Other Voices

John Arrighi lives in an historic Rensselaerville church and, as president of the Friends of Conkling Hall, is helping to improve another one, which serves as a community meeting space. Arrighi is seated on the edge of the stage at Conkling Hall. The hall, on Methodist Hill Road, was built as a church in 1839 and changed to a community center in the early 1900s. Arrighi, who was born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island, and came to Albany County to study at the University at Albany, discovered Rensselaerville when his pottery professor, Frances Simches, invited him to her workshop and home — the 1836 Baptist church he now calls home. “If someone comes to a generous giving heart through religion, that’s great,” says Arrighi in this week’s podcast. Although he is not a believer himself, he says both still-active churches in Rensselaerville play a positive role in the community. He recently made a video of the “hidden treasures” in the hall’s attic, a fascinating way to understand both the modern retrofits and the historic castoffs — from ornate plaster moldings to a pipe that brought gas to a now-electrified chandelier. The Conkling Hall volunteers have used the time of coronavirus, when the usual cake walks and chili cook-offs are impossible, to make improvements, from painting to installing Wi-Fi. Arrighi sees people sitting on a bench outside the hall to use the hotspot — a symbol of evolving uses for a community meeting place.