Horseneck Chapel

In colonial times, the center of Greenwich was known as “Horseneck.” The local Anglicans built the Horseneck Chapel in 1747-49 on the brow of the Great Hill (later Put’s Hill).  The chapel served as a mission of St. John’s Church, Stamford, itself originally a mission of Christ’s Church, Rye.  The rector of St. John’s, the Rev. Ebenezer Dibble, conducted services in the Horseneck Chapel, and Fr. Dibble reported in a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that the chapel was 36 feet long, 25 feet wide, and that it was “glazed” – that is, it had glass windows – rather a luxury in the Colonies.  (A half-section of one of the original wooden front doors of the Horseneck Chapel is on display in a vitrine outside the Family Room in the current Christ Church building.)

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts published an annual compendium of abstracts of recent reports submitted by its far-flung missionaries.  The 1764 annual included the following summary of a 1762 letter from the Rev. Ebenezer Dibble:

His Chapel of Ease at Horseneck, where he attends Divine Service the Second Sunday in each month, is often much crowded; and he hopes his extraordinary Duty at Greenwich, where he attends an Evening Service and [preaches] every Sunday, except for Communion Days, may be of singular service, since both Church People and Dissenters [non-Anglicans] give devout Attendance… At Mr. Dibblee’s [sic] request, the Society have given a Bible and a Common Prayer Book for the use of his Chapel at Horseneck.

These two volumes have remained in the parish of Christ Church, and they may be seen on display in the broad corridor between the present sanctuary and the chaple.