Commentary: 'Busco Church on the Brink

Feb. 25—The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, originally St. Philomena's and St. Bridget's Church in Churubusco, was built in 1888 and was closed, citing lack of priests, in 2010 by the Diocese of Ogdensburg.

Churubusco Heritage Preservation (CHP) — a grassroots coalition of former parishioners, historians, preservationists and residents — are trying to halt further cannibalization, or even rumored destruction, of the National Register of Historic Places eligible church built by master mason/builder Isaac Johnson and features 12 stained-glass windows of Long Island opalescent glass and ecclesiastic murals by Angelo Gabiele Metallo.

The Gothic Revival church is the most significant architectural landmark extant in Churubusco. CHP wants to keep it intact, especially its aforementioned stained-glass windows and Metallo murals, and restore it as a community center/museum.

CHP wants the Town of Clinton to use some of its interest income to cover insurance and utilities expenses until the group, with the assistance and support of the Adirondack Architectural Heritage and Clinton County Historical Association, secure state/federal grants for renovations/conversion to get the community center/museum operational.

CHP leader Chris Todoruk, a Canadian and longtime Churubusco summer resident, is positive that if the Town of Clinton would step up and assume ownership, (The Diocese of Ogdensburg expressed concerns about a bar or brothel future with private ownership) the group could launch the church's restoration/conversion, get it listed on the National Historic Register, and attract tourists to view the beautiful edifice while offering locals a place to gather as in days gone by. Sound good, right?

The impasse is canon law, as explained to Todoruk by different priests and diocesan staff. All sacred objects must be removed from the edifice or destroyed as decreed by the Vatican.

There are former Catholic churches with windows and interiors intact, but the Vatican changed its position, Todoruk was told.

She can keep climbing the Catholic Church hierarchy to Pope Francis to seek an exemption and keep trying to convince the Town of Clinton to get proactive.

The town can seek guidance from New York's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), which helps communities identify, evaluate, preserve, and revitalize their historic, archaeological, and cultural resources.

A timely ally is the New York State Commission on African American History, which "serves to highlight contributions by Africans and African Americans to our country and to New York State. The Commission will partner with community-based organizations to bring New Yorkers together through events, cultural programming, scholarly research, and other activities that promote a greater understanding of the history and achievements of African Americans throughout the State."

The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church is a microcosm of American and world history starting with the Rev. Jeremiah Patrick Murphy, who traveled to Ireland and saw a church with a unique architectural configuration that he used in his church, one of only four such designs in the world.

Historically, IHM intersects the trans-Atlantic slave trade, chattel slavery, resistance and freedom as embodied by Johnson, who escaped Kentucky slavery and fought in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War; cross-border immigration of French-Canadians and Irish parishioners; and Ellis Island immigration by Metallo, who arrived in New York City from Naples in 1899.

"The Churubusco Heritage Hub" (CHH) could preserve, interpret and present all of these historical threads while serving as a venue for locals to gather and celebrate life's milestones. The hub can also be an educational asset for school field trips as well as offer artisan and trades instruction.

The hub can be a tourism destination for those trekking on the "Isaac Johnson Trail" that links with his other associated buildings such as Town Hall in Waddington, which is on the National Register for Historic Places, and Chamberlain's Corners arched stone bridge, Waddington Presbyterian Church, and Ogdensburg Insane Asylum.

The Isaac Johnson Trail has international stature with related sites in Ontario, Canada, including Winchester United Church and St. James Anglican Church in Morrisburg.

Tourists and locals alike could also follow the "Angelo Metallo Trail" from St. Philomena's/Immaculate Heart of Mary in Churubusco, St. Patrick's in Rouses Point, Church of the Assumption in Gabriels, Notre Dame in Ogdensburg, and St. Patrick's Church in Rossie. An intrastate trail could connect with Metallo's work throughout New England.

The cultural and heritage tourism possibilities are endless, for example, sister cities of Churubusco and Calitri, Metallo's hometown.

Select programming could get CHH listed as a site on the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, which would make it eligible for federal funding.

In March 2022, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer's office awarded a $200,000 grant from the Congressionally Directed Community Project Funding to Sag Harbor Cinema & the Plain Sight Project to identify enslaved persons and free blacks from the 1600s to the mid-19th century on the East End of Long Island.

Johnson's compelling history is well worth preserving, as well as his wife's, Louisa Theodocia Allen, a Fort Covington native, whose ancestral lineage may be as revelatory as his maternal Madagascar and paternal Irish roots.

CHH could be a state-federal hybrid like the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

The John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid was purchased by concerned citizens who sought to preserve it before the State of New York eventually took it over.

Maybe the State can take on CHH.

Other than the John Brown Farm and ORDA in Essex County, the State doesn't operate any other cultural assets in our neck of the woods.

Maybe it's time the State did.

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell