The 1854 Marble Collegiate Church -- 5th Avenue and 29th Street

photo by Alice Lum

In 1621 when the Dutch East India Company was organized, the Protestant Reformation was only a century old.  The Dutch settlers who founded New Amsterdam two years later had left a homeland still embroiled in the Revolt of the Seven Provinces--the Protestant Dutch against the Roman Catholic King Philip II of Spain.  They brought with them their Reformed Dutch religion.  According to The New York Times over two centuries later, in 1626 “the first religious meetings of which any record is left, were held in the upper room of a mill erected by Francois Molemaker, near the Port of the Battery.”

It was the planting of the seed of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City.  The Collegiate Church was founded in 1628.  Over two centuries later, in 1851 an additional structure (there were Reformed Dutch churches on Washington Square, one on Fifth Avenue and 21^st Street, and another on Lafayette Place and Fourth Street) was deemed necessary to accommodate to northward residential migration.

Church lore suggests that Fifth Avenue was at the time rural and that livestock roamed the chosen building site at the northwest corner of 29^th Street.  In fact, Fifth Avenue was paved as far uptown as 42^nd Street in the 1840s and the area was quickly developing with high-end rowhouses.  For the church fathers to erect a white marble edifice capable of seating 1,500 worshipers in a weed field would have been either exceptionally far-sighted or simply foolish.

The cornerstone was laid on November 26, 1851 with what The New York Times deemed “appropriate ceremonies.”  Architect Samuel A. Warner’s design had transformed a traditional New England wooden church design into a commanding white marble edifice.  The large blocks of marble were hand-chosen from quarries at Hastings, New York.

Construction would take three years at a cost of $200,000—a staggering $4 million in today’s dollars.  The New York Times called the completed structure “though-out one of the finest church buildings in the cities of New-York or Brooklyn.”  The dedication was held on October 11, 1854.  In addition to the ground floor seating, 400 worshipers could be accommodated in the gallery wrapping three sides of the sanctuary.

The New York Times praised the beautiful marble stone.  “Spires, finials, and other terminal points are all of the same material, strongly distinguished in color and consistency from the stone in common use for similar purposes.” 

photo by Alice Lum

While the architect called his design “Romanesque,” The New York Times was a bit more accurate in saying “The groundwork of the design is decorated Gothic.”  The newspaper described the structure in detail.  “The magnificent tower and spire, rising to a total height of 230 feet from the pavement, is flanked on the north and south corners, fronting on the avenue, by two pinnacles, each 135 feet high.  On each side wall are six main buttresses, inclosing five mullioned windows, twenty-five feet in height, and of proportionate breadth.”  Perched on the steeple’s pinnacle was a six-foot weather vane in the form of a rooster.

Inside, the vast auditorium space was a single cavernous space with no visible means of support of the arched ceiling.  Graceful groining sprouted from long, heavy carved brackets in the corners and between the windows.

Collegiate Church drew its name from its “colleagues;” ministers who served all the Reformed Dutch churches rather than having a dedicated pulpit.  That method of rotating ministers expanded into an early ecumenical idea in 1858 when other denominations joined in.  On March 23^rd of that year The New York Times reported that “Some weeks since several of the up-town pastors agreed to hold union meetings, worshiping one week in each of their churches.  The first was held at Dr. Gillette’s church in Twenty-third-street; the second at Dr. Parker’s, Fourth-avenue;  the third at Dr. Macauley’s, Fifth-avenue; the fourth at the Rev. F. G. Clarke’s Twenty-third-street; the fifth at the Collegiate church, on Fifth-avenue and Twenty-ninth-street.”

Further down on the page that day, the newspaper reported on a recent meeting of the New-York City Temperance Alliance.  Before very long the Collegiate Church, too, would be fully embroiled in the battle against alcohol.

But first there was a greater issue on the horizon—civil war.  On February 3, 1862, less than a year after the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter, a meeting was held in the church to discuss ways to minister to the soldiers in the field.  The New York Times reported that “A very large assemblage was gathered last evening in the Collegiate Church…the object being to hear addresses from eminent Divines, upon the necessity of providing for the religious necessities of the army, by furnishing the troops with tracts and reading generally of a religious character.”

Among those speaking that night was the Rev. Dr. Strong, Secretary of the Board of Publication of the Reformed Dutch Church.  Although already many publications had been forwarded to the troops in the battlefields, he urged those assembled that it was not enough.

“Still more was needed; and the Reverend Doctor proceeded eloquently and pathetically to urge upon his hearers the necessity of hearty and active cooperation in this good work, which was designed of God.”

In 1873 the total membership of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church throughout the city numbered 1,600.  Of those, 1,100 attended the church on Fifth Avenue at 29^th Street.

photo by Alice Lum

While times and traditions changed in some churches, the Dutch Reformed Church did not.  That was made clear on October 16, 1883 when the Rev. Dr. Terry delivered a preached here specifically denouncing reforms.

“The Rev. Dr. Terry delivered a sermon, in which he remarked that of all Protestant denominations the Dutch Reformed was the most conservative.  Others had made changes in their forms of services, and changes had even been suggested in doctrine to keep up with the age.  The Reformed Church was not strong numerically as compared with other denominations, but the preacher protested against any innovations in church doctrine,” reported The New York Times.

