Church of the Good Shepherd (Raquette Lake, New York)

Church and Rectory, 1900.

The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd is a church built by William West Durant in 1880 on Saint Hubert's Isle in the hamlet of Raquette Lake in the town of Long Lake, New York. Along with St. William's Roman Catholic Church (1890) on Long Point, it was built to serve the owners, guests and employees of the Great Camps Durant was building. Both churches were designed by the firm of J. Cleaveland Cady of New York City. Good Shepherd was built in the stick style and St. William's in the shingle style, both popular forms of architecture during the latter part of the 19th century. The island site was originally named Bluff Island, but was later renamed in honor of the patron saint of hunters.

The island church was the subject of many well-known photographers during the late 19th century - Seneca Ray Stoddard, William Henry Jackson and Edward Bierstadt - and painted in oils by John Whetten Ehninger in 1881, now at the Adirondack Museum. Good Shepherd was also mentioned in writings by the authors and poets Nessmuk, Seneca Ray Stoddard, the Rev. E.O. Flagg and Alfred L. Donaldson, among others.

The first treasurer of the summer chapel was John Boyd Thacher, future mayor of Albany (1886–88, 1896–97). The warden was William West Durant.

The church is open to the public the first Sunday of August annually at 3:00 pm, with free transportation from the Raquette Lake Village dock beginning at 2:00 pm. Visitors are also invited to come by canoe, guide boat and rowboat as they did more than a century ago.

External links

• Church of the Good Shepherd website
• History of St. Hubert's Isle