The Free Church of the Ascension was erected in 1869-70 by Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Farnam, who were owners of the property where it was built. Mr. Farmam’s business was the Excelsior Knitting Mills on the Poestenkill. The Church was designed by Marcus Fayette Cummings and built by Finnerton and Ellis as masons, and Thomas Cordwell as carpenter, and built as a chapel of the Episcopal Church.

It is an important historical and architectural element of the Ida Hill District as surveyed and outlined ca. 1979-81. It was declared eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, agreed to by the City of Troy and the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation [SHPO].

It is important as representing the history and architecture of the Mt. Ida Hill neighborhood, and is an excellent example of the work of Architect Marcus Fayette Cummings (1836-1905.) Cummings was one of Troy’s most known architects, and likely the most prolific architect practicing in Northeastern New York in the period ca. 1862-80. Cummings established a practice in Troy following the devastating 1862 fire, and kept an office in Troy the rest of his life, later with his son, Frederic Cummings. He also published several influential books on pattern designs for buildings.

The Free Church of the Ascension is a notable example of his church architecture in the Gothic Revival Style as seen in the 1870’s. It is a brick and timber frame structure with a limestone façade. The steeply pitched roof has decorative tile work popular in the late Victorian era. A number of clerestory dormers have been removed over the years but the majority of detail inside and out is intact. The interior of the Church is substantially unaltered, and numerous photos from the 1870-1930 period survive. Notable are the cruciform plan and the Gothic bell tower, which houses a set of Meneely Bells.

The Meneely Bell Company of West Troy was one of the pre-eminent bell makers of the 19 ^th Century. The Episcopal St. John’s Church purchased a chime of 11 Bells and was supporting the Free Church of the Ascension in that their Minister had conducted some of the services before 1870. The Free Church of the Ascension, and the Bells, were erected by F. W. Farnam, who purchased its chime of 9 bells in the early 1870’s from the Meneely Foundry of West Troy. These bells and their inscriptions are described in detail in an article in the Troy Daily Times of 28 August 1870; this refers to the Ascension bells as “now being cast.”

The stained glass windows are also notable. The east window is by J. Alden Weir, an Art Professor at West Point, who also designed the east window in the Warren Chapel in Oakwood Cemetery, and windows and paintings in Holy Cross Church on 8 ^th Street. The high windows in the transepts and the Rose window in the West End are also likely by Weir. These were installed around the time of the structure’s completion; they are typical of Upstate stained glass from the 1870 to early 20 ^th century period.

The remainder of the windows were installed closer to the turn of the century, most likely all by the Lamb Company of New York, started by Frederic Symetz Lamb, and strongly influenced by the opalescent glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Aesthetic movement partly driven by Tiffany and Lamb Companies competition. Some of these turn of the century windows have been positively identified as Lamb windows, and the similarity in design and fabrication suggests they all were.

*Historic Notes by Ned Pratt, September 2019