While the Collegiate Church remained steadfast in opposing change for the most part—at least in doctrine—it was quick to adapt new technology when appropriate.  By the end of the year in 1890 the church had installed the latest in technology.  Until now churches enlisted the aid of young boys to pump the bellows that provided wind through the organ pipes.

In December 1890 a newspaper noted that “The blowing of church organs by means of electric motors has now reached that point where the undertaking may be said to have passed the experimental stage and become a permanent and assured success.”  The article made note of the church’s innovative use of electric motors.   The “electric plant,” said the article “in the Collegiate Church at Twenty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue very nearly solves the problem of a compound organ.  This organ has two bellows—one supplies the entire organ, with the exception of one register, which is supplied by a high-pressure bellows.  The arrangement is to throw this bellows into automatic action when the stop is drawn, thus making the supply of wind available.  When the stop is put in, the automatic arrangement is checked and the supply is cut off.”

By now the surrounding neighborhood was one of brownstone mansions and high-end hotels.  The churches of the city’s wealthy closed their doors for three months every summer as the wealthy congregants abandoned the city for resorts like Newport and Bar Harbor.  The hiatus gave the churches the opportunity to repaint or make other necessary improvements without causing interruption to services.

On October 11, 1891 the church, now formally known as The Marble Collegiate Church, reopened with a change in its services.  The New York Times reported that “The interior of the church was repaired and changed during the Summer.  In accordance with the new plan—the cathedral plan—of carrying on the work of the church, there were three services yesterday.”

The following year the fiery and influential pastor Rev. Dr. David J. Burrell gave one of his first sermons on temperance.  Railing against what was termed by another minister “The Respectable Saloon,” Burrell charged “I should prefer that my boy learned to pollute his body and destroy his soul in the lowest ‘dive’ than in one of these ‘respectable saloons.’  His course toward hell would be quicker, and would cause him and those who cherish him less suffering.

“The ministerial voice that was recently raised up in behalf of the saloon uttered the words, ‘The saloon has come to stay.’  So have yellow fever and smallpox come to stay.  So have snakes and tigers come to stay.  So have theft, murder, and uncleanness come to stay. But has any minister of the Gospel ever yet dared to put the benediction of God upon these enemies of mankind?”

Reverend Burrell’s tirade against drink would be among the first stones thrown in a long-lasting battle.

Interestingly enough, Burrell was less intolerant when it came to sports.   A month later, on November 19, it was announced that “To accommodate those who may desire to attend church on Thanksgiving Day, and also to witness the Yale-Princeton football game, the hour of service has been changed to 10:30 A.M. for that day.”

In September 1899 Fifth Avenue is decorated in preparation for the welcoming of Admiral Dewey.  Coaches wait in front of the vine-covered church.  The original diamond-paneled windows are evident in the shot.  photograph by Robert Bracklow, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UP1GIXGXGX&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Burrell was unimpressed with Warner’s mostly-clear, mullioned windows and envisioned the more up-to-date stained glass.  He initiated a thrust to replace the windows and on December 9, 1900 the first was unveiled.  Donated by Sarah A. Sandham, the Tiffany Studios window was dedicated to the memory of her son, George Augustus Sandham.  A year later another Tiffany window was installed, this one donated by Jennie Dayton. 

Dr. Burrell’s project ground to a halt and it would be nearly a century before another stained glass window replaced one of Warner’s originals.

In 1900, the year that the Tiffany Studios windows were installed, brownstone mansions were giving way to commercial buildings -- photograph Library of Congress

On January 26, 1915 the powerful evangelist Billy Sunday announced that he had been invited to conduct a revival meeting at the Marble Collegiate Church, mainly to attack alcohol.  He gladly accepted the challenge.

“Although I am pretty well dated up, I certainly can’t let the Modern Babylon slip by.  Three strikes ought to be called on booze in that city, and I’m going to help all I can.

“Wherever you find booze you’ll find the devil backing it up with all the canister hell can produce and I’m ready to fight it anywhere.  The Lord’s battles must be fought wherever booze is entrenched,” he was quoted in The Evening World.

Three years later the conflict was still raging.  On January 28, 1918 William Jennings Bryant appeared as a “surprise speaker” and he pulled no punches regarding his disdain of the press in its opposition to prohibition.

“The New York newspapers are the center of the opposition to prohibition in this country.  An editorial in one of them is like getting a whiff of a whiskey bottle.”

Saying he expected to see the country free of saloons before he died, he decried the alcohol industry.  “The liquor interests would tie every American down, bind him hand and foot, and pour liquor into him three times a day.  I thank God we have a War Department and government which made the cantonments safe for the soldier boys.”  Bryan was referring to the law that prohibited the sale of liquor to soldiers.

Reverend Burrell, William Cullen Bryan and the other prohibitionists eventually got their way.  In 1933, however, with the repeal of Prohibition, the cause for which the Marble Collegiate Church had so ardently supported for decades was lost.

The Austin organ dominates the entrance wall behind the worshipers in 1938--photograph by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UP1GIXDY6P&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Even more memorable and influential than Burrell was the pastor who came to Marble Collegiate in 1932.  The charismatic Dr. Norman Vincent Peale served the church for more than half a century; during which he wrote 46 books including his best seller The Power of Positive Thinking.  He innovated ministry when he took to the airwaves in 1935 with his weekly "The Art of Living."

A mid-century postcard depicts the sanctuary decorated for Easter.

