Around the time of the church's founding, Newburgh was a chiefly Protestant city, and had been that way for its nearly 200 year history.

With the force of the Oxford Movement, the Reformed Episcopal Church formed by Bishop George David Cummins on December 2, 1873 in opposition.

After several more meetings, they considered the formation of a Reformed Episcopal church in Newburgh and began collecting pledges and amassing support.

Cummins came to Newburgh on August 8, 1875 to preach to an interested crowd at the American Reformed Church, which the founding members had loaned for the morning.

The bishop presented his revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer and explained the new tenants of his church.

The next night, a larger crowd gathered in the church's basement to make pledges and hear Cummins speak.

Their membership application was sent to the Standing Committee of the Reformed Episcopal Church that night, organized under the general statute of the State of New York.

J. W. Fairley was his assistant, and Leacock eventually fell ill and was given a leave of absence for two years, and he resigned for good on December 2, 1883.

Many of Newburgh's Protestant churches were declining by the 1910s, as Catholic immigrants were heavily populating the city.

By 1917, the church and its congregation were "ready to sink for the last time," but it was saved by Bishop Robert Livingston Rudolph.

[6] The Best Temple Church of God in Christ was established here, but the congregation fled after Urban Renewal pushed them out in 1962.

Best assisted his community through Newburgh's post-Urban Renewal decline and descent into poverty, serving until his death in 2001.