Real Estate

Above: St. Patrick’s Church at the corner of Barton and Church Streets gleams in the sun of early spring. Photo by Anne Day.

Millerton, the smallest village in Dutchess County, NY, with less than 1,000 people, once had four active churches – Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Baptist. Today only the First Baptist church holds regular Sunday morning services. The Methodists meet only occasionally and host the NECC Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. But demographic changes and three visionaries are reimagining the future of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and the Millerton Presbyterian church. While other houses of worship in our region have found new lives as restaurants, like Terrapin in Rhinebeck, or homes and offices, like the Presbyterian church in Amenia, these two churches will continue with a spiritual purpose.

Greychurch

Entrepreneur Alex That and Mimi Dwyer-That, his wife and business partner, were attracted to the preserved Victorian architecture, small-town appeal, and Hallmark vibe of Millerton. They offered to purchase the First Presbyterian church on Main Street after it sadly conducted its last service in January 2022, a victim of the coronavirus and dwindling membership. 

Known as the “brown church,” it was built around 1905 and, in addition to Sunday services, provided space for AA meetings, a food pantry, community dinners, and a thrift store. Listed for sale at $575,000, it took over two years for That to secure permission from the New York Supreme Court to change the building’s religious status. When he finally closed on April 25, 2025, work began immediately, and the brown church became grey with a yellow door.

Passionate about music, the Thats are building on their successful Caffeine Academy enterprise on Long Island. They have big plans to make the newly named Greychurch a “crucible for cultural activities and entertainment” and center of inspiration for the entire community. The basement where Sunday school was once held will become Caffeine Academy, a safe nurturing space for neurodivergent individuals to explore music, art, and mindfulness. Creative courses will include animation, news broadcasting, DJ classes, and movie review production.

The main sanctuary will become an event venue available for rent to host musical series, poetry readings, guest lectures, wellness workshops, and celebrations for up to 125 people. The adjacent meeting hall with its catering prep kitchen can seat 50 guests. A full calendar of curated events is under development and will include candlelight concerts, storyteller hours, and jazz.

After required permitting, Greychurch intends to open the Caffeine Academy in September with a holiday celebration planned for December. There is a positive spiritual mission in this endeavor. “My entire life I have believed in perseverance, staying optimistic, and creating my own path,” observed Alex That. “I root for the underdog, believe in people, and encourage them to rewrite history and think out of the box. At Caffeine Academy, we aim to enhance students’ quality of life through music, art, and mindfulness. Through Greychurch we hope to provide the same for the community.”

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church

The chapel of St Patrick’s is a wooden mission church built with the help of parishioners in 1864, many of them Irish immigrants who built the railroad and the Village of Millerton. Located on a residential corner of Barton Street and Church Street, the 1,900-square-foot building is surrounded by a burial ground with over 300 memorials displaying the names of familiar Millerton families – Downey, McGuire, Decker, Morrison, Mullaney, Whalen, and Lind. 

It was the gravestone of Cecilia A. Trunz at the front of the graveyard that caught the attention of Elyse Harney when she first visited the church after a casual lunchtime conversation revealed the disrepair of St. Patrick’s. She decided to investigate, and there by the entrance was the grave of  Cecilia Trunz. 

Dr. Cecilia A. Trunz, a professor of German at St. Joseph’s College for Women in Brooklyn, had been an inspiring mentor to Harney as a college student. Decades later both ended up in the vicinity of Millerton – Elyse Harney creating a power house real estate brokerage firm in Salisbury and  Dr. Trunz managing Trunian Farm at the top of Winchell Mountain. By the late 1960s Trunz had moved into the village and became its first female mayor and proponent of a sewer system. Civically very active and a committed Catholic, Dr. Trunz is credited with maintaining, renovating, and improving St. Patrick’s, including installing storm windows, central heating, air-conditioning, and a sound system.

Dr. Trunz’s prominent gravestone inspired Harney’s mission to save St. Patrick’s and reopen it to serve the religious needs of the growing Hispanic community in the Town of North East. Ten years ago the parishioners of St. Patrick’s were notified in a letter from Father Wilson in Amenia that the church would be closed after a last mass on July 26, 2015. The door was locked on August 1 and everything left in place as if the church had gone on a brief vacation. No one entered for ten years; however, the church had already sold the 2,542-square-foot parsonage in 2014 for $150,000 and the parking lot for $40,000 in 2025. 

A new life

When Harney saw the disrepair at the entrance to the church, she contacted Andrew O’Connor, the newly arrived priest in Amenia. She explained her desire to reopen the church and readiness to repair it and got the keys. When she entered St. Patrick’s everything was as it had been left ten years before – bulletins on the back table and priest’s garments folded over the chair in the sacristy. 

Harney inspected the facility with an engineer who examined the structure and mechanicals and approved it for use. With permission from the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Amenia, Harney’s crew set to work repairing the front entrance and wheelchair ramp, which that had been blocked off with yellow tape, and cleaning the interior which was just “a little dusty.” The Millerton Building Department signed off on the safety of the building. 

On St. Patrick’s Day the church opened for the first time in ten years. Word had spread, and the church was full. Father O’Connor held a trilingual mass in English, Irish, and Spanish, with the opening hymn and post communion in Spanish and prayer in Irish. 

A bagpiper from Winsted played in the cemetery in honor of St. Patrick. An Ascension Day service is planned for May 29 in the cemetery. 

In the meantime, Father O’Connor and Harney await approval from the archdiocese of New York to officially open St. Patrick’s for regular services, and the Harney family has made a financial commitment to continue upkeep on the building. “This is meant to happen,” observed Harney, “Our community has a real need. This seems like such a wonderful opportunity to show our immigrant population that they are indeed welcome.” It is also a testament to her former professor.