Burdett
Presbyterian Church

Brief Church History

   Burdett Presbyterian Church traces its history to February 14^th, 1826.  A Committee of the Presbytery of Geneva organized the church with 18 members from Hector, Trumansburg and Owego.  Work on the 38-foot by 48-foot church building began the following year, on land along Church Street, owned by Abel Hall.  Funds ran out before work on the church bell tower was finished.  The arrival of Rev. Joseph K. Ware in January, 1838, brought new life to the struggling church. $600 was quickly raised to finish the tower with leftover money to go toward the purchase of a bell.

     In the spring of 1838 church trustees authorized Minor Leonard to purchase a bell for the recently-finished tower.  Leonard journeyed to New York City and bought a bell that traveled up the Hudson River, along the Eire Canal to the Seneca River and down Seneca Lake to Board Point, Now Glen Eldridge. There the 650-pound bell was loaded aboard a wagon and drawn up the hill to the church by oxen.  The bell was cast in 1788 for a convent in Malaga, Spain, a grape-growing region along the Mediterranean Sea.  It remained there for 50 years before it was included in the shipment of bells sent to America.  It’s possible the bell was removed from the convent during the Carlist insurrection of 1834-1836. 

     The church continued to grow and by 1844 it became necessary to construct a 16-foot addition to the north end of the building.  In 1873, members decided on repairs and renovations to the building.  They raised over $2,700 in just one week and the work was completed in March, 1874. A pipe organ was added between 1880 and 1888.  

     An 1893 storm blew the spire off the church.  Repairs weren’t completed until 7 years later, when members raised $2,000.  In recent years, member have installed a new boiler, updated the church kitchen and Fellowship hall and installed handicapped accessible restrooms.

     Efforts to raise funds needed to restore two stained glass foyer windows continue. The windows were given by Emma M. Potts and Mary A. Paddock in 1901.