Walden Jam-e-Masjid facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Walden Jam-e-Masjid |
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North elevation and west profile, 2008
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Islam |
| Location | |
| Location | Walden, NY |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural style | Victorian Gothic |
| General contractor | N/A |
| Groundbreaking | 1893 |
| Completed | 1893 |
| Specifications | |
| Direction of façade | north |
| Length | 90 feet (27 m) |
| Width | 60 feet (18 m) |
| Height (max) | 100 ft (30 m) |
| Materials | Stone, brick, asphalt, wood |
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| Added to NRHP | February 28, 2008 |
| NRHP Reference no. | 08000103 |
| Website | |
| ["https://darulquranwassunnah.org/"/ Darul Quran Wassunah] | |
The Walden Jam-e-Masjid is a mosque located in Walden, New York. It used to be known as the Historic Walden United Methodist Church. In 2013, the church stopped using the building for worship. It was sold in 2014. A Muslim group bought the building in 2022 and turned it into a mosque.
This historic building was built in the late 1800s. It was made for a church group that started in 1817. The building mainly shows the Victorian Gothic architectural style. It also has parts of other styles from that time, like Romanesque Revival. The inside of the building is very fancy. It was first designed using the Akron Plan. This plan showed new ideas about how church interiors should look back then.
The building is still mostly the same as it was when it was built. It even includes parts of an older church from 1840 that was on the same spot. In the early 1900s, a house for the pastor, called a parsonage, was built next door. Other buildings were added later in the century. The church group decided to move because the building was very expensive to keep up. In 2008, the historic building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it is an important historical site.
Contents
About the Building
The mosque is located on the corner of West Main and Pine streets. This is on the west side of downtown Walden. Another historic church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, is on the opposite corner of the same block. The land gently slopes down towards the Wallkill River. The mosque's main tower is very tall. You can see it clearly from the west, making it a key part of the village skyline.
There are three buildings on the property. These include the mosque, the old parsonage next to it, and a rental house. All these buildings face West Main Street. Behind them is a parking lot with an entrance on Pine Street. There is also a fenced-in playground. In front of the buildings, there is a small lawn. It slopes down to the sidewalk and has a large tree and bushes.
Outside Look
The mosque's outside walls are made of dark red brick. It has a black asphalt roof. Rough bluestone is used for some parts of the walls. The building has three main parts. These are a fellowship hall on the east, a central bell tower, and the main worship area on the west. The front of the building has a three-bay gabled roof.
The front has tall Gothic arched windows. The middle window is larger than the ones on the sides. They have bluestone sills and special keystones. Above them, in the top part of the roof, are two smaller windows. These are set off by a brick design.
At the northeast corner, there is a tower. Six stone steps and a railing lead to its entrance. This door has two batten doors in a Gothic arch. Above the door, there is a stained glass window and a small diamond-shaped window. Fancy corbeling decoration is at the roofline. This leads to a pyramid-shaped roof with a pointed top.
The main bell tower has three levels. Its ground floor has a Gothic door. This door is similar to the northeast tower's door but larger. On each side of the door are strong corner buttresses. These rise to a bluestone line that marks the second level. This line also acts as the sill for three small windows. The third level holds the bell. It has large arched openings with louvers. These openings rise from another stone line. Above the decorated roofline, an eight-sided spire rises. It is topped by a cross and has four small pyramids at its corners. The spire reaches 100 feet (30 meters) high.
The worship area has a steeply pitched gabled section. This part sticks out from the main building. The walls of this section have large windows. These are like the ones on the fellowship hall. The side windows are divided into two smaller arched windows. Two small windows are in the top part of the gable. On the far west side, there is another entrance. This is a projecting gabled vestibule with similar doors. It leads to a white wooden wheelchair ramp.
The east side of the building has five tall, square-headed windows. They have bluestone trim. On the southeast, there is a gabled section used for an office. The west side has three gables, with the middle one being the largest. It has three arched windows. The side gables have small diamond-shaped windows at their tops. In the center gable, there are two smaller windows. This section also has a chimney built into the wall. It is covered in a tan-colored material. On the southwest, there is a small brick classroom addition. It has a flat roof and windows that are now filled with modern aluminum windows.
At the back of the building are two bays of the classroom addition. There is also a bricked-in window on another gabled part. Seven arched windows are in the choir area, with one also bricked in. There is a small shed-roofed part between the south wall and the west addition. Two more windows are on the second story.
Inside Look
The tower entrance leads into a small room called a vestibule. This room goes directly into the worship area. The pews are made of oak and have curved armrests. They also have racks for hymnals. The pews are arranged in a half-circle around a raised platform and an organ. Doors on the south side lead to two classrooms.
