The First Reformed Church of Astoria was organized in 1839 by a group of Christians who had previously been meeting in the local schoolhouse since 1835. The original church, a white wood-frame structure, like many wooden churches in New York, was lost to a fire. Following the fire in 1888, a new brick house of worship was completed on the same site. The Victorian Gothic building has terra cotta and copper details, and a soaring (and ornate) octagonal tower and steeple.