In the Beginning

The history of St. Philip’s Church in the Highlands begins in Peekskill over 250 years ago.  St. Peter’s Church, a modest wooden church, was built in 1767 and it was formally recognized as the first church of the region by a charter from King George III in 1770.  Beverly Robinson and Charles Moore were appointed as the first church wardens and among the first orders of business was the expansion of the church’s ministry to families located in an area known as the Four Corners in Garrison.

At first, services were conducted at the home of Jacob Mandeville, which still stands at the corner of Lower Station Road and Route 9D, until the congregants could move into St. Philip’s Chapel. 

John Doty, a recent graduate of Columbia University, was called as the first rector of the two churches, St. Peter’s and St. Philip’s Chapel. The new minister was to serve and be supported by the co-joined congregations.

The Revolutionary War Period

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Warden Beverly Robinson, by then one of the wealthiest and most influential men in North America, was asked by his friend, John Jay, to sign an oath of allegiance to the newly created United States of America. Robinson declined Jay’s invitation.

By all accounts a fine man, a good landlord, and devout Christian, Robinson chose to remain loyal to his British heritage, and refused to become part of the rebellion. In May 1777, he raised the Loyal American Legion. He served during the war years as a Loyalist Colonel in British Intelligence, leading agents made up of local citizens that aided the British armed forces. He helped plan and fought in the successful British conquest of Forts Montgomery and Clinton in October 1777.

In 1778, his home in Garrison was taken for the use of the Continental army, and Benedict Arnold came to occupy it in the summer of 1780, when he took up his post as commandant of West Point. Robinson’s entire estates were confiscated in 1779 on the establishment of the State government in New York.

Robinson was part of the plot, conceived by Benedict Arnold and the British spy, Major John Andre, to deliver the fortifications at West Point to the British. Robinson was on board the British ship, HMS Vulture, which Andre left to go ashore near Stony Point to meet Arnold and obtain the plans on Thursday, September 21, 1780. However, American cannon fire drove the Vulture back down the Hudson and Andre was forced to find another way back to British lines.

Dressed in civilian clothes, Andre was captured on Saturday, September 23. On the morning of Monday, September 25, Arnold learned that the plot had been uncovered and rode fullspeed to the landing where his barge waited. He ordered his men to row him to the Vulture, where he told the waiting Beverly Robinson of the plot’s failure.

Robinson and his family left for England at the close of the Revolution. Robinson died there in 1792, never returning to the Hudson River Valley. Some of the most touching early records of our church include letters, written after the war by Beverly Robinson to his old friend, John Jay, pleading for the restitution of his fortune and property. Jay’s letters in response simply say, “I’m sorry. It’s not possible!”

The turmoil of the war had a significant impact on the church and the surrounding community. Most of the residents of Garrison remained staunch Loyalists and, as the war continued and the cause of the colonials prospered, the church lost many families as parishioners fled north to Nova Scotia. Indeed, our first Rector, Rev. Doty, a staunch Loyalist, departed for Nova Scotia where he continued his career as a priest in the Anglican Church in Canada. Those families supporting the Colonial cause, who had remained in the area, felt resentment towards St. Philip’s because of its strong Tory ties.

The most telling anecdote of these war years involves a threat to very physical existence of the church. The story goes that a group of Colonials, bent on burning down the ‘Tory’ church, were turned away at its doors by George Washington himself. He is reported to have said to their leader, “That, sir, is my Church!” To recognize this momentous event, a stained glass window depicting General Washington was later placed in the vestibule of St. Philip’s, where it can be seen to this day.

Our Former Rectors

1771-74 The Rev. John Doty

1792-94  The Rev Andrew Fowler

1794-98  The Rev. Samuel Haskell

1809-15 The Rev. John Urquhart

1815-16 The Rev. Petrus Ten Broeck

1820-22  The Rev. Issac Wilkins

1826-29 The Rev. Edward J. Ives

1832-33 The Rev. James Sunderland

1835 The Rev. Charles Luck ("Priest in charge")

1836 The Rev. F Peake (four months, recalled by bishop)

1836-38 The Rev. Henry Lemuel Storrs

1838-39 The Rev. Edward C. Bull

1839-43 The Rev. Ebenezer Williams,

1843-50 The Rev. Robert Shaw

1852-53 The Rev. David Eglington Barr

1854-57 The Rev. Edward Mills Pecke

1857-59 The Rev. Joel Clap

1860-73 The Rev. Charles Frederick Hoffman

1873-82  The Rev. Albert Zabriskie Gray

1883-98 The Rev. Walter Thompson

1898-1907 The Rev. Carroll Perry

1908-40  The Rev. Edward Clowes Chorley

1940-45 The Rev. William M. Sharp

1945-54  The Rev. Lockett Ford Ballard

1954-1960 The Rev. T. Carleton Lee III

1960-87 The Rev. William Reisman

1987-2018 The Rev. Francis Geer

2020- Present The Rev. Amanda Eiman

Post Revolution

During the post-Revolutionary years, the families around Garrison, having experienced the departure of more than one-half the local population, were challenged to rebuild their community and their church. In 1784 the Anglican Church of America was formalized with the consecration of Samuel Seabury as the first American Bishop.

By 1786, thanks to the efforts of William Denning, the new owner of Beverly Robinson’s forfeited lands and first post-Revolutionary warden of St. Philip’s, the chapel was refurbished with new additions of a pulpit and altar. The restoration of the congregational buildings from the ravages of the Revolutionary War period and the continuity of the church’s ministry to a sparse population of parishioners presented a challenge to the numerous clergy who were called to serve St. Philip’s during the next century.

The church experienced a revolving door of clergy with short tenures. Many followed the example of the Reverend Doty and became distinguished leaders of the growing American Episcopal Church in subsequent service. The first minister following the War, in 1792, was The Rev. Andrew Fowler, whose three year tenure as priest at St. Philip’s was followed by a very successful posting in South Carolina. Rev. Fowler is remembered as the founder of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

In 1794, The Rev. Samuel Haskell, a Yale grad came from a parish at Queens College, New Jersey (now Rutgers), but left after four years because the vestry couldn't pay him.  Following this, St. Philip’s was 11 years without a regular priest.