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West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery

19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United StatesCemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)Churches completed in 1837Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)Former Methodist church buildings in the United States
Former churches in New York (state)Greek Revival church buildings in New York (state)National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New YorkSomers, New York
West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church, Somers, NY
West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church, Somers, NY

The former West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as Tomahawk Chapel, is located on Tomahawk Street (part of New York State Route 118) in the town of Somers, New York, United States. It is a small wooden building in the Greek Revival architectural style built in the 1830s. Also on its lot is the cemetery where many of the early members were buried. In 2011 the church, cemetery and the stone wall that surrounds them were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time of the church's construction, West Somers was a thriving agricultural community. Burials had begun in the cemetery almost a decade earlier; most of the area's congregants attended the established Mount Zion Methodist Church some distance away. One of West Somers's more prominent residents built the church so his neighbors would not always have to travel so far; it was so small that circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey, also a Somers resident, likened it to a tiger's cage.Throughout the rest of the 19th century the church was a cornerstone of the West Somers community, with itinerant ministers leading services in the absence of a pastor (according to the United Methodist Church, successor to the Methodist Episcopal Church, the church was never a recognized congregation within the larger denomination). Its Sunday school classes were for a long time the only educational opportunity available to area children. Members continued to be buried in the cemetery; more than half lived to be over 70, an unusually high number for that region and era.Attendance and involvement declined in the early 20th century as West Somers felt the effects of suburbanization and the taking of large tracts of local land to create the reservoirs of the New York City water supply system. By the 1950s the church building had suffered such severe decline and neglect that its porch columns had to be replaced. Further restoration and renovation, including moving the church from its original site in the early 21st century, preceded the building's listing on the National Register.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery
Tomahawk Street,

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Latitude Longitude
N 41.330833333333 ° E -73.750833333333 °
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Tomahawk Chapel

Tomahawk Street
10689
New York, United States
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West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church, Somers, NY
West Somers Methodist Episcopal Church, Somers, NY
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Nearby Places

Amawalk Reservoir
Amawalk Reservoir

The Amawalk Reservoir is a small reservoir in the New York City water supply system located in central-northern Westchester County, New York. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 202 and New York State Route 35 in the town of Somers, and is over 32 miles (over 51 kilometres) north of New York City. Part of the system's Croton Watershed, it was formed by impounding the middle of the Muscoot River, one of the tributaries of the Croton River. This reservoir was put into service in 1897, and was named after the original community of Amawalk, New York, which was inundated by the reservoir and relocated near the dam. The reservoir is one of the smaller in NYC's water supply system. It is only about 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) long. It only holds about 6.7 billion US gal (25 million m3) of water at full capacity, and has a drainage basin of 20 square miles (52 square kilometres). Water which is either released or spilled out of Amawalk Reservoir flows south in the Muscoot River and eventually enters the Muscoot Reservoir, and then flows into the New Croton Reservoir. The water enters the New Croton Aqueduct, which sends water to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx, where the water is distributed to the Bronx and to northern Manhattan. On average, the New Croton Aqueduct delivers 10% of New York City's drinking water. The water that doesn't enter the New Croton Aqueduct will flow into the Hudson River at Croton Point.

Amawalk Friends Meeting House
Amawalk Friends Meeting House

Amawalk Friends Meeting House is located on Quaker Church Road in Yorktown Heights, New York, United States. It is a timber frame structure built in the 1830s. In 1989 it and its adjoining cemetery were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Quakers had been active in north central Westchester County since the mid-18th century. The current meeting house was the third they built; fire destroyed both predecessors. Not only is it one of the most well-preserved and intact in the county, it is a rare surviving meeting house built by a Hicksite meeting during that schism in American Quakerism. Architecturally the meeting house shows some signs of Greek Revival influence, also unusual for Quaker buildings. The addition of a porch later in the 19th century also brought in some Victorian touches, again unusual. Its interior was renovated and the building resided when meetings were revived after a brief period of dormancy. However, many of its original furnishings remain. Taking up most of the property is the meeting's cemetery, which contains many graves of its members from the earlier years, along with that of Robert Capa, the accomplished mid-century war photographer, and his brother Cornell, although neither were members of the meeting, much less Quakers. The headstones of those graves strongly reflect Quaker burial practices, and thus the cemetery is included in the listing as a contributing resource. An architecturally sympathetic First Day School building added when meetings resumed in the 1970s is non-contributing due to its newness.