Podium begins new life
Refurbished by students from local program
TROY, N.Y. » After spending 100 years as a pulpit at a historic church, a fine piece of woodcraft will now serve as the city’s official podium.
Tuesday was the official unveiling of the new podium, gifted to the city by the First United Presbyterian Church after being refurbished by students involved with CEO YouthBuild.
“This is a new and refurbished podium,” said Mayor Patrick Madden “It has a long history as a lectern at the First United Presbyterian Church, and it’s now being repurposed as a podium to be used at City Hall after a little bit of a facelift and renovation by the YouthBuild program.”
Madden said it was gifted to the Presbyterians in 1901 by the Robert Cluett King’s Daughters, “... an organization about which we know very little,” said Madden. “We’re grateful to the YouthBuild program for the tender love and care they put in to upgrade it and make it a viable, useful piece of furniture we hope will last another 100 years.”
Founded the same year as the city of Troy, the church has long felt it and the city had a connection, said Reverend Gusti Newquist, who was asked to be its pastor four years ago by the congregation.
Newquist said the church has been re- evaluating it- self over the past few years, thinking about how it can better be “the hands and feet of Christ.”
The church has a number of historical items that have fallen into disuse, the pulpit among them. Improving meant letting go of a few things.
“The pulpit was a hard one, I’ll say… I felt the need to step out from behind the pulpit and get down on the floor with the people…,” she said.
The congregation felt the best use of the old pulpit was to give it a makeover and present it to the city.
Jim Gardner, academic educator at YouthBuild, said the project was perfect for the students.
“When I saw this it took my breath away… it was more than 100 years old,” he said. “The artistry you see on it, you could not replace, there’s just no way.”
Students recreated the parts that needed replacing, learning about woodworking as they went.
“We learned so much when we were doing this,” he said.
The seal on the front of the podium was made by Kevin Kennedy, a local woodworker.