First Reformed Church of Schenectady

First Reformed Church of Schenectady is located at 8 North Church Street in the Historic Stockade District of Schenectady, New York and is a member of the Reformed Church in America. The church was first organized in 1680 by Dutch settlers and was the first church established in the Mohawk Valley. The church, along with the Stockade District were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and again with a boundary increase in 1984 .

The first Dutch Reformed church in Schenectady was built about 1682 on the public square of the stockade at what is now known as the intersection of State, Church, and Railroad Streets. The church building was destroyed by fire during the Schenectady Massacre on the night of February 8, 1690. An Indian war party from Montreal killed sixty villagers including the church minister, Dominie Petrus Tessemacher . Domine Tessemacher was called to Schenectady from the church at Bergen, New Netherland, and was the first minister in the denomination to have been ordained in the new world.

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