories of the church and the wonderful people of the congregation. God be with all of you for many many years of service and spreading God's love. Bruce and Carol Belling —67.247.204.174

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