Asbury United Methodist Church and Bethel Chapel and Cemetery

Two linked Methodist sites in Croton-on-Hudson make up this district. Bethel Chapel, built around 1790, is a one-and-a-half-story clapboard meeting house with a simple plan, heavy timber framing and a gallery on tapered wood posts. It sits at the top of a hill surrounded by a cemetery that holds roughly 5,000 graves, including at least two Revolutionary War soldiers and the author Lorraine Hansberry. Land for the chapel and burial ground is traditionally tied to Pierre Van Cortlandt, and Bishop Francis Asbury's 1795 journal mentions the chapel. As the congregation grew, it built Asbury United Methodist Church, dedicated in 1883. This brick High Victorian Gothic building has a slate polychrome roof, an engaged corner tower and a large stained glass window added in 1891. The chapel is considered a rare, well-preserved example of plain Methodist building, and the church is valued for its proportions and detailing. A former bank, a passageway and a former rectory are noncontributing.