As the exclusive residential neighborhood continued to move northward along Fifth Avenue the mansions around Marble Collegiate were razed for business buildings.  Yet the congregation remained upscale throughout the decades of the 20^th century.  The eyes of the world watched on December 22, 1968 when President-Elect Richard Nixon escorted his daughter Julie into the church for her wedding.  Outside throngs of New Yorkers crushed the avenue to get a glimpse of the politician and the beautiful bride.

A statue of the charismatic and influential Dr. Norman Vincent Peale stands outside the church -- photo by Alice Lum

National attention of a more scandalous sort came when church member Donald Trump met 21-year old Marla Maples at a 1985 tennis tournament in Atlantic City.  The married Trump was smitten with the small-time actress and People Magazine later noted “By 1987, during services at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, Trump was secretly romancing Maples as he found ways to temporarily ditch Ivana and their kids.”

In 1997 a committee was organized to address the windows.  Eight stained glass windows were commissioned to complete the sanctuary windows.  The following year a restoration project was initiated that would take a year and a half to complete.  The nearly 150-year old marble was cleaned and repaired along with other necessary restorations. 

photo by Alice Lum

In 2002 a spectacular wedding took place in the church that perhaps overshadowed even the Nixon wedding.  The sanctuary was banked with flowers and fifteen bridesmaids proceeded down the aisle in a lavish production of a ceremony for 56-year old Liza Minnelli and concert promoter David Gest.  The wedding party included Elizabeth Taylor and best man Michael Jackson.  In the pews were Jane Russell, Gina Lollobrigida and columnist Cindy Adams.

Little of Marble Collegiate Church has changed, both inside and out, since it opened its doors in 1854.  Not only a symbol of the oldest Protestant Church in the country, it is a rare and wonderful architectural survivor.

photo by Alice Lum

Tragic Loss-- The 1892 Middle Collegiate Church - 112 Second Avenue

 

The church as it appeared prior to the December 2020 fire.

In 1621 when the Dutch East India Company was organized, the Protestant Reformation was only a century old.  The Dutch settlers who founded New Amsterdam two years later brought with them their Reformed Dutch religion.  In 1626, according to The New York Times over two centuries later, “the first religious meetings of which any record is left, were held in the upper room of a mill erected by Francois Molemaker, near the Port of the Battery.”

It was the planting of the seed of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City.  The Collegiate Church was founded in 1628.  Its first building was erected on Nassau Street in 1731.  Two years earlier Abraham De Peyster had ordered a bronze bell cast in Amsterdam.  It arrived by sailing ship in time to hang in the new belfry.  More than two centuries later The New York Times noted, "Its silvery tone is attributed to the generosity of citizens of Amsterdam who donated silver coins to its alloy."

The bell was pealed in celebration of the acquittal of John Peter Zenger, accused of printing seditious literature in 1735, and was rung when news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence reached New York on July 9, 1776.  That incident earned it the appellation of "the Liberty Bell."  Before the British invaded New York City, the bell was taken down and spirited away and hidden in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  It was brought back in to ring out on the day of George Washington's inauguration.

The Second Middle Collegiate Church was begun on Lafayette Place in 1836.  The marble pulpit from the original church, fashioned in Amsterdam, was installed and the Liberty Bell hung in its belfry.

Known alternatively as the Lafayette Place Middle Dutch Church, the congregation worshiped in the building until 1887.  The property was sold and the Liberty Bell moved to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas on Fifth Avenue.   A new building for the Middle Collegiate Church was begun at No. 112 Second Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets in 1891.

Designed by architect Samuel B. Reed, the Gothic Revival style structure was faced in rough cut limestone.  The symmetry of the design was  interrupted by the soaring stone spire at the north side.  Inside was a familiar object.  King's Handbook of New York noted "The pulpit is an object famous among old New-Yorkers, having originally been in the church in Lafayette Place."  The article pointed out another distinctive feature.  "The windows are of stained glass, made by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co., and present a unique and very brilliant feature by reason of receiving their illumination, day and night, from electric lights behind the glass."

Nickerson's Illustrated Church and Musical Director, 1895 (copyright expired)

The ten Tiffany windows were inspired by drawings of Dresden artist Heinrich Hoffman.  Decades later journalist Rita Reif, writing in The New York Times, pointed out "A highlight is the great west window [above the entrance], into which Tiffany worked the church's emblem--a lily among the thorns."

The neighborhood was largely German at the turn of the last century.  On June 15, 1904 members of the nearby German-language St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church boarded the General Slocum river boat for a day's outing.  The side-wheeler caught fire around 10:00, burning to the waterline within 15 minutes.  Nearly 1,000 lives were lost.

Almost 200 of the victims were members of other congregations.  On June 25 The Globe and Commercial Advertiser reported "The Middle Collegiate Church was the heaviest loser.  In the sewing school, Sunday school, and membership of the church were forty-eight who perished, and including those connected in some way with the membership the losses were close to seventy."  Later that year, on November 1, three marble tablets were unveiled in the church, memorials to the General Slocum victims.  For years afterward a memorial service for the victims was held every June.

Another piece of memorial artwork was unveiled on June 14, 1914.  Mary Wyckoff Knox was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Knox, senior minister of the Collegiate Church, who died in 1856.  The "mural tablet" was dedicated to the memory of the recently deceased 76-year old who, according to the New-York Tribune, "devoted her life to helping the people of the East Side."

