by David Flint
Fire of undetermined origin pretty much destroyed the old United Methodist Church in Brainard early Wednesday morning. Mary Morris, who lives across Route 20 from the Church, said she heard her dog barking sometime around midnight and wondered why. Later she heard more commotion outside and when she went out to see what was going on she was horrified to see flames shooting out the side windows of the Church.
She watched the terrible scene for over two hours as volunteer firefighters from the Tsatsawassa Fire Company as well as others from Hoags Corners, New Lebanon, East Greenbush, Averill Park, Chatham and Niverville fought the fire. The Stephentown Fire Department reported that they were on standby status during the blaze. The volunteer firefighters did a wonderful job, Morris said, and fortunately no one was hurt.
According to Morris, the congregation had become so small that they could no longer afford to keep going, so they closed the Church just last May. Morris was not a member of the congregation but said, “I loved that church. It’s so sad.” She said she would miss the church bell ringing every Sunday at 9 am.
Trig Tomlinson, Pastor of the West Stephentown Baptist Church and member of the Hoags Corners Fire Department, praised the Tsatsawassa company for their initial attack of the fire. He also said that the arrival of the East Greenbush Fire Department with their aerial ladder was a godsend that enabled firefighters to attack the fire in the roof and prevent the belfry with its huge bell from exploding into flames.
The Nassau Town Supervisor David Fleming, Jr. said, “For more than 150 years the residents of Nassau have had the good fortune of possessing a historic gem and a heartbeat of the community in the form of the United Methodist Church in Brainard, Town of Nassau. Last night we lost this important historic structure to a devastating fire. Today we lost not just a building but a piece of our shared history.”
According to the 1897 Landmarks of Rensselaer County by George Baker Anderson, Brainard, in the southeastern corner of the town of Nassau, now part of the village of East Nassau, “was named in honor of Joseph Brainard who built a bridge over the Kinderhook creek at that point. In 1839 the Methodists of Brainard organized a church society and erected a house of worship, the site being donated to the society by Seth Hastings. In 1875 a new church was erected.”
The sign outside the church reads, “Brainard United Methodist Church – God Bless You – 1839 – 2010.”
