File:Leon Historical Society Museum - fmr Leon United Methodist Church - Leon, New York - 20220802.jpg

English: Leon Historical Society Museum, 12264 Cherry Creek Hill Road at U.S. 62, Leon, New York, August 2022. One of 36 properties in Cattaraugus County on the National Register of Historic Places as of this writing, this handsome wooden structure was built in 1836 as a typical example of the vernacular Greek Revival-influenced church architecture that was then popular in America's rural western hinterlands, and though traces of its original design remain evident (these include the symmetry and rather squat dimensions of the three-bay façade, the raking cornice and dentil row underneath the eaves of the front-gabled roof, and the Doric pilasters and narrow sidelights framing the entrance), a substantial expansion twenty-two years later brought elements of the Gothic Revival into the mix. Note the interesting way in which the architect expresses Gothicism without the use of the tall, needlelike spire and pointed arches normally intrinsic to the style; instead, vertical board-and-batten siding and ornamental buttresses on the side elevation carry the aesthetic forward. Leon Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1835, and its numbers were bolstered five years later due the dissolution of the local Reformed Methodist Church after a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the latter church's pastor to merge with a local Wesleyan congregation. The church remained in existence until 1991, when dwindling membership compelled it to merge with the Methodist church in the neighboring town of Cherry Creek. Since then, the building has been owned by the local historical society.