In 1949, seven years after the celebration of the building's 50th anniversary, a joyful reunion came to pass.  The St. Nicholas Church was demolished and on December 19 The New York Times reported "The [Liberty] bell will be returned to the belfry of Middle Collegiate Church after a hiatus of almost eighty years."

Now in the belfry of the Second Avenue structure, the Liberty Bell resumed its tradition of proclaiming significant events.  It had pealed upon the death of George Washington and had been rung on the occasion of every President's death since then.

It was rung after the death of the leader of another country on February 14, 1956.  On the day of King George VI's funeral in London, the Liberty Bell was run 56 times--one peal for every year of the monarch's life.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in New York in December 1959, headed to Spain to meet with dictator Francisco Franco.  The Liberty Bell was rung in greeting to the President, minister Rev. Dr. Ernest R. Palen telling The New York Times it "would be rung for an hour to express gratitude for the President's safe return and hope that his mission abroad would prove successful."

On January 29, 1978 following ceremonies to mark the Collegiate Church's 350th anniversary in New York, the senior minister, Rev., Dr. Harvey B. Hoffman, took The New York Times journalist Gregory Jaynes up into the "dusty belfry" to see the Liberty Bell.  The trip gave a hint at the condition of the aging structure.  

"Now stay close to the edge of of the steps," the minister warned Jaynes.  "Don't step in the middle.  One of these old steps fell through on the sexton not long ago."  Hoffman admired the relic and said, "It's a fine old bell."  Afterward, wrote Jaynes, "He pointed out the Tiffany windows, the frescoes, the marble pulpit cast in the Netherlands in the 18th century."

photo by Fred r. Conrad, The New York Times, January 30, 1978 

As the East Village changed, the Middle Collegiate Church adapted.  In the last quarter of the 20th century it hosted art fairs and jazz on the church steps.  When the AIDS epidemic was taking the lives of thousands of New Yorkers the church hosted Monday night dinners for as many as 100 people with Aids.  It additionally ran a food a clothing pantry, and at the beginning of the 21st century volunteers packed bag lunches each Sunday to distribute among the homeless in Tompkins Square Park.  The congregation's awareness of social and racial inequality was reflected in July 2013 when members wore hooded sweatshirts to services, a tribute to Trayvon Martin who wore one when the unarmed teen was shot dead by George Zimmerman.

Early in the morning of December 5, 2020 a fire broke in an unoccupied building on East 7th Street, just around the corner.  It quickly spread to the corner structure, and then to the Middle Collegiate Church.  The six alarm inferno, which took eight hours to extinguish, left the nearly 130-year old structure in ruins.  The magnificent Tiffany windows were destroyed as were other artworks and, most likely, the marble memorials.  At this writing the condition of the 18th century marble pulpit and bronze Liberty Bell is unsure.

photo by Matt Pruznick via newyorknimby.com

uncredited photographs by the author

The Seemingly-Doomed Bancroft Bldg -- No. 7 West 29th St.

The pinnacles of Marble Collegiate Church (one seen at far right) were nearly duplicated on the roof of the Bancroft Building.

In February 1875 the Association of the Bar purchased the substantial brick home at No. 7 West 29^th Street.  Midway between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the mansion sat in a most fashionable area for the club’s proposed headquarters.  The neighborhood and the exceptional size of the property—75 feet wide, or about three full building lots—were reflected in the price; $100,000 or about $2 million today.

The Association’s minutes noted “The situation is healthy and agreeable, central, and easily accessible from every direction, and it was believed the property was not likely for a long time to come to depreciate in value.”  Regarding the mansion, the notes called it “A brick building of substantial structure covered forty-five feet of the width of the lots, and was of convenient depth.  By property alterations, without undue expense, it could, in the opinion of the Committee, be made adequate for the purposes of the Association for several years to come.”

Indeed, the Association was in the mansion for several years—twenty, to be exact.  Then on October 1, 1895 it sold the property as it prepared to move to its new headquarters that extended from 43^rd to 44^th Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.   The buyer, real estate developer Edward H. Van Ingen, paid $225,000 for the property, $25,000 below asking price.  The New York Times surmised “The purchasers…will probably erect a business structure on the site.”

The New York Times was right.  The 29^th Street neighborhood was no longer one of clubs and mansions.  Business buildings and hotels were now cropping up in the area.  Van Ingen commissioned esteemed architect Robert H. Robertson to design an eye-catching modern office building on the site of the venerable mansion.

Robertson had become known for his own take on Romanesque Revival in the previous decade.  But for what would become the Bancroft Building, he went in a completely different direction.  Completed in 1897, six stories of red brick and white stone were sandwiched between a limestone top floor and a three-story rusticated limestone base.   The stone bands and voussoirs created a vibrant contrast with the rich red brick—reminiscent of the popular Venetian Gothic and Ruskinian Gothic styles of a generation earlier.  Above it all, Robertson perhaps gave a friendly nod to the Marble Collegiate Church next door, facing Fifth Avenue, by adding near-matching pinnacles on the Bancroft roof.

Sturdy limestone piers and columns contrast with the light-hearted red and white treatment of the middle floors.

With the building completed, Van Ingen was ready to cash in.  On August 25, 1897 he traded the Bancroft Building for another plot ready for development.  The New-York Tribune reported “The valuable plot of land at Broadway and Thirty-ninth-st., on which it was intended to build the Herald Square Hotel, was traded by Julien T. Davies to Edward H. Van Ingen for the Bancroft Building and a sum of money.”  The New York Times estimated the value of the still-vacant Bancroft Building at “from $650,000 to $750,000."

