Photograph of St. Peter's Presbyterian Church — Photograph by Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

St. Peter's Presbyterian Church and Spencertown Cemetery

Built in 1826 (Federal architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“Peter's Presbyterian Church is located at the junction of New York State Route 203 and South Street in Spencertown, New York, United States. It is a tall frame building in a style similar to those found in New England, the native region of many of the area's original 18th century settlers.”
Wikipedia article St. Peter's Presbyterian Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 155 National Register listings published here for Columbia County · listed in 2002 · category: Building · built in 1826, Federal architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. Cty. Rte. 7, at NY 203, Spencertown, 12037
When was it listed? August 2002
Category. building
Town. Austerlitz town
When was it built? 1826
Architectural style. Federal architecture
National Register reference number. 02000821 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

125 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 125 fires within 5 miles of St. Peter's Presbyterian Church and Spencertown Cemetery between 1993 and 2020, burning about 168 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 9 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	53
Debris and open burning	29
Natural	10
Equipment and vehicle use	10
Arson/incendiarism	9
Smoking	7
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
27 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
23 September 2010	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
11 September 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
16 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
15 August 2012	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
12 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
12 August 2006	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 July 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Columbia County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of St. Peter's Presbyterian Church and Spencertown Cemetery: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Manganese, Manganese, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Gott-Mesick Bog Mn Occurrence	Manganese, Iron	Producer
Gott-Mesick Bog Mn Occurrence	Manganese	Past Producer	Residual
Gott-Mesick Bog Mn Occurrence	Manganese, Iron	Past Producer
Hillsdale Limonite Mine	Iron	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Columbia County

Storms near this property

5 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Spencertown, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2020 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Spencertown	-	A tree was downed on wires near the intersection of Pratt Hill Road and Acorn Lane near Spencertown.
September 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Spencertown	-	A tree and wires were downed along Dugway Road near the Town of Austerlitz.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Spencertown	-	A tree was reported down on the northbound lane of the Taconic State Parkway near Ghent.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Spencertown	-	Multiple trees were reported down in the town of Austerlitz including on Route 203 near Dugway Road and Beale Road.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Spencertown	-	A tree was downed across Dugway Road.

Every storm recorded in Columbia County

Maps showing this location

10 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1903 USGS Kinderhook quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1933 USGS Kinderhook quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1949 USGS Kinderhook quadrangle1:62500
1953 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Pittsfield quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Spencertown Academy	0.1 miles	1973
Spencertown Historic District	0.2 miles	2018
Pratt Homestead	0.4 miles	2009
Daniel and Clarissa Baldwin House	0.5 miles	2012
The Red Rock Monument	3.2 miles	2025
Blinn-Pulver Farmhouse	3.5 miles	2003

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 02000821 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Columbia County	All 155 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.