Church of the Holy Comforter (Poughkeepsie, New York)


The Church of the Holy Comforter, built in 1860, is a Gothic Revival church located at 18 Davies Place, near the train station in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States, a few blocks from the Hudson River. Its steeples are prominently visible to traffic passing through the city since the construction of the elevated US 9 expressway in 1965.
The congregation first formed in 1854 as Christ Church. Six years later, it had incorporated and hired Richard Upjohn, a prominent architect noted for his churches, to design a building. His original plans are on file at Columbia University's Avery Library. The cornerstone - located at the southwest buttress of the tower was laid on June 14, 1859 and the church was consecrated by Bishop Horatio Potter on October 25, 1860. Holy Comforter is a cruciform church with walls of local Ulster County bluestone - from across the river and trim of New Jersey Brownstone. Inside, the original pews are still in place and the vaulted ceiling is supported with Carpenter Gothic-style wooden ribs.
It is now known as the Parish of the Holy Comforter in the Diocese of the Resurrection of the Holy Catholic Church and is no longer affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Its break with the Episcopal Church grows out of disagreements and events in the 1970s.
On April 13, 1972, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a contributing property to the Mill Street-North Clover Street Historic District listed on the Register later that year.