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A Moment in Our History #5 February 15, 2009
By Drew A. Nicholson, Village and Church Historian

As reported in an earlier “Moment” the approach and final arrival of the Harlem Railroad in Pawling changed the complexion of the Village. What was less elegantly referred to as “Goose-Town” or “Gorestown” slowly acquired more gentile names: Pawling Center or Centerville. After the commencement of regular service on the railroad beginning on December 31, 1849, the names “Pawling Depot” and Pawling Depot Station” became the accepted names for our Village: most maps produced subsequent to 1849 reflect this name change: According to the 128^th Anniversary booklet produced in 1937, The History of the Pawling Methodist Episcopal Church, “[i]n the list of appointments in the Conference minutes [the area] was called Pawlings until 1871 and after that…always as ‘Pawling.’”

As we know, the first Church—located on the dirt farm road now called South Street—was never completed; services were regularly held there in spite of the unfinished condition of its interior. But as the Harlem Railroad exerted its influence on Pawling, the center of the community was drawn closer to the depot-area. Businesses were started or expanded along the two streets that ran parallel to the tracks which were named—as was common at this time—Railroad St. (now Charles Colman Blvd., west of the tracks, and Memorial Ave. to the east). The street that ran perpendicular and connected the southern end of Railroad St.(s) to the Drover’s Road (Rt. 22) became Main Street, later separated into East Main (east of the tracks) and West Main (west of the tracks). It was along Main Street that the Second Church was to be built, placing it virtually in the center of the rapidly growing Village.

In March 1853 the Church fathers reacted to the needs of the shifting and growing congregation by holding a meeting at the home of Benjamin Haxton Vanderburgh to discuss relocating the Church. At the meeting Cushing Green, Benjamin Vanderburgh and Stephen Sherwood were elected trustees for the “Pawling Center Methodist Church (emphasis mine). A building committee consisting of Daniel Dodge, who owned a farm on Harmony Road and was the subject of “Moment #2”, and Emery Cole, a local wagon maker and builder, and the father of the Emery Cole in whose home the Williams-Herman family now resides.

As reported in “Moment #2” this new church soon was determined to be too small to serve the burgeoning population of the Pawling community. Ten years later, in 1864, the small meeting house was sold to Alexander H. Arnold for $1175—the money was used to reduce the debt incurred in the construction of the current Church. Arnold in turn sold it to the Roman Catholic congregation in 1869; fire destroyed the building in 1872 and the Catholic’s immediately replaced it with the present structure.

When one looks at the accompanying image of “The Second Church” drawn by George Elvin for the 1937 booklet, one is struck by the fact that the church appears to been built on a wooded lot! Yes, folks, the lot was wooded in 1854 as was most of the south side of Main Street. The 1867 Pawling Station and Business Directory map published by F.W. Beers has only four structures appearing on that side of the street, one being the former meeting house then owned by Mr. Arnold. The wedge of land behind those four buildings stretched between the railroad tracks on the west and a small creek to the east (a remnant of which still exists); it was owned by Messrs. Tabor, Allen and Campbell and completely undeveloped. Today that wedge encompasses all of the houses along Fairway Drive.

[Next week we will look at the alterations to our current church building that have occurred over the past 145 years. I am sure you will enjoy some of the images that will be included—as well as learning about the “opera house.”]