Phillipsport Church House
New York
Phillipsport Church House is Matthew Bremer's labor of love, converting one of the oldest standing rural churches in the Hudson Valley/Catskills region, dating back to 1823, into a weekend home, then a Covid home, and now simply a home and workplace. The church was regarded as a sacred space of worship for a tightly knit rural community for nearly two centuries. It's reinvention celebrates everyday rituals of two men, two greyhounds, and many friends and family. It is the consummate home as sanctuary.
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The landscape architecture for the church house was conceived as an extension of the interior architecture - creating a series of intimate, discrete outdoor "rooms" or courtyards for dining, firepit, raised planter beds, and native plantings.
[They] repurposed many of the pews as headboards and footboards for beds, daybeds, and benches. They scoured vintage stores and flea markets... To finish it off, they collected smaller, whimsical curiosities, including an old elevator sign from Macy’s and a black-velvet Jesus painting.
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– Tim McKeogh, NY Times
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