“From Mission to Meeting House: a Changing Chapel and the Lost Village of Milton,” an article by Rye resident Howard Husock, occupies the entire issue of the Fall 2013 Westchester Historian, the journal of the Westchester County Historical Society.
“From Mission to Meeting House: a Changing Chapel and the Lost Village of Milton,” an article by Rye resident Howard Husock, occupies the entire issue of the Fall 2013 Westchester Historian, the journal of the Westchester County Historical Society. Husock is the Vice President, Policy Research, at the Manhattan Institute.
Aided by Toby Webb, archivist at Christ’s Church, Husock studied nine decades of the church’s Vestry minutes. He also researched tax records, censuses, maps, and other primary-source documents to uncover the history of the Meeting House and the surrounding hamlet. Historic and present-day photos accompany the narrative.
Husock found that events in locations as far afield as Alaska and China had a bearing on the story of the small wood-frame building. He chronicles a time when the Milton area was a bustling port, when Milton Road was named Main Street, and when the building we know as the Meeting House was Grace Chapel, affiliated with Rye’s Christ’s Church. Multiple generations of Rye’s Wainwright family, prominent and wealthy congregants of Christ’s Church, took a special interest in the welfare of the little chapel.
The Meeting House is operated by the nonprofit Bird Homestead as an education center. “We thank Howard Husock for his superb research and narrative,” said Anne Stillman, president of the organization. “We are grateful to the Westchester County Historical Society for this wonderful publication.”
Dock Deli is selling the issue of the Westchester Historian on behalf of the Bird Homestead for $3 a copy.
