Only the Gothic arches and drip moldings hint at the Eighth Avenue facade's original purpose. photograph by frog17.
On March 21, 1886, the New-York Tribune reported that Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson, "of the Twenty-third Street Tabernacle" had sign a contract to purchase the Madison Avenue Congregational Church for $126,000. The article said it would "become known as the Gospel Tabernacle."
Born in Canada, Simpson was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1865 and came to New York City in 1881. The year after purchasing the Madison Avenue church, he founded the Christian Alliance and would be president of the organization until his death. His ability to amass the funds necessary to purchase the Madison Avenue property--equal to $4.3 million in 2026--had much to do with Simpson's charismatic personality. The New York Times would later comment that it was not unusual for him to raise tens of thousands of dollars at a single meeting.
Rev. Alfred Benjamin Smith, image via cmalliance.org
Just two years after moving into the Madison Avenue property, on March 9, 1888, the New-York Tribune reported, "It was said yesterday by members of the Tabernacle that...the congregation made a fatal mistake in going there." The Gospel Tabernacle Church sold the Madison Avenue church in August and the next month Edelmann & Smith filed plans for a complex of buildings on an L-shaped plot around the southeastern corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street.
On September 22, 1888, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide explained that the Gospel Tabernacle would occupy a 50-foot-wide building at 690-692 Eighth Avenue. On the 44th Street side, said the article, "there will be a college building five-stories high, 50x45, of which two stories on the first floor will be rented out, adjoining which will be a six-story home, 50x100." Edelman & Smith projected the construction costs at "between $100,000 and $125,000." (The figures would translate to $3.5 to $4.25 million today.)
Edelmann & Smith's rendering of the Eighth Avenue elevation was published in The Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly in March 1890 (copyright expired)
John Herman Edelmann and Lyndon Smith gave the West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue buildings similar designs. Eschewing the Gothic Revival style more expected in ecclesiastical structures, the architects turned to Romanesque Revival.
The Gospel Tabernacle and Missionary Home School building on Eighth Avenue was faced in red brick and trimmed stone. Between the entrances (the Tabernacle was entered at 692 Eighth Avenue and Missionary Home School at No. 690) was a cast-iron storefront. The asymmetrical midsection featured paired windows, arches and a second-floor oriel. A square tower with a pyramidal cap and steep mansard composed the top floor.
Edelman & Smith's design gave little hint that at the back of the building was an impressive worship and meeting space that soared the full height of the building, culminating with a glorious octagonal stained glass skylight.
The Gospel Tabernacle could be accessed by the Berachah Home at 258-260 West 44th Street. Its design was similar to the Eighth Avenue building, with a comparable mansard, but with a rounded rather than squared corner tower.
The Berachah Home offered "a place of rest and instruction for persons coming from various parts of the country in order to attend the meetings of the Tabernacle," according to a pamphlet, which added, "It is a commodious building holding about 100 guests and specially adapted to the purposes of the work."
The lower edge of the octagonal skylight can be glimpsed in this early photo. (original source unknown)
The pamphlet explained that the Missionary Home School at 690 Eighth Avenue provided training for missionaries. "A short course of Bible study and missionary training lasting about six weeks is conducted in this place and students are chiefly employed in missionary work and house-to-house visitation in the neighbourhood."
On the morning of March 16, 1890, services to dedicate the Gospel Tabernacle were held. The New-York Tribune said, "Dr. A. B. Simpson, the pastor, addressed the congregation, giving a short history of the non-sectarian movement which led to the building of the Gospel Tabernacle." The article said that the following afternoon, "the Training College and Berachah Home, which are connected with the institution, will be dedicated."
(original source unknown)
The headquarters of the Christian Alliance was in the Eighth Avenue Building. The Encyclopaedia Britannica said, "At the opening of the year 1890, the secretary reported having established 23 missionaries in India, China, Japan, Hayti and Congo Free State." The Alliance also published the Christian Alliance & Missionary Weekly from the building.
Rev. Simpson's ability to generate funds for the various enterprises under his control was mind-boggling. On October 12, 1903, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "Nearly $70,000 was pledged yesterday by members of the Gospel Tabernacle, Eighty-av. and Forty-fourth st., to support the foreign missions." The article noted, "At the end of the sermon a woman in the congregation jumped to her feet, shouting, and, rushing to the platform, handed $15 to the minister. Some amounts pledged, ranging from $1,000 to $6,000, aroused enthusiasm when they were announced."
(original source unknown)
The incident was not out of the ordinary. Three years later, on October 15, 1906, the newspaper reported that $71,773.80 was collected during the previous morning and afternoon services. (The amount would equal more than $2.5 million today.) The article said, "the congregation was wrought up to an almost hysterical pitch and threw gold watches and diamonds on the stage of the tabernacle."
