The Lost Adams Memorial Presbyterian Church - 207-215 E 30th Street

 

In February 1853 the newly formed congregation of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church purchased a building plot on Madison Avenue and 24th Street, overlooking Madison Square.  While its new location was one of the most fashionable in the city, not far away, near the East River, things were much less affluent.

In 1856 Rev. Dr. William Adams, pastor of the church, prompted the formation of the East Side Sunday School in the gritty neighborhood.  Originally meeting in a carpenter shop, it later moved to a building on Third Avenue between 30th and 31st Street.  Among the teachers was Theodore Roosevelt, father of the future President.

The East Side Sunday School evolved into the Memorial Chapel.  On September 15, 1874 the New York Herald reported, "The corner stone of the 'Memorial Chapel' of the Madison Square Presbyterian church, Thirtieth street, between Second and Third avenues, was laid yesterday, with appropriate exercise."  The "large number of people" heard "an address by the venerable Rev. William Adams," and "some interesting remarks by Rev. Charles Payson, who is to be the pastor of the new chapel."

Designed by J. Cleaveland Cady, the building cost $120,000 to construct, more than $2.8 million today.  It was designed in Cady's own take on Sicilian Romanesque Revival.  Faced in red brick and sparsely trimmed in stone, its uncompromisingly symmetrical design featured two tall bell towers with pyramidal roofs, and a central gabled pavilion with arched openings and a large rose window.

The chapel was dedicated on January 27, 1876.  Rev. Charles H. Payson would not lead his flock for long.  Almost a year later to the day, on January 24, 1877, he died of pneumonia.

Rev. E. A. Elmore took the pulpit until 1884, when he resigned "on account of failing health," according to the New-York Tribune.  He would not be permanently replaced for two years.

Major change to the Memorial Chapel came in 1886.  On January 22, 1886 The New York Times reported, "The Memorial Chapel of the Madison-Square Presbyterian Church was organized last evening as an independent church under the title of the Adams Memorial."  It was named in honor of the nearly legendary Rev. William Adams of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church who had died four years earlier, on August 31, 1880, of liver disease.   

A few weeks later, on March 7, the new pastor, Rev. Jesse F. Forbes, was installed.  There were 276 members within the congregation at the time.  They came from diverse ethnic backgrounds and most struggled financially.  

Rev. Forbes responded to the needs of his congregation.  The New-York Tribune explained that a feature of the Sunday School was the Home Department.  "By this department, mothers and others who cannot attend the school are supplied with books and courses for home instruction and meet occasionally for review and direction."

Children and teens were lured from the temptations of street life by the Young People's Society.  On January 27, 1888 The Evening World reported, "The Young People's Association of the Adams Memorial Presbyterian Church gave a musical and literary entertainment in the Sunday-school hall of the church last evening."  The journalist was particularly taken with one number:

The most interesting event of the evening was the 'broom drill' of the Amateur Cadets, composed of sixteen young ladies, attired in pretty cream-colored gowns, trimmed with red, and wearing caps made of the same material.  Under the captaincy of soldierly Mr. MacConnell, the young ladies performed military evolutions with the accuracy and precision of trained soldiers, considering the difficulty of handling their improvised guns.

Five months later, on May 17, another performance was staged.  The Evening World reported, "The musical and dramatic talent of the Adams Memorial Presbyterian Church, in East Thirtieth street, gave an interesting entertainment in the church last evening under the management of the Young People's Society."  The article noted, "The farce, 'The Elevator,' brought down the house."

Around 1898 a group of Armenian refugees began worshipping together in the Adams Memorial Church.  On December 26, 1900 the New-York Tribune explained that many of them "fled from their own country at the time of the Turkish massacres."   The article said, "It was lately decided that they had become strong enough to organize into an independent body, and it was resolved by them to form a congregation of their own."

The new Armenian Evangelical Church installed its pastor, Rev. Haigag H. Khazoyam, on December 30, 1900.  For decades to come the two congregations would share the East 30th Street building.

On January 27, 1906, as the Adams Memorial Presbyterian was celebrating the 30th anniversary of its building, the New-York Tribune commented on the congregation.  "As an East Side parish in a fluctuating neighborhood with an ever changing but never decreasing membership this congregation claims its chief distinction.  It is an international church, administering to members of sixteen different races."  

New-York Daily Tribune, January 27, 1906 (copyright expired)

The low-income neighborhood presented problems.  On February 13, 1908 The Sun reported that Rev. Forbes "complained to Capt. Byrnes of the East Thirty-fifth street police station last night that he is growing wearing of having windows repaired that are constantly being broken by boys of the neighborhood."  The damage was not the result of vandalism, but of stick-ball played in the street outside.  "He said that within the past week at least one hundred panes of glass in the church and neighboring houses have been shattered by boys who play ball in East Thirtieth street."

During the Great Depression the congregation pitched in to save money on repairs and decoration.   The pastor, Rev. H. S. Rambo and 40 congregants wielded paint brushes and hammers "in their spare time throughout the Summer," according to Pictorial News of the World.  The article said the volunteer work saved the church $2,400.

