Praised Be: Exceptional Religious Architecture in the Hamptons

In its monolithic-like stance and with its battered walls and tall window spaces, Sag Harbor's First Presbyterian Church is supposed to call to mind the form of a temple along the Nile. Some say this edifice is the finest example of the Egyptian Revival style in the whole country.

 Built in in 1844 and designed by Minard Lafever, First Presbyterian is also known as the Whalers Church, and its wooden roof-line ornaments shaped like blubber spades attest to Sag Harbor's long-gone heyday as whaling center.

Completed in 1987 and designed by Norman Jaffe, the synagogue known as Gates of the Groves extends from the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton.

 Jaffe (1932–1993) drew inspiration from the 18th-century wooden synagogues of Eastern Europe for a design that incorporates plain cedar shingles, the area's traditional building material since the 1600s.

East Hampton's Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church dates from 1894.

This Victorian-era frame church has  East Hampton's largest Christian congregation, once including Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie. Most Holy Trinity Cemetery, a few miles away, is the burial ground for the paternal ancestors and relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, including her Aunt Big Edie, who died in 1977.

To look at Mrs. Beale's gravestone, visit: Some Celebrity Graves I've Visited

To look at more ecclesiastical architecture, visit: Mid-Century Manhattan Churches