Around 1908, the Berachah House was converted to a residential hotel called Alliance House. An advertisement in the New York Herald in October 1911 read:
Quiet place for quiet people; in the very centre of the city, catering only to a respectable class; suites consisting of parlor, sleeping apartment and private bathroom; also parlor and sleeping room, with running water; single and double rooms; steam heated; elevator service; popular rates; special rates for permanent guests.
In 1916, the Christian Alliance relinquished the management of Alliance House. On February 16, The New York Times reported that Dr. Albert B. Simpson had leased it to Arthur K. Bonta, "the proprietor of the Hotels Bonta and Narragansett."
The configuration of the Alliance Hotel and Gospel Tabernacle are clearly seen in this property map. from the collection of the New York Public Library.
Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson died on October 29, 1919 at the age of 74. In reporting on his death, The New York Times remarked, "There was almost no end to Mr. Simpson's religious activities. He was editor of the Alliance Weekly and proprietor of the Alliance Press Company." He had written many books, including the 10-volume Christ in the Bible, The Gospel of the Kingdom and The Old Faith and the New Gospel. Of course, Simpson's funeral on November 4 was held in the Gospel Tabernacle.
Rev. Simpson's funeral was called a "service of testimony." New York Herald, Nov. 1, 1919 (copyright expired)
In 1925, renovations were made to the two facades. The mansards were removed, replaced with parapets. Edelmann & Smith's Romanesque Revival elements were totally eliminated from the Eighth Avenue elevation and Gothic arches and square-headed drip moldings installed at the ground and second levels. On the 44th Street side, the openings on the upper three floors were squared off, but much of the original appearance of the lower levels was preserved.
The Alliance House facade retained much of its original, lower floor elements after the renovation. vintage postcard from the author's collection.
The Gospel Tabernacle Church welcomed touring evangelists in the 1920s. Some of their services were almost carnival like. On July 22, 1922, for instance, the 14-year-old preacher Mary Agnes Vitchestain appeared here. The Gospel Tabernacle Church's advertisement said, "Miss Vitchestain preaches to the largest audiences everywhere." And the following month The Bosworth Brothers held a service. The announcement said, "How sinners may be forgiven and how the sick may be healed are made equally plain by the preaching of Evangelist F. F. Bosworth." It urged, "come and bring the sick."
The 1925 renovations erased all of Edelmann & Smith's 1888 design. An electric sign for the Gospel Tabernacle hangs over the entrance of No. 692. image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Another renovation completed in 1950 converted the former Alliance Hotel into offices for the International Christian Alliance. Then, on January 12, 1969, The New York Times reported, "For 80 years Gospel Tabernacle Church...has stood at 690 Eighth Avenue, south of 44th Street. A domed skylight of stained glass surmounts nine banked rows of pews and a full-immersion baptismal font on the main floor." Now, said the article, the buildings were "up for sale." The organization had purchased the former German Evangelical Reformed Church on East 68th Street for its new headquarters.
The complex became home to Covenant House, organized in 1968 to house homeless teenagers. The facility remained until 1995. On November 12 that year, The New York Times reported that Peter Castellotti and Robert Vittoria (co-owners of John's Pizzeria founded by their great uncle, John Sasso, in 1935) were "negotiating to open a fourth John's Pizzeria, in the site of the original Covenant House at 260 West 44th Street."
Seven months later, on June 26, 1996, The Times food critic Florence Fabricant announced that John's Pizzeria would indeed open in the space before the end of the year. Astoundingly, much of the interior of the Gospel Tabernacle was preserved--the galleries, original lighting figures, and all of the stained glass, including the striking skylight.
Before the 400-seat pizzeria was opened, artist Douglas Cooper was commissioned to execute a series of three murals. The largest--21-feet high and 30-feet wide--adorns a wall in the former worship space. Cooper describes it in architect Andrew Tesoro's website as:
A panoramic fly-over of Manhattan visible from the full width of a bi-level mezzanine...The foreground is set in one of the most dramatic views of Manhattan: the view from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River above the entrances to the Lincoln Midtown Tunnels.
Cooper's "Front Room Bar Mural," which is 8-feet high and 30-feet wide, pictures a scene in Times Square including identifiable theaters and throngs of pedestrians and vehicles. Astute bar patrons can pick out figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Mickey Mantle, Salvadore Dali and Marilyn Monroe from the dozens in the crowd. And the smallest, the "Mezzanine Mural," is 2-feet high and 28-feet wide. The separate images, according to Cooper, "focus on the theatrical character of the District [and] illustrate a set of improbably theatrical anecdotes going back as far as the 1880s."
Elements of the 1888 and 1925 designs survive in the West 44th Street upper facade, including the sump of the rounded tower.
Easily dismissed today, the two 1888 buildings are at best unremarkable from the outside. But inside, better known to tourists than to New Yorkers, is a hidden and remarkable gem.
non-credited photographs by the author
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