Church History

The church was organized in 1757 by 19 Dutch colonists who farmed the land around the Fishkill Creek. The first structure, built in 1764, was torn down in 1833, and it was replaced by the current building.

We are a community church that’s part of the Reformed Church of America. Many people in our congregation come from a range of Christian traditions.

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Church Timeline

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1738 Dutch Pulpit Bible, possibly HRC’s first Bible

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Title page, 1736 Dutch Bible

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1736 Dutch Bible. Illustrations typical of early Bibles
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1736 Dutch Bible. First page of Genesis.

Reformed Church in America

The Reformed branch of Protestantism is rooted in the Reformation of the 1500s. Its primary leader was John Calvin of Switzerland, whose reform movement spread to Scotland, where it became the Presbyterian Church, and the Netherlands, where it became the Dutch Reformed Church.

In the 1600s and 1700s, Dutch immigrants brought their faith with them to the Hudson Valley. By 1800, the church’s Dutch beginnings were quickly shifting from an everyday reality to a remembered heritage as Dutch-language worship began to fade. The church, incorporated in the United States in 1819 as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, changed its name in 1867 to the Reformed Church in America.

The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to  follow Jesus Christ in mission in the world.