| The Church of St. Sacrement owes its existence to two ladies, Mary Henry and Henriette Thieriot. Together, they envisioned a Sunday School, programs of visitation to the poor and the sick and offering them the consolation of the Gospel and the ministrations of the Church. With Mrs. Henry suffering from declining health, it fell on Miss Thieriot (affectionately known as 'Miss Henny' ) to enlist the help of the community. Currently 'Miss Henny' was gathering people into a Sunday school in a grove, on the Lake shore, and in a barn. What they desperately wanted and needed, however,was a church building. The first plan was to put up a neat frame building with a seating capacity of two hundred, at a cost of 1500 to 2000 dollars; but when the greater part of that amount had been raised it was thought best to build a stone church as being more durable, better adapted to the climate, and more in keeping with the natural features of it's settings. |
| Miss Thieriot first put up a rough shed of unplained lumber. This shed was used for services for three summers while the necessary funds for the erection of the present stone church were being raised. It is said that it never rained during service hours as long as that rough shed was used for that purpose. The cornerstone for the church was laid with appropriate ceremony, on July 16, 1867, by the Rev. F.B. Van Kleeck, then assistant minister at Trinity Church, New York. The Church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. William Croswell Doane, Bishop of Albany, September 2, 1869. Referring to this service in his first convention address, the Bishop said: "It is the highest praise to say that the church, the service and spirit of the day were worthy of the place. On the shore of Lake George, where everything is beautiful, Bolton is most beautiful of all. f all that lingers in the memory it is hard to say what was most lovely, the day, the situation, the church itself, the service, the sweet memory of the departed by the sea of "glass", or the thankful, well earned, unassuming joy of one heart in whose loving and pious purpose this exquisite work was born; and the holiday hospitality, with waving flags, pealing bells, and booming guns that welcomed us to the beauty of this most consecrated lake." Within a fortnight the people of Bolton enjoyed the privilege of witnessing and takin part in the offices of Consecration, Holy Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and Holy Matrimony on a spot which but two years before was only a moss-covered rock. Thus "the little grain of mustard seed" so quietly and humbly sown, already began to bear on its spreading branches fruits of the brightest promise. |
| The Church of St. Sacrement P.O. Box 1185 4879 Lake Shore Drive Bolton Landing, New York 12814 (518)644-96 email: stsacrement@nycap.rr.com Fr. Jim Loughren: Rector |
From the Church Archives...