Davies was quick to fill his new building.  Among the first tenants were a surprising number of architects.  Two months later, in January 1898, Architecture and Building commented “The Bancroft Building, 3, 5, and 7 West Twenty-ninth Street, New York, is about to become quite an architectural centre.  Mr. Henry Rutgers, Marshall Babb, Cook & Willard, Parish & Schroeder and John E. Howe occupying the entire ninth floor.”

J. B. Colt & Co., “prominent in the business of making and selling projection lanterns and the like apparatus,” according to Electrical Engineer, also moved in that year, and expanded into the “sale of acetylene gas generators for the lighting of all kinds of buildings, etc.  On account of this decision they are offering special opportunities in price to buyers of projection apparatus, arc focusing lamps, magic lanterns, stereopticons, slides and other accessories.”  The J. B. Colt firm would be the first, but not the last, tenant interested in the growing field of photography.

In March Knauth Brothers signed a five-year lease on the store, basement and second floor. Manufacturers of surgical instruments the 23-year old firm had become what the Journal of Surgical Technology called “among the foremost houses in the trade.”  The Journal commented on the new space in the Bancroft Building.  “This establishment on Twenty-ninth street embodies the latest sanitary and artistic construction, and the total amount of space at the disposal of the firm equals about 30,000 square feet.”

In 1898 The Journal of Surgical Technology published photographs of Knauth Brothers' new space (copyright expired)

Along with Knauth Brothers and the architectural firms came a number of publishers.  The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions moved in in 1898, publishers of "The Student Missionary Appeal."  The 563-page volume reprinted addresses given at missionary conferences.

Publisher R. H. Russell was another new tenant.  He took the entire sixth floor in March (sharing it with the Cassler Magazine Company) and within the next few months published Thomas Nelson Page’s “Two Prisoners,” “Poems,” by Robert Burns Wilson, and “Shapes and Shadows,” a book of poems by Madison Cadwein among others.

In January 1898 the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association leased the entire 10^th Floor.  By April the space was ready and the organization moved in.  The report of “The Jubilee of Work for Young Men in North America” reported “This floor is subdivided into a large number of offices occupied by secretaries of various departments such as Publication, Business, Field, Railroad, Army and Navy, Educational, Physical, Special Religious Work, and Boys’.  Here also is the editorial office of Association Men.”

A few days after the YMCA took the 10th floor, the Camera Club of New York leased the entire 8^th Floor; signing a lease of five years.   Two years earlier Alfred Stieglitz, one of the principals of the club, had helped negotiate the merger of the Camera Club with the Society of Amateur Photographers.  The group was now among the wealthiest and largest clubs in the nation.  As a result the space in the Bancroft Building not only included the expected darkrooms, labs and camera equipment; it reportedly had all the amenities of an upscale club, including a library.

From here Stieglitz published the quarterly Camera Notes that included photogravures and half-tones.  The man who almost single-handedly raised photography from a hobby to an art form was honored with an exhibition of his photography here from May 1 to May 15 in 1899.

The following year, on April 2, Frederick E. Partington delivered a lecture for the benefit of the library fund of Vassar College in the Camera Club rooms.  Partington’s subject was “Romantic France and the Pyrenees,” and was illustrated by “slides taken from original photographs,” said The New York Times.  The newspaper noted that “There is a long list of prominent New York women, most of them members of the alumnae association of the college, who are patronesses.”

Meanwhile the Young Men's Christian Association International Committee had its hands full as the Boxer Uprising threatened missionaries in China.  Erratic communication left the office unsure if some families of missionaries were safe and rescue parties were sent by steamer.

Reverand Horace Pitkin wrote to the office here on May 14, 1900 saying "Our guard of soldiers still come at night, but they will be of little service in case of actual outbreak.  The morale of their presence is the only justification for keeping them."   Miss Mary S. Morrill, writing from Pao-ting Foo, prompted other missionaries to keep their children in the safety of the schools "since their large feet would show forth the family connection with churches."

A variety of tenants, many of them architects and publishers, continued to come and go.  In 1900 the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society was here, as was the architectural firm of Hardy & Short.  In 1903 the Moyea Automobile Company established its offices in the building and on May 1 of that year Frank Presbrey Company, “general advertising agents,” took over the entire 8^th floor.  The School Journal said at the time “This agency numbers among its patrons some of the most solid and representative advertisers in the world.”

In 1911 when Hints, an entertainment magazine, moved into its new quarters the Anthos Company was already doing business here.  That company, run by Mrs. Millicent Searle, sold patent remedies like Tonia, Ceratum, Baquilles, Elixir and Sal-Nutrient.  Anthos representatives went door-to-door, selling the tonics mostly to housewives.  The practice drew the suspicion of the County Medical Society.

Police matron Isabella Goodwin was sent undercover to work for the firm.  She later testified before Chief Magistrate McAdoo that she would earn 20 cents for every dollar’s worth of preparations she sold.  She was advised “to influence patients to take three to six months of treatment.”  When she asked her supervisor whether she should not merely suggest a month’s treatment, he responded “Are you a piker?”  

One day when Goodwin arrived at the Bancroft Building office feeling under the weather, she asked her supervisor if she should take one of the preparations. She testified that he replied “No.  Our medicines will do you no good.  I take some of them now and then, because I like the taste.”

Mrs. Searle was arraigned on the charge of illegally practicing medicine on May 30, 1911.

