Early Years

The historical destiny of the region surrounding St. Philip’s Parish in Garrison was set forth over 300 years ago when, in 1697, William III granted what is now the entire area of Putnam County to Adolph Philipse of England. Despite an early census report which recorded a "rude and heathenish country" with few inhabitants, the eldest Philipse son was given the challenge to develop the colonial property and begin a community. The Philipse family prospered and became one of the wealthiest entities in the New York region.

In 1748 Beverly Robinson, a gentleman from a politically and historically prominent family in Virginia was attracted to a fine match with a niece of Adolph Philipse and married Susannah Philipse. For the first twenty years of married life, the Robinsons enjoyed the active, commercial life of New York City. In the late 1760’s their interests turned north to the Philipse family property (called the ‘Philipse Upper Patent’) and they built a home in Garrison. The resident population at that time was recorded as 146 tenant families clustered around the Philipse land in Garrison and around Van Cortland Manor.

In 1770 a charter from King George III formally recognized the first church in the area, St. Peter’s Church in Peekskill. The wooden church, which still stands in the center of the community cemetery in Cortland, to the north of Peekskill, had been constructed in 1767. Beverly Robinson and Charles Moore were appointed as the first church wardens. Among the first orders of business decreed by the wardens 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 also still stands at the corner of Lower Station Road and Route 9D. Soon, a small wooden chapel was erected on the present site of St. Philip’s Church. A community graveyard was planned on the hilltop surrounding the church, with the first burials occurring shortly after the church structure was completed. 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. As revolutionary sentiment fomented among his congregations, Rev. Doty, a staunch Loyalist, departed for Nova Scotia where he continued his career as a priest in the Anglican Church in Canada. Rev. Doty’s short tenure as rector of St. Peter’s and St. Philip’s seems to have established an early precedent for the two churches. Over the next 100 years, both churches experienced many young rectors who served them for only brief periods of time and then went on to distinguished careers in the greater church.

(Please notice the plaque in memory of Beverly Robinson, our first warden, on the back wall of the church near the baptismal font.)