The distinguished history of St. Peter’s Church begins in 1704 when England’s Queen Ann founded a Chapel of the Onondagas to bring missionaries to North America; she also granted land in Albany to build an Anglican Church. This first church, a gambrel-roofed, masonry structure, was built between 1715 and 1717 on State Street near Lodge Street. In 1802, Albany architect Phillip Hooker designed a new Federal style church at the same location, which Richard Upjohn of New York City, well-known for his Gothic Revival buildings, replaced in 1860. His son, Richard M. Upjohn added an impressive bell tower in 1876.
The richly decorated interiors include work by leading artists including stained glass windows designed by English artist Edward C. Burne-Jones and fabricated by the William Morris Company of London in 1880. The chancel windows were made by Clayton and Bell of London in 1885, and Tiffany and Company made the rose window over the State Street entrance in 1892.
The exhibition, drawn from the collections of St. Peter’s Church and the Albany Institute, include the rarely seen 1712 Queen Anne Communion Service, land grants, portraits, furniture, drawings, prints, maps, and photographs arranged to highlight the history of the church and its influence in shaping the history of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley.
The exhibition was supported by Burlingame Interiors Ltd., Fred B. Hershey FASID, Jay Harold Jakovic, and Ted and Sally Jennings