On December 12, 1914 Julien T. Davies traded the Bancroft Building for a new apartment building on Lexington Avenue and 72^nd Street.  The new owner was the E. A. L. Realty Company.  The firm would not hold the property long and on February 11, 1916 The Times reported that the building’s original owner, Edward H. Van Ingen “yesterday acquired the title in the Bancroft Building.”

By now the millinery and apparel district was moving northward from the Broadway district below 14^th Street.  In 1915 Eden Manufacturing Company was one of the first of the clothing firms to move in.  In 1919 another publisher took space in the building.  Gallon-Hall Corporation was the publisher of Automotive Engineering.

That same year tenants Schwabach & Raphael, who were “engaged in the cotton goods business,” according to The New York Times, purchased the building from Van Ingren.  The sale was perhaps a reflection of the expanding garment district and other apparel firms quickly moved in.  Among them were C. Reis, manufacturers of “cloaks, suits, waists and furs;” P. S. Farmer, resident buyer of cloaks and suits; the Manhattan Petticoat Company; and Weisberg & Zimmern.

In the second half of the 20^th century Marble Collegiate Church acquired the Bancroft Building.  In 1961 a renovation was completed resulting in meeting, religious, chapel and social rooms on the first floor and offices and a Sunday school on the second.  In doing so a well-intentioned but ungainly and architecturally inappropriate addition was erected at street level.

Concern over the preservation of architecturally or historically significant structures has never been a hallmark of religious institutions and in the spring of 2013 Marble Collegiate Church began plans to demolish the Bancroft Building.  In its place the church envisioned an obtrusive glass slab with no context in the neighborhood.

The proposed new office tower -- NY.Curbed.com

In June 2013 neighbors petitioned Community Board 5 and the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the Bancroft Building a New York City landmark.  The battle over the Victorian structure, not only an anomaly among Robertson designs but an historic spot in the history of American photography—continues; although the outlook for the Bancroft Building looks gloomy.

 

UPDATE:  The Bancroft Building was demolished in 2015.

photographs taken by the author

many thanks to reader Ward Kelvin for requesting this post

The Lost Grace Reformed Church - 7th Avenue and 54th Street

Ivy clings to the brick facade below a  curious one-sided structure that suggested a bell tower, but had no real purpose.  photograph by Robert L. Bracklow, from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Founded in 1628, the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church was the oldest religious sect in Manhattan.  As the city and its population grew, new congregations were organized and new church edifices erected each one inching further northward.

The Civil War interrupted development in New York City, but it returned with a flurry immediately afterward.  In 1869, the same year the cornerstone was laid for the impressive St. Nicholas Church on Fifth Avenue and 48th Street, the Collegiate Dutch Church purchased lots on Seventh Avenue and 54th Street for a "mission chapel" of the Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue and 29th Street.

The subsequent Seventh Avenue Chapel, as it was called, was later described by the Year Book of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, as a "commodious edifice."  Construction was apparently rapid, for on October 23, 1869 the Street Commissioner ordered "that two gas-lamps be placed in front of the chapel of the Dutch Reformed Church, situated on the corner of Fifty-fourth street, and Seventh avenue."

In 1880 the Collegiate Dutch Church commissioned architect W. Wheeler Smith to enlarge and remodel the building.  A one-story chapel and Sunday school was added, a new roof installed and the facade rebuilt.  The renovations came at a cost of $7,000, just under $175,000 in today's dollars.

Smith put his trademark touches on the building, giving it a blend of Victorian Gothic and Romanesque Revival.   Stone band courses contrasted with the red brick to produce a striped effect, much like those he created on St. Nicholas Church.  The asymmetrical facade, the tall hip roof pierced by tiny dormers, and the inexplicable wafer-thin corner tower  resulted in an architecturally eccentric house of worship.

In 1885 the expenses of maintaining the chapel were weighing heavily on its mother church.  The Executive Committee complained "the chapel at Seventh Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street took all our resources of time and money."  On October 21 that year The New York Times reported on the annual meeting of the Classis of the Dutch Reformed Church.   The first item on the agenda was the reading of "a communication from the Mission Chapel of the Collegiate Church, asking that it be organized as a regular church."

The group promptly agreed to the reorganization, "which will take place on Nov. 15."  The Classis met in the Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue and 29th Street the following month.  It was formally announced that the chapel was now an independent entity--Grace Reformed Church--and that the Rev. Joseph R. Rankin Duryee had been chosen as its pastor.   It was an expected and logical decision.  Since his ordination in 1879 Duryee had been the chapel's preacher.

The pastor's salary was placed at $2,500--about $65,800 a year today.   The Marble Collegiate Church was not totally off the hook financially, however.  It was pledged to contribute $2,000 a year for six years to the maintenance of the new church.

Rev. Joseph Rankin Duryee - The University Magazine, September 1890 (copyright expired) 

The 32-year old Duryee had graduated from Rutgers College in 1874 before his ordination from the Seminary of the Reformed Church at New Brunswick.  In 1882 had married Margaret E. Sloan in a fashionable ceremony attended by some of New York society's most recognized names, including Mr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey M. Depew, the Cornelius Vanderbilts, and the Jay Goulds.

It was Margaret's personal fortune that allowed the family to enjoy an upscale lifestyle.  They lived in a comfortable Murray Hill home and maintained a summer estate, Wyndune, at Garrison-on-the-Hudson.

