St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Armonk

Today Laurie and I visited St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Armonk. It was established in 1842 - twenty years after St. George's had been taken down and nearly a decade before St. Mary's and St. Mark's would be built. The only other Episcopal church in the area was St. Matthew's in Bedford, a significant distance for people reliant on the horse and carriage. The first two rectors of St. Stephen's - the Rev. William Harris (its founder) and the Rev. Isaac Vermilye - also served as rectors of St. Matthew's and St. Mark's.

St. Stephen's Church ca. 1855

From 1867 to 1880, the Rev. C. Winter Bolton served as rector of St. Stephen's. His brother, the Rev. Robert Bolton, wrote The History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the County of Westchester (an illustration of St. Stephen's from that book is pictured on the right). From 1895 to 1899, a poor economic situation forced St. Stephen's to close. Following its reopening in 1900, St. Stephen's struggled for many years before the vestry decided to turn over the church to St. Mark's. The revitalization of St. Stephen's in the 1920s was begun by the Rev. H. Adye Prichard, rector of St. Mark's, and continued by Prichard's assistant, the Rev. Harold B. Thelin, whom Prichard appointed to St. Stephen's in 1938. The church held a year-long celebration of its centennial in 1942.

As you can see from the image above, St. Stephen's is quite similar in appearance to the other Episcopal churches I have featured on this blog. In the years since it was built it has had several extensions put on. The cemetery has a more Victorian feel than the St. George's/St. Mark's Cemetery, with several interesting statues in addition to the standard obelisks and urn and willows.

Laurie pointed out that this "urn and willow" is actually an urn and obelisk. It seems strangely meta to have an illustration of a grave marker on a grave marker. The marker belongs to Lidia Jane, wife of Jonathan Cunningham, who died on October 29, 1851, at the age of 18. The images of this stone on Find A Grave were photographed under really optimal lighting conditions and really show the design well.

I don't know what the statue in this monument is made of, but the base is certainly zinc. As you might expect, it is the grave marker of a child: J. Warren Hopkins, who died in 1879 at the age of nine.

Laurie really liked this little detail on the marker.

Here's another statue, this one of an angel.

I found this monument to be very interesting. The base reads: "To the glory of God and in honor of our parents, 1975." The top is a Celtic-style cross with a Christogram. It's set off from the rest of the cemetery in a little enclosure.

We saw a few Flewellins in this cemetery, along with a few people with the surname See. The latter is interesting because there is a George A. See buried in the St. George's/St. Mark's Cemetery, but no other people of that name. According to this website, See is an English and German name that comes from the word for "sea" - given to those who lived near a body of water.


The historical information on St. Stephen's Church comes from North Castle History Volume 19 (1992), published by the North Castle Historical Society.