EMERSON—The first church in Emerson held its inaugural service 125 years ago this week.
At the time, the village, which was part of the Township of Washington, had about 450 residents. There was a railroad station, hotel, and general store, but no school and no church. The people attended religious services in other towns, and the children went to the Old Hook Road school in Westwood.
A generation earlier the area was known as Kinderkamack, an isolated rural settlement where nearly everyone farmed. When the railroad came through in 1870, land developers trying to market properties to New Yorkers believed the long, old-fashioned name was throwing off potential buyers. It was dropped in favor of the more streamlined and modern Etna.
Thus, when the first church in the village was built in 1900, it was known as the Union Chapel of Etna.
The organization had its origins in 1897, when a few Etna residents decided to begin a Sunday school. What started as a small gathering of students meeting at a private home developed into the idea to build a church.
The group drew up plans for the construction of a church on Linwood Avenue. A far cry from the busy thoroughfare it is today, Linwood in the 1890s was a humble dirt track culminating in a mud hole where it met Kinderkamack Road. As the church took shape on this rural byway, congregants found a temporary meeting space at Block’s Hall (now the Emerson Hotel, a restaurant).
The first service in the new chapel took place 125 years ago this week, on Nov. 12, 1900.
Church picnics and other events became popular among the people of Etna.
A Park Ridge Local news brief from December 1901 reports, “A Watch Night service will be held in the Etna Chapel, beginning at 10 o’clock, next Tuesday night. This will be a good opportunity to see the old year out and the new year in, in a way which will profit you.”
“The Union Sunday school picnic was held at the church today,” reads an announcement from August 1903. “A very pleasant time was enjoyed by the Etnaites, even if they were confined to the church basement [due to the weather]. Egg races, et cetera, were in vogue during the afternoon. Several of the young people complain of a peculiar feeling in the region of the belt, owing to the amount of goodies consumed at the picnic.”
In 1903, Etna broke off from the Township of Washington and became a municipality. Six years later, the name of the borough was changed to “Emerson.”
The chapel on Linwood Avenue, upgraded over the years, is still used by the congregation. Once the Union Chapel of Etna, for many years they have called themselves the Emerson Bible Church.