[2] Constructed in 1888 according to designs by architect William Appleton Potter, the Shingle style community church was the result of efforts to establish a permanent place of worship for Tuxedo's predominantly Episcopalian residents.

[3] The church's interior features the work of architect Bertram Goodhue and sculptor Lee Lawrie, which accompanies the many examples of late 19th- and early 20th-century stained glass produced by prominent artists, including Louis Comfort Tiffany and John La Farge.

The lives of several people associated with Tuxedo Park are memorialized within the church, while the St. Mary's cemetery is the final resting place for several noted figures of the American Gilded Age.

The brother-in-law of Tuxedo Park founder Pierre Lorillard IV, Henry Isaac Barbey, offered to arrange for the construction of a village church in 1887.

[10] Founding vestry members included Grenville Kane, co-founder of the Park and a director of Northern Pacific Railway and the New York Public Library,[11][12] James Brown Potter, the Brown Brothers merchant banker married to actress Cora Urquhart who reputedly introduced the tuxedo to America,[5][13] and James L. Breese, an accomplished amateur photographer and owner of "The Orchard".[14][15]St.

[16] When the Reverend George Merrill returned to Tuxedo from Newport after his marriage to Ms. Pauline Dresser in December 1897, his daughter relayed that "the entire village met them at the train with great flaming lanterns and led them to the church through the snow singing 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.

The Cuttings, the Alexanders, and the Gibsons, had yellow basket victorias with big fawn-colored parasol tops suspended over the heads of the family by curved metal rods.

Beside the coachman sat a small groom or tiger, with folded arms, attired in a livery coat and tight doeskin breeches, a cockaded high hat on his head, and a serious expression on his face.

[34] During the 1920s the church continued to play a major role in the community, serving as the initial meeting place for local chapters of the American Legion, Freemasons, and Order of the Eastern Star.

[41] Several parishioners soon defected to nearby St. Elizabeth's in Eagle Valley, having found themselves unaccustomed to the high church style of the new rector, the Reverend Leon Cartmell.

The "lean years" soon drew to a close however with the end of World War II, with the relocation of young families to the suburbs rejuvenating a stagnated church life.

[42] The Reverend Fenimore Cooper made further efforts to encourage participation in church life, forming several guilds for ushers, acolytes and lay readers.

[53] By 1973 a new 3-manual, 35-stop Austin organ (Opus 2557) was installed at St. Mary's;[54] the organist for the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, Mr. Charles D. Walker, was invited to play a special inaugural concert.

[55] The serial entrepreneur and Tuxedo Park resident Hazard Reeves was inspired to found what was "said to be the world's first computerized multi-catalogue shopping system", Catalogia,[56] after struggling to find a bell chime timing device for St.

[62] In 1974, Bishop of New York Paul Moore Jr. visited St. Mary's to install board members for a local conference of Episcopal churches known as the Southern Orange Community.

[64] Recent years have seen efforts to restore several of the church's stained glass windows and the establishment of a building preservation fund to aid repairs and ongoing maintenance.

[26][73] The then-Superintendent of the United States Military Academy Douglas MacArthur was invited to speak at two Memorial Day services held on the church lawn in the early 1920s,[65][74][35] around the same time that he met his future wife Louise Cromwell Brooks at a party in Tuxedo.

[75][76] The then-Bishop of Rhode Island James DeWolf Perry presided over the wedding of Louise King and Kenneth Shaw Safe at St. Mary's on April 24, 1926; guests included Henry Francis du Pont and Frederic Augustus Juilliard.

The once-youngest American ambassador in history and Chief of Protocol of the United States Angier B. Duke was married to Priscilla Avenal St. George at a St. Mary's ceremony on January 2, 1937; also in attendance was the banker and Tuxedo resident Charles E.

[78] Funeral services for Adele S. Colgate, noted dog show judge, collector of Currier and Ives prints, and heir to the Colgate-Palmolive fortune, were held at St. Mary's on May 5, 1962.

[90] A major aesthetic alteration occurred in 1922, when Isabelle Weart Giles arranged to have the church's sanctuary redesigned by the noted Gothic Revivalist architect Bertram Goodhue in honor of her late husband, Henry Morgan Tilford.

[91] An altar dedicated to St. Mark was installed at the foot of the western aisle in 1955, located in front of the since-replaced Hutchings-Votey organ given in honor of U.S. Representative and Tuxedo resident John Murray Mitchell.

"[99][44][100] Completed in 1941, the Bishop of New York William Thomas Manning, dedicated the chapel to the late spouses of banker and Tuxedo resident Richard Delafield.

[100] These include an Italian marble hearthstone taken from Mortimer's since-demolished home "Mortemar" that now serves as the chapel's altar[102] and multiple stained glass fragments that date from possibly as early as the 15th century, at least some of which were taken from the Tilford House.

[44] St. Mary's is home to an array of stained glass produced by several leading American studios around the turn of the 20th century,[104][105][106] including works by Louis Comfort Tiffany,[107][108] Charles Lamb, John La Farge, Walter Janes and Henry Wynd Young.