The Lost Bowery Village M. E. Church - 24-28 E. 7th Street

 

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Founded in 1794, the name of the Two-Mile-Stone Methodist Episcopal Church was derived from the stone marker that told travelers that the nearby house in which the congregation worshipped was two miles north of Federal Hall.  A later pastor, Reverend F. Bottome, would recall the location in his 1864 Bowery Village M. E. Church: A Discourse, saying it "was a rugged belt of land, with here and there a garden and a solitary house to diversify the barrenness of the stunted pasture lots with their dilapidated fences."  

Its rural origins resulted in the makeup of the church's leadership to be slightly different from those in more populated areas.  Kyle B. Roberts writes in his Evangelical Gotham, that because it was located within a "plebeian belt" at the northern boundary of the city, "tradesmen, rather than merchants, served as trustees, class leaders and elders."

Despite its remoteness, the fledgling congregation grew and moved in 1810 from the house to a small building.  (At that time of the move, the name was changed to the Bowery Village Church.)  It moved again in 1818, into a wooden church structure.  Then, in 1835, it began construction of a brick and stone church on the south side of Seventh Street (later East 7th Street) between Second Avenue and the one-block-long Hall Place.  (Hall Place was renamed Taras Shevchenko Place in the late 20th century.)

Completed in 1836, the edifice was an early and striking example of the Greek Revival design.  Its entrance sat within a recessed portico above by a broad flight of stairs.  Two monumental, fluted Doric columns flanked by Doric pilasters supported the entablature and Greek temple inspired triangular pediment.  

By then, the city had expanded northward and engulfed the neighborhood.  The New York Times would recall in 1885, "It was at this time one of the wealthiest and strongest churches of the city."  The changes to the formerly rural district were reflected in January 1851 when the city's Committee on Lamps and Gas approved the "placing of two Gas Lamps in front of the Bowery Village Methodist Church in Seventh-st."

The congregation was scandalized in the winter of 1870.  On Friday afternoon, January 7, the its married pastor, Reverend Horace Cook, went to a local school and "made arrangements" for him to remove 16-year-old Mattie Johnson.  The cleric and the teen "eloped."

A week later, Mattie's father received an anonymous tip that she was was in Philadelphia.  He and his son rushed there and "instituted a diligent search and succeeded in finding her at one of the leading uptown establishments," reported the New York Herald.  Mr. Johnson brought his "prodigal daughter" home.

The family attempted to repair Mattie's ravished reputation.  Rev. Cook, they told reporters, had not shared the room with the teen.  The New York Herald was convinced, writing...

there is not the slightest reason to suppose that Miss Johnson is not as chaste a young lady as when she left her parents' home last week; on the contrary it is asserted that she is in no wise harmed save in the matter of unenviable and unfortunate notoriety.

In the meantime, Reverend Cook's whereabouts was unknown until 10:00 on the night of January 12 when, "as the reporters of the World were closing up their reports, a violent kick was heard at the editorial room door," reported the newspaper.  It was Horace Cook, who slammed his fist on a desk and demanded: "I come here to get satisfaction for the slanderous article published in your paper this morning concerning me."

Rather than succeeding in getting a retraction from The New York World, the editor called for a policeman.  Reverend Cook was arrested.  The Johnson family did not press charges, maintaining that the trip to Philadelphia was innocent, and so Cook was later released.  The following Sunday, the church was jammed with members and outsiders.  They were disappointed to find that a substitute minister, Rev. Dr. Browning, would be giving the sermon.  The New York Daily Herald explained on January 17, "The Rev. Mr. Cook has gone to his family in Williamsburg."  The article said that he would soon return "so that before long the last sensation will have been buried and forgotten."

Four months later, nothing had changed.  A temporary pastor was appointed and on April 7, 1870, the New York Herald said, "Mr. Cook is now in the bosom of his family, over in Williamsburg, restored to the affections of his wife and extremely penitent for his past and wayward conduct."  The newspaper's earlier prediction that Cook would soon--or ever--return did not come to pass.

On October 21, 1872, the New York Herald reported that the church had reopened after "extensive repairs" had been made.  It was most likely at this time that a Georgian Revival style cupola, oddly crowned with onion domes, was installed.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

Around 1880, the name of the congregation was changed to the Seventh-Street Methodist Episcopal Church.  The demographics of the neighborhood had also changed.  It was starkly evidenced in 1882 when the Manual of the Methodist Episcopal Church reported that the Chinese Sunday-School in New York City, established in 1879, had "lately been transferred to the Seventh-street Methodist Episcopal Church."  And the following year, on July 21, 1893, the New-York Tribune reported that Reverend J. V. Saunders, "has begun afternoon services at 4 o'clock in the German language."  The article noted, "The music is good, the seats are free."

By the turn of the century, the East Village district was one of tenement buildings and working class immigrants.  In 1905 the Little Missionary Day Nursery operated from the church, and as early as 1910, physical examinations of underprivileged children who hoped to be sent to the Fresh Air Fund's summer camp were held.  On June 28 that year, the New-York Tribune remarked, "The pitiful thing about these physical examinations is that so small a proportion of the applicants pass."  Most, said the article, suffered with "eye and throat afflictions" and were not "up to the standard of cleanliness."

The following year, the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church melded with the Hedding Methodist Episcopal Church.  The congregation moved into that group's structure on East 17th Street.  On March 26, 1911, The New York Times reported that the Seventh Street church building had been sold.  The buyer was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for the parish of St. George Ukrainian Church.

In 1976 the congregation broke ground for a substantial new church building on the abutting corner property.  Designed by Apollinaire Osadca, it was completed in 1978.  

The old church was dwarfed by the new St. George Ukrainian Cathlic Church building.  photograph by Edmund Vincent Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

With the congregation now in its new home, it demolished the historic 1836 building, replacing it with a modern brick building.  

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

That was supplanted in 1992 with a 12-story apartment building.

image via cityrealty.com