The front lawn leading to Union Presbyterian Church on Balmville Road.
By Mary McTamaney
My 99 year-old aunt has told me about participating in Newburgh’s “living nativity” when she was young. Led by the Newburgh Civic Theater club and using additional local talent volunteered by churches and schools, Newburghers dressed in simple costumes and took turns during the nights just before Christmas standing very still and solemn as they portrayed the characters in the traditional manger scene of the birth of Jesus.
They stood outdoors where passersby would see them and stop to reflect on the miracle of Christmas. Participants played the roles of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and wise men. Baby Jesus was a doll, dressed for the role.
Around the roughly constructed shelter filled with straw were live animal participants too. Local farmers came with a goat or calf or sheep and coaxed their animals to stand still for a time so the manger scene looked authentic.
One early place where the tableaux was held was the front lawn of Saint George’s Church. Then as the 1940’s transitioned into the 1950’s, the Civic Theater secured the use of Leroy Park, now the site of the Orange County Veterans Memorial. That is where my aunt “performed” dressed as a shepherd but with thick woolen underwear and big boots beneath her robes.
It must have been a lovely community-building event as families walked their children over to watch before their bedtimes. Holiday carols were sung too, by a rotation of small church choir groups. Depending on the number of volunteers recruited for the event, a shift acting in the tableaux could be 30 or 60 minutes.
There must have been lots of hot tea and chocolate brewed in Newburgh homes on tableaux nights so the actors as well as the audience could warm back up.
This coming Sunday, December 17, will be a chance to see an old-fashioned living nativity again. Out at 44 Balmville Road, the Union Presbyterian Church will host such a scene on its front lawn, in the big oval that leads to its entrance. Between 4 and 7 p.m., Union Church is holding a holiday festival inside and outside of its big 1908 sanctuary.
A $10 contribution per family is suggested for the full event. In addition to a nativity tableaux outside, the congregation has their doors open to a variety of holiday treats. There will be carols sung in the ballroom, holiday stories told by the parlor fireplace and, in the music room, there will be a large model train set created by the Olde Newburgh Model Railroad Club chugging around the big room filled with the light of its stained glass windows.
Union Presbyterian Church moved into the mansion on Balmville Road in 1957 when it sold its larger church on the corner of First and Montgomery Streets to the growing congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church, who still occupy that 1870 building. The mansion in Balmville had been built by John Aspinwall in 1908 after he had established himself in Newburgh, first as managing director of Coldwell Lawnmower Company and then as the founder of the Fabrikoid Company.
Fabrikoid quickly became the world’s largest producer of artificial leathers in its plant up on South Street along the Quassaick Creek. Coating canvas with a mixture of nitrocellulose dissolved in castor oil, alcohol and benzine, Aspinwall was able to create a product that looked like leather but was resistant to wear and weather. The artificial leather could be fabricated in a variety of colors and in whatever length was desired for any application. The timing was perfect, as automobiles were gaining popularity and every manufacturer liked the cost and durability of the new synthetic leather for car seats and tops.
John Aspinwall’s success in his Fabrikoid venture in Newburgh brought him the wealth to build the 28-room family home in the Town of Newburgh (which he called “Dunwovin”) that is now Union Presbyterian Church.
On Sunday afternoon, December 17, the congregation is offering our community the chance to see its beauty and enjoy some old-fashioned holiday moments of the type my aunt and all our family have described as common in Newburgh’s past.