As the 19th century drew to a close changes in the general neighborhood caused alarm to many righteous residents.   In 1890 John Griffith operated the Sixth Avenue Hotel on Sixth Avenue at the corner of 44th Street.  When his liquor license came up for renewal, a flurry of protests were raised at the Board of Excise meeting on June 4.  The shocking testimonies prompted The New York Times to run the headline: "A BAD AND WICKED PLACE" the following day.

One week later more evidence was being heard and this time Rev. Duryee took the stand.  The Sun reported on June 13 "The Rev. Dr. Joseph R. Duryea [sic] of Grace Reformed Church...testified that his pastoral duties had brought him in contact with several young women who had been ruined in the hotel.  Some of them were dead."

That summer, while most congregants were away from the city, Grace Reformed Church underwent a "thorough renovation and much artistic decoration," as described by The Times on October 12.  The newspaper noted "this church has always been very cozy and, since the addition of the chapel, quite complete.  The recent decorations add to the brightness of the place, and the congregation enters upon the season with good reason for encouragement and the best of spirits."  The article noted that within the past five years the membership had quadrupled.

Churches often hosted educational lectures and Grace Reformed Church was no different.  On February 14, 1890, for instance, an "illustrated lecture on 'The Land of the Greeks'" was given by W. L. Cushing.  But perhaps no speaker garnered more attention that did Elizabeth Bacon Custer the following year.

On November 6 the widow of General George Custer gave her first public appearance, speaking on her latest book, Life on the Western Plains.  The New York Times reported "The applause and laughter of the audience showed the interest of her subject and the skill with which she handled it."

Among the items Mrs. Custer spoke about was the love of a cavalry soldier for his horse, the arrangement of buildings within military posts, and the dangers wives faced on the frontier.

"At our last post," she said, "none of the ladies went outside the post limits without an escort for three years.  It was hard to believe that the bluffs that looked so inviting were filled with Indians, lying behind sage and cactus, bent upon mischief.  When we all went out for a picnic one day an entire troop of cavalry, completely armed, accompanied us.  We were so accustomed to it then that we though nothing of it, and it is only since I have been living in the States that it has occurred to me that perhaps nobody but military women ever went on merrymaking excursions in such a manner."

from Nickerson's Illustrated Church, Musical and School Directory, (copyright expired)

Rev. Duryee officiated at many funerals, of course.  But it was an especially emotional service on April 21, 1906--that of his wife, Margaret.   By now the couple's four children--Marjorie, Maria La Grange, Elisabeth Sloan, and Samuel Sloan--were nearly grown.

Marjorie would be the first to wed.  She married Rev. Elmer Orlando Weld, assistant pastor of Brooklyn's Grace Church in November 1911.  They put off their wedding trip until May the following year.  Then devastating news arrived from London on June 17, 1912.

The Sloan family had been highly involved in the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company for decades.  Marjorie visited the firm's London office that morning, and waited for her husband there.  Weld was running late and at around 11:00 headed across busy Cockspur Street.  A telegraph explained that in dodging a taxicab, he did not see a motorbus coming around the corner.  "He was struck by the side of the omnibus and thrown on the asphalted street."  Weld was dead by the time he was taken to Charing Cross Hospital.

Happier times for the minister came eight months later when he announced that both Maria and Elisabeth were engaged.   The Times reported on July 6, 1913 that "The wedding of the two sisters will be celebrated at the same hour at the Summer home of their father in the early Autumn."

The idea of a double ceremony may have seemed a good idea for the sisters at the time, but as the date neared, they changed their minds.   Elisabeth was married in Wyndune on August 26 and her sister was married there about five weeks later, on October 2.  Their father, of course, officiated.

Samuel Sloan Duryee was a captain in the U.S. Army when the United States entered World War I in April 1917.  The conflict may have hastened his own wedding plans and he was married to Mary Ballard in Maine on August 20 that year.  Again, Rev. Duyree officiated.

One wedding he could not officiate was his own.  After being widowed for 14 years and with his children now gone, he married Mabel Dunham Thurber in 1920.  Concurrently, he resigned from the church he had served since 1879.

Whether Duryee's retirement was the catalyst is uncertain; but the same year that the only pastor the church had ever known stepped down, the Dutch Reformed Church closed its doors.  After it sat empty for nearly two years, The New York Herald reported on March 2, 1922 the Reformed Protestant Church had sold the property for $450,000.  The article noted "The Grace Reformed Church was abandoned as a place of worship in 1920."

Seven months later The New York Times offered more details.  Builder Marcus Brown, it said, had purchased the site "for a fourteen-story apartment house" and added "The undertaking, which will involve a total outlay of $1,500,000, will be started immediately."

The replacement building, known as The Congress today, survives.

Socialites, Teepees and Fashion Shows -- No. 25 East 22nd Street

photo wirednewyork.com

Although the majority of New York City’s wealthy gentry crowded into the grand Episcopal Churches in the 19th Century, the Reformed Church was the first organized church in Manhattan, in existence since 1628. While Vanderbilts and Astors worshipped at St. Thomas Church or Trinity Chapel, Van Rensselaers and Rollins attended Marble Collegiate Reformed Church on Fifth Avenue.