The end of the Adams Memorial Presbyterian Church in the building came in 1949 when it was sold to the Columbia Broadcasting System.  Named the 30th Street Studios, the building was renovated with the removal of the bell towers and the refacing of the first floor.  

(original source unknown)

According to the 2004 book Studio Stories, "The magical acoustic properties that would soon be 30th Street's trademark would not have been immediately apparent to anyone who first entered 'The Church.'"

Mitch Miller, Columbia's head of A&H at the start of the 1950s, immediately saw the enormous potential of 30th Street's palatial interior.  Once Miller and the Columbia crew had tweaked the building to perfection, Miller issued a directive strictly prohibiting any kind or physical alteration of the main studio.  Janitors weren't even allowed to wash the floors.

Some of the 20th century's most important recording artists worked here.  Bill Christine, in his 2017 They Left Their Hearts in San Francisco, said it was "where Bob Dylan and Miles Davis did some of their best work; there Leonard Bernstein burnished the score for West Side Story; where Glenn Gould recorded Goldberg Variations; where Vladimir Horowitz worked most of the time.  'I wouldn't record anywhere else,' Davis said."

Barbra Streisand recorded her The 1962 Studio Recordings album here, adding her name to artists like Tony Bennett, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra and Isaac Stern who worked in the 30th Street Studios.

And then, on January 15, 1981 The New York Times reported, "According to a CBS spokesman, the rumors that the company plans to sell its 30th Street recording studio are true...There were reports that the buyer planned to demolish the building and construct an apartment house on the location."  The article said that not only had it been used by famous musicians and vocalists, but for recording "many Broadway shows, from 'South Pacific' and 'My Fair Lady' to 'A Chorus Line' and 'Barnum.'"

Musicians like Isaac Stern, Frank Sinatra, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman threw their support behind a preservation campaign.  The New York Times added, "the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is investigating the matter."  Their efforts fell flat.

photo via cityrealty.com

The ten-story Wilshire apartment building was completed in 1985 on the site.

Many thanks to reader Ted Leather for requesting this post

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The Church of the Good Shepherd -- No. 152 West 66th Street

In 1887 development of the Upper West Side was picking up speed after the Panic of 1873 had brought construction nearly to a standstill.  Now, lured by improved transportation, new sewer lines, and street paving, developers rapidly filled blocks with rows of upscale and middle-class homes.

But not all of the Upper West Side was so comfortable.  The neighborhood that somehow acquired the nickname San Juan Hill stretched roughly from 59^th Street to 65^th, and from Amsterdam Avenue to 11^th Avenue. While New York’s other grittiest neighborhoods--Hell’s Kitchen immediately to the south, Mulberry Bend and Five Points—were made up of a mix of ethnicities, San Juan Hill’s residents were almost exclusively black.    It was a district of gang violence, bloodshed, poverty and hopelessness.

With development came the need for stores, schools and churches.   The West Presbyterian Church on 42^nd Street took a page from its Episcopalian and Roman Catholic counterparts and laid plans for a mission church. 

On January 6, 1884 a meeting was held in the church, led by its well-known pastor the Rev. Dr. John R. Paxton.  Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine described it as “a meeting in the interest of church extension in this city.”  The magazine noted that “The need of new churches on the east and west sides…was spoken of in detail.”

For the West Side the church chose the plot of land at No. 152 West 66^th Street; on the eastern fringe of San Juan Hill.  And for its architect it selected J. C. Cady & Company.  Josiah Cleaveland Cady, who was known professionally as J. Cleaveland Cady, designed a wide variety of structures—from hotels and libraries to churches and synagogues.  In 1887 he put pencil to paper for the design of what would become the Church of the Good Shepherd.

It would be another six years before the church became a reality.  On February 4, 1893 The Evening World reported “The new Church of the Good Shepherd, on Sixty-sixth street, west of the Boulevard, will be dedicated at 11 o’clock to-morrow morning.”  It added “The church is a branch of Dr. Paxton’s West Presbyterian Church on Forty-second street.”

Costing $90,000 (in the neighborhood of $2.5 million today), it was capable of seating 750 worshipers.  Cady had produced a charming Italian Romanesque structure of light-colored brick.  The New-York Tribune called it “characteristic of many old Italian churches.”  Indeed, it shared many elements of country churches of the Southern Sicilian Romanesque style.

Within its first years the mission church seems to have done what it was intended to do—serve the underprivileged residents of San Juan Hill.  But that success came with a cost.  On May 16, 1900 the annual meeting of the congregation of the West Presbyterian Church was held.  Reports were read concerning the activities of the church’s various organizations.

The New-York Tribune reported on the following morning that “Mrs. Hannah’s report of the work in the Church of the Good Shepherd, a mission of the West Presbyterian Church was very gratifying.”  But, it admitted, in a not-so-Christian response to African American worshipers, many congregants had left.  “In reading a report of the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Dr. Evans said that the flood of colored population in the neighborhood of the church caused a falling off, and that 129 names had been stricken from the rolls.  Still, the church was prosperous.”

In 1926 pastor Rev. Dr. F. R. Clee was called upon to lead an unusual funeral service.  William Henry Johnson had died of pneumonia at the age of 84 in Bellevue Hospital.  His funeral was held at the Campbell’s Funeral Church nearby at 66^th Street and Broadway, on April 28.

Better known as “Zip—What Is It?,” he was called by The New York Times “the famous freak, one of the first to be exhibited by P. T. Barnum back in the ‘60s.”  The newspaper’s account of the funeral was less reverential than sarcastic.

“Circus sideshow folk, giants, fat girls, sword swallowers, tattooed men and rubber-neck men filled the chapel, and their faces showed their sorrow.”  The article listed performers who had come from as far away as Chicago. “Then there was Alfonso, the human ostrich, who ate glass and other things for thirty-five years alongside of Zip at the sideshows of the circus and at Coney Island…Other circus freaks who attended were Lillian Maloney, the Albino girl; Carrie Holt, fat girl; Gus Birchman, the iron claw man; Frank Graef, tattooed man; Ajax, sword swallower; Joe Kramer, the rubber neck man, and Maharajah, the ‘This way, laydees and gentl-el-men’ lecturer of the Seaside circus sideshow of Coney Island, where Zip spent his Summers.”

Johnson’s funeral was, despite the description, conducted with dignity.  Organist and tenor Alexander Blander sang “Lead Kindly Light” and “Going Home,” from Anton Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

On November 13, 1932 the 45^th anniversary of the Church of the Good Shepherd was celebrated.  In his sermon that morning, the Rev. William F. Wefer questioned whether things had really changed much in nearly half a century.

“A striking sameness may be noticed in the years 1887 and 1932.  About forty-five years ago we had sweeping Democratic victories just as we had this past week.  Charges of political corruption were hurled about then.

“The problems of that day were much the same as our own.  Fashions may change, but there is still the clamor over women’s dress.  Today we have gangsters, then we had gangs.  Today we have speakeasies, then we had ‘blind pigs.’  The ‘by-cycle-scorchers’ have given way to the reckless automobile drivers.”

Certainly one thing that had not changed was San Juan Hill.  The 1940 census indicated that the neighborhood was still exclusively black.  Residents still struggled and families were confronted with the problems of violence, gangs and crime.

Twelve-year old Martha Punt was one of the local girls who tried to better herself.  She regularly attended Sunday School at the Church of the Good Shepherd.  Martha lived with her mother, Elizabeth James, who was separated from her second husband.  The girl tried her best to survive in the squalid neighborhood.  In December 1943 a 63-year old street cleaner was accused of “trying to impair the child’s morals,” according to The New York Times.  The charge was dismissed on December 19.

Martha Punt would never make it to her teen years.

A month later, on the morning of January 20, 1943, her brutally battered body was found in the “poorly furnished” fourth floor apartment of two kitchen workers, at No. 513 West 59^th Street.  She had been beaten about the head with a claw hammer and her throat cut.

The tragedy brought together at least some of the locals.   Three days later The New York Times reported “Martha Punt will not be buried in potter’s field, for the people of San Juan Hill yesterday were able to raise $138 to give the slain 12-year old schoolgirl a fitting funeral service and burial.

“Even strangers strolled into Abe Sable’s bar and grill at 2 Amsterdam Avenue to deposit dollar bills and coins in a beer container to help the family of the girl, who was brutally beaten to death in an apartment at 513 West Fifty-ninth Street Wednesday morning.”

The pastor of Good Shepherd, the Rev. Charles E. Souter, officiated at Martha’s funeral.

By now the name of the church had become Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church.  When Faith Chapel, another of West Presbyterian Church’s missions, gave up its building at No. 423 West 46^th Street, the two congregations merged.

Around 1953 the Comic Opera Guild began giving presentations at Good Shepherd.  It was the beginning of a tradition of musical concerts and plays here.   But both concerts and religious services nearly came to an end when Robert Moses laid plans for his ambitious Lincoln Center project. 

Moses had been approached by Fordham University and the New York Philharmonic which were seeking venues in Mid-Manhattan.  His solution was to eradicate a slum and replace it with a fine arts complex.  He faced opposition by some groups—including the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce and the Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church.

On May 9, 1957 400 people attended at rally at the church to protest the redevelopment project.  While the envisioned Lincoln Center would replace urban blight; it would also put more than 40,000 residents on the street.

The local groups were defeated and the city began demolition of 16.3 acres of buildings—all except the Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church.  The stubborn little building managed to hold out as everything around it was bulldozed to rubble.

The church continues its role as a performance center—in the 1990s productions by the Seventh Sign Theater Company were staged here.  Ever changing with the neighborhood, it became home as well to the Korean Central Church and the Catholic Apostolic Parroquia del Espirit Santo y de Nuestra Senora de la Caridad.   The three Sunday services are performed--one each in English, Korean and Spanish.

The church is dwarfed by the 1980s structures that surround it.

The last vestige of San Juan Hill in the immediate Lincoln Center area, J. Cleaveland Cady’s remarkable Italian Romanesque mission church is a miraculous and stunning survivor.

photographs taken by the author