Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Decline of Old West

In the early 19th century Christ Church – Brownsville rose to prominence in the area and Immanuel Church began to wane. In 1796 "Old West" was serving about 200 people. By 1820, though, the building was rarely being used. In 1825, when Bishop William White made his first and only visit to the Western half of the Diocese of Pennsylvania he consecrated Christ Church in Brownsville, but did not find it necessary to visit Old West at all.

For nearly forty years Immanuel Church struggled for existence. It was served occasionally by Rectors from Brownsville, but never had its own full-time clergy. In 1828 it did have its first Episcopal visitation by The Rt. Rev. Henry Onderdonk. In the 1830's Old West, now being called St. Peter's and sometimes St. Paul's, seems to have experienced moderate growth under the direction of the Rev. Lyman Freeman of Christ Church. Bishop Onderdonk visited several more times, and services were being held every two weeks. By 1839, however, Rev. Freeman was personally paying for the upkeep of the building and most of the communicants had fallen away.

In 1862 a permanent missionary, the Rev. William Pray TenBroeck, was assigned to serve in Monongahela and Old West was also placed under his charge. Rev. TenBroeck made an effort to hold services there but soon reported that attendance was so sparse that it did not warrant the travel from Monongahela. For the next ten years clergy from St. Paul's would periodically attempt to revive Old West with little success. By 1872 there were only two families worshiping there, the Wests (after whom the church was called “old West”) and the Crows. Members of both families became important leaders at St. Paul’s. The Rev. John Norman claims to have been preaching at Old West into the 1880's, but eventually whatever congregation was there was simply absorbed into St. Paul's Monongahela.

Some efforts were made to preserve the site in the early twentieth century, by Norman and others, but eventually the church building collapsed and the site fell into disrepair. In 1957 The Rev. Canon Joseph Wittkofski, rector of St. Mary's Charleroi, revived interest in Old West. Since then the site, including much of the original cemetery, an altar and outdoor worship space, a bell tower, and a period log structure, have been very nicely maintained by St. Mary's.

Old West sits just off of Route 481 near the village of Lover, about eight miles from Monongahela.




Click here for directions from St. Paul's to "Old West".


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