Among that congregation were Percy R. Pyne and his wife Albertina Shelton Pyne. The president of City Bank, Pyne amassed a fortune of over $10 million. Around the time of the Civil War he built a broad, 5-story townhouse with sweeping entrance stairs at No. 25 East 22nd Street off Fifth Avenue in the fashionable Murray Hill neighborhood. Here, in their home filled with their collection of paintings and the finest of furnishings, the Pyne's entertained the cream of society.

In the 1892 the Pynes moved north, having built a grand new home in Riverdale. At the same time the Reformed Church was seeking a consolidated headquarters for its administrative work. The Church purchased the mansion for $67,000 and immediately began renovations.

An large assembly room was added to the original structure, “furnished through the liberality of a few laymen.” One room was delegated to the Board of Foreign Missions, in which were displayed “many interesting objects collected by the Church’s missionaries in heathen lands.” Two rooms were used by the Board of Direction, and others were renovated for the Board of Publication, the Women’s Executive Committee, the Board of Domestic Missions, The Board of Education and the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions.

The atmosphere of the elegant home went from glittering dinner parties to sometimes surprising church functions.

In January of 1897 a Secretary of the Japanese Legation at St. Petersburg, Mr. Akiyama, paused at the Sturtevant House Hotel on his way back to Japan. In his room was a Bible. The Secretary read the text, and immediately decided to convert from Shintoism to Christianity.

He summoned the hotel manager who, in turn, sent for the Rev. Mr. Clark of Marble Collegiate Church. The Secretary, after discussing Christianity for some hours, demanded to be baptized at once, despite Clark’s urging for “deliberation.”

Within the day the Japanese diplomat was taken to No. 25 East 22nd Street where he attended a session of the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions and was baptized by Reverend Clark.

Later, on April 9 of that year, a teepee was erected inside the house as part of a fund-raising effort to build a parsonage for the Rev. Frank Hall Wright. Reverend Wright had been living in a teepee for two years while doing missionary work among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in Oklahoma. An “Indian Tea” was sponsored by the Women’s Executive Committee and the rooms were decorated with Navajo blankets and “many Indian curiosities.”

The New York Times reported that “At the tea table ‘Falling Star,’ a full-blood Indian, proved even more attractive than the delicious tea and cakes which she dispensed.”

On July 8, 1939 the Reformed Church headquarters moved to 156 Fifth Avenue. Two years later fire tore through the former Pyne House, seriously damaging the interiors. In 1942 the Serbian Orthodox Church purchased the property with the intention of converting it into a church. Those plans were abandoned when the Church obtained the former Trinity Chapel and the house was sold again a few months after it was purchased.

As the East 22nd Street neighborhood changed, the house became home to fashion companies. For years in the late 20th Century No. 25 West 22nd housed the New York City headquarters of Nike, Inc. In 1997 it was sold for $1 million to Novello, Inc., a fashion company, that intended “to use the property as its New York headquarters” and showrooms.

By the time the house was put on the market again in 2004, Mrs. Pyne would not have recognized her once-ornate interiors; an exhibition space with 40-foot ceilings, for instance, replaced her grand formal parlor. The 13,000 square foot property was purchased by David Chu, founder of Nautica, for $100 million the following year, for use as “an atelier.”

One of the last surviving reminders of the elegant residential period of East 22nd Street, the exterior of the Pyne House is amazingly intact despite the substantial alterations inside.

The Lost Sunshine Chapel - 550 West 40th Street

The Brickbuilder magazine, May 1909 (copyright expired)

 

On March 13, 1875, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published an article about the work of St. John's Guild, whose members ventured into the dangerous and impoverished Hell's Kitchen neighborhood to offer food or shelter.  In describing the conditions, the article noted,  "Another place visited was 550 West Fortieth Street, where in a tumble-down shanty a poor Frenchwoman lived with six small children."

The house at 550 West 40th Street in 1875.  Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 13, 1875 (copyright expired)

Another group that worked in the district was the Sunshine Mission.  It operated from rented rooms at 484 Eleventh Avenue, "under difficulties that might easily discourage the ordinary Settlement worker," according to the New-York Tribune later.  In 1886 the Marble Collegiate Church took over the struggling mission.

After it was evicted from its rooms in December 1905, a single, temporary room at 509 Tenth Avenue was rented.  The reduced space, according to the New-York Tribune, "made it necessary to disband the clubs and other work was neglected."  In response, the Marble Collegiate Church purchased the property at 550 West 40th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, and hired the architectural firm of Werner & Windolph to design a structure that could accommodate the many works of the Sunshine Mission.

Plans were filed in January 1906 for a "two-story brick and stone parish house" which would cost $12,000 to erect.  The total expense of the project, including the property and furniture, would total $30,000 (around $932,000 in 2022).  Construction forged ahead rapidly and by November the structure was nearly completed.  The New-York Tribune called it "a handsome structure, that will be an ornament as well as a blessing to the neighborhood."

Construction was nearing completion in November 1906.  The windows and doors had not yet been installed.  The New-York Tribune, November 22, 1906 (copyright expired)

The following month, The New York Observer reported, "The lower floor contains a commodious auditorium, reading room, office and kindergarten.  On the upper floor are a large clubroom and a gymnasium."  The basement held a basketball court--a significant lure to keep young Hell's Kitchen boys away from the dangerous streets.

The Brickbuilder magazine, May 1909 (copyright expired)

Once in its new building, the name of the organization was changed to the Sunshine Chapel.  The number of groups it supported was exhausting:  a Young Men's Guild, a Martha and Mary Society, a Senior and a Junior Boys' Club, and a Sