photograph by the author
On New Year's Day 1887, the Record & Guide recapped the "notable additions to the architectural attractions of New York for the past year." On the long list of "the costly and substantial buildings of 1886" was the West Harlem Methodist Episcopal Church, chapel and parsonage, at the northwest corner of 129th Street and 7th Avenue (later Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard). Designed by John Rochester Thomas, according to the article the cost of construction was $150,000, or just under $5 million in 2024.
Thomas's brawny, brick-faced Romanesque Revival structure featured nearly mirror-image facades on the avenue and side street. A prominent bell tower rose at the corner rose to a high conical cap topped with a crocket. King's Handbook of New York City was tepidly impressed, saying the "massive tower [is] impressive from its size, but not strikingly picturesque in treatment."
In its January 1, 1887 article, the Record & Guide had mentioned that John Rochester Thomas was also designing a structure for Calvary Church on 57th Street near Sixth Avenue. Calvary Methodist Episcopal was formed just four years earlier. The two congregations soon merged and on December 22, 1890, The New York Times reported, "The new edifice of the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church...was dedicated yesterday with appropriate services in the morning, afternoon, and evening."
During the morning service, at which "fully 2,500 persons were present," according to The Times, "An earnest appeal to the congregation was made for money to clear the debt incurred in the remodeling of the church, and $18,000 was raised."
In 1892, King's Handbook of New York City said, "Calvary Methodist church is said to have the largest congregation of any church of that denomination in the city, although it is of recent formation...The main auditorium is among the largest of the Protestant churches in the city, seating 2,200 people." The article continued:
It is attractively furnished and decorated, and abundantly lighted from the three large Catharine-wheel windows and numerous smaller ones, and from the stained-glass opening in the flat panelled [sic] roof. A spacious gallery, with graceful horse-shoe curve, sweeps around three sides of the auditorium, and there is a feeling of roominess and light which adds to the general attractiveness. A large chapel and several class-rooms are connected with the church.
The status of Calvary Methodist Church was evidenced on Sunday morning, April 30, 1899 when the President of the United States, William McKinley, attended services. The President was accompanied by his brother, Abner, since, as reported by the New York Journal and Advertiser, "Mrs. McKinley, who as still wearied from the trip on Saturday, remained quietly in her room at the Hotel Manhattan."
Unthinkable today, President McKinley gave his bodyguards the day off. "He was sure nobody would hurt him," explained the article. "A mounted policeman, however, rode with the carriage through Central Park." Because McKinley had asked the press not to announce where he would be worshiping, the church was only normally crowded. The congregation, however, had been tipped off and over the entrance was a large American flag and the pulpit was decorated with a flag and flowers. "One great bunch of roses was sent by the ladies of the church for Mrs. McKinley."
After McKinley placed a dollar bill "fresh from the mint" in the offering plate, a deacon "put a silver dollar in the plate and proudly kept the bill," said the article. "The service concluded with the singing of America, in which the President joined."
Rev. Dr. Willis P. Odell had been pastor of Calvary for two years at the time of McKinley's visit. He and his wife, the former Eva Josephine Beede, had met at Tilton Seminary in New Hampshire and had graduated together. They lived in the rectory and summered at The Laurels at Sandow, New Hampshire. The estate had been in Eva's family for years. (Churches with well-heeled congregations routinely closed during the summer months, since the members were, for the most part, away.)
Rev. Odell was transferred to the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1904. His last sermon here was scheduled for Easter Sunday. Eva Odell would not live to see it. She died of a heart attack on March 26 at the age of 52. Her husband officiated at her funeral in Calvary Methodist Church two days later.
Eva's will provided firm restrictions on the title to The Laurels. She named her husband as life tenant, and cautioned that if it were to be sold, "the purchaser shall not be a drunkard, a spend-thrift, or a speculator, because it has been the home of one God-fearing, sober, industrious family for generations."
Rev. Dr. Charles L. Goodell took over the pastorship, and it was not especially long before he was faced with a crisis. On February 12, 1906, The New York Times reported, "the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church...said to have one of the largest Methodist congregations in the United States, has always borne the reputation of having a first-class choir." The 25-member choir was headed by organist and choirmaster A. Y. Cornell.
A week before the article, on the night of February 5, the church board met. One member mentioned that the attendance had noticeably increased, adding, "I think it's due to the fine work of the choir."
Another board member reacted, "What? The choir? That howling mob!" He then attributed the increased attendance to "the fine preaching" of Rev. Dr. Goodell.