The walls are made of plaster and have wood paneling at the bottom. This wood is lighter than the railing at the top. The walls go up to vaulted ceilings. These ceilings are made of dark-stained wood boards. They have decorative wood ribs and designs where the vaults meet. Flat areas between the roof and ceiling have a plaster cornice. Round columns with decorative tops support the roof.
On the east side, a similar vestibule connects to the main one. It has a hallway and stairs. This leads into the fellowship room. This room is decorated similarly but is simpler. Its ceiling is covered with acoustic tiles. The windows in this room have flat molding. This shows they are from the older church building from the 1840s. Four of these are stained glass windows. Two show figures, while the other two show architectural designs.
The other rooms are decorated more simply, in modern styles. The basement floors are made of flagstone. The walls are painted cinderblock.
Building Style
The mosque's original design followed the Lewis Miller's Akron Plan. In this plan, the Sunday school and worship areas were next to each other. Sliding walls could open or close the space between them. This allowed the worship area to expand for large crowds. However, this flexible design was changed by the early 1920s. Fixed walls were put in, making the room sizes permanent.
Another feature of the building that shows its age is the auditorium-style worship space. The pews are arranged in a half-circle around the raised platform. This was a popular way to make the best use of the worship space. It allowed everyone to see clearly. The only part of this plan that the former Walden Methodist Church did not have was a sloped floor.
The outside of the building is a mix of styles. This was common in the late 1800s. It moved away from the very strict rules of earlier Gothic Revival styles. The Victorian Gothic style is seen in the tall, pointed windows and the steep roofs and towers. The stone lines among the red brick and the subtle use of different colors are also typical of High Victorian Gothic. This shows the influence of John Ruskin's ideas and the Venetian Gothic style. However, the decoration on the towers suggests a Romanesque Revival influence. The top part of the fellowship hall's gable also looks like Richardsonian Romanesque.
Inside, the rich decoration was meant to make the worship service feel more special. The stained glass windows fill the hall with soft, natural light. Electric lights hanging from the ceiling add more light. The most important part of the interior is the detailed vaulted ceiling. All these features show a time when Protestant churches were moving away from very plain interiors. They wanted to create a more welcoming atmosphere for worship.
History of the Building
Early Days
The first Methodist meetings in Walden, then called Walden's Mills, began around 1817. At first, people went to services led by a traveling preacher. They met in a local tavern's ballroom. Later, they used a schoolhouse on what is now Ulster Avenue (NY 208).
By 1850, the church group decided they needed their own building. A committee was formed to make this happen. They bought the old Scotch Covenanter Society church for $1,000. This church was built on the current site in 1840. The building was made larger in 1870. This was to keep up with the church's steady growth in the late 1800s.
As the century continued, the village grew and became more successful. So did the church. In the late 1880s, members started talking about building a new church. There were over 350 members and almost as many children in Sunday school each week. Under a new pastor, The Rev. J.M. Cornish, these plans became more clear.
A fundraising effort brought the church $11,000. It is not known who designed the building. The main builder, Edwin McWilliams, started construction in the spring of 1893. A special ceremony to lay the cornerstone happened in August of that year. The old church building was moved to the east. It was then covered in brick to become the new church's Sunday school.
Changes Over Time
The first big change to the building happened in 1906. Four stained glass windows were added to the east side of the fellowship hall. In 1911, the parsonage (pastor's house) was built next to the church on the west side. This house is a two-and-a-half-story home in the Queen Anne Style. It has since been covered in vinyl siding. Because of this, it is not considered part of the historic listing.
Before the 1920s, the flexible walls of the Akron Plan interior were removed. Fixed walls were put in instead. To make up for this, a classroom wing was added to the southwest corner in 1933. In 1952, another small office building was added to the southeast.
Later in the 1960s, a big construction project dug out a new basement. More rooms were added underground. In the 1990s and 2000s, wheelchair ramps were added to the building.
Sale and New Purpose
The costs to maintain the building were still very high. In 2007, church members voted to look into moving to a new location. They wanted to build a new church there. They said the building needed $2 million in repairs. Also, one-third of the church's yearly budget went to running and maintaining the building. This meant only a small part of donations could be used for church activities.
Some members disagreed. They felt the building could be saved. They also pointed out that only 95 out of 344 eligible members voted. They thought those who were not there should have been allowed to vote too.
In November 2022, Darul Quran WasSunnah bought the building. This is a non-profit Islamic group. They changed the building into a mosque.
See also