Someone leaked the "howling mob" comment to a choir member. By Saturday all members had agreed to strike, refusing to sing until a formal retraction was published. The following Monday, The New York Times reported, "When services began in the church yesterday morning the choir filed down the main aisle of the church and took seats...Instead of twenty-five men and women occupying the accustomed choir seats there were only two women and two men, professional singers."
After the service, Rev. Goodell "immediately called a meeting of the board," said The Times. After an hour's discussion, a statement was given to the press that said, in part, that the word "howling" was not used "in any sense as a term of opprobrium" and that the choir's "services are highly appreciated by every member of the official board."
Dr. Rev. Goodell had mended the wound and the choir was back in its seats for evening services.
The tall conical tower cap was intact when this 1910 postcard was published.
The demographics of the upscale suburb were noticeably changing after World War I. Mass transportation made the district easily accessible. On November 5, 1922, The New York Times began an article saying, "very few of the old families remain which made the Harlem section of the city a delightful community residential locality a quarter of a century ago and more." The article said the Calvary Church property had been sold "for $25,800, with the understanding that the present congregation will not leave for two years."
Rev. Willis P. Odell had returned to the congregation three years earlier. He explained the membership had dwindled from more than 2,000 to "barely 800, as so many of the old families have moved away." Many of those congregants were reacting to what would later be termed "white fear." The article noted, "Practically all of the Seventh Avenue area down to 126th Street has been captured by the colored population."
The property had been purchased by the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, founded by Rev. Frederick A. Cullen as a mission of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in the East Village in 1902. In 1908, Salem Chapel became an independent congregation: the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.
Frederick A. Cullen was born in Maryland in 1868. In 1919, he married Carolyn Belle Mitchell, who worked closely with him in the church. Like so many Harlem religious leaders, Cullen was also highly involved in civil rights and would serve as the president of the Harlem branch of the NAACP. In 1917, he was vice-president of the Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade. On July 28 that year, 10,000 Blacks marched along Fifth Avenue to protest racist violence like the lynchings in Waco, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee.
Not long after their marriage, the Cullens adopted a teenage boy, Countée Porter. He would become a recognized poet and important member of the Harlem Renaissance. Rev. Cullen officiated over many marriages, but none was so personal as the wedding of Countée Cullen to Nina Yolande Du Bois in April 1928. The bride held a Masters Degree from Columbia University and the groom had recently won a Guggenheim fellowship.
In 1942, after heading Salem United Methodist Church for four decades, Rev. Frederick Cullen stepped down because of failing health. He was, nevertheless, no doubt among the congregation who assembled in the church on September 24, 1944 to hear Secretary of State Thomas J. Curran speak.
Curran defended the Republican Party, saying that, "while the Negroes of America had been the subject of political exploitation for many years, the party of Lincoln had not done the exploiting." He promised that the party would push for a Congressional inquiry "to ascertain the extent of mistreatment, segregation and discrimination against Negroes in the armed services and establishment of a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission."
Rev. Frederick A. Cullen died on May 25, 1946. The following year, Rev. Charles Young Trigg oversaw a six-year renovation to the church by Joseph Judge and Samuel Snodgrass. It may have been at this time that the tower cap was replaced with a shorter version. The sanctuary received a new organ at the time--the rebuilt 1931 Möller Organ Company instrument removed from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue. It was rebuilt for the church at the Möller factory.
On April 13, 1953, The New York Times reported, "Five hundred worshipers at the Salem Methodist Church, 129th Street and Seventh Avenue, celebrated the church's fiftieth anniversary yesterday...The sanctuary, which was recently renovated, was reconsecrated." The article recalled, "Early in its history the church formed athletic and cultural groups." It mentioned that Sugar Ray Robinson had "graduated into the prize-fighting ring" from the church's athletic club, and noted that Countée Cullen "became one of the most famous Negro poets of this century."
The tradition of activism and support for civil rights continued throughout the decades. On May 2, 1971, The New York Times reported that a "small group of prestigious black New Yorkers" had formed the Committee for the Legal Defense of the Harlem Five" and had met in the basement of the Salem Methodist Church "to mobilize support for the Harlem Five, a group of youths on trial for allegedly conspiring to kill policemen."
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image by ajay_suresh
Despite its reduced tower cap, John Rochester Thomas's striking 1887 structure commands as much attention today as it did nearly 140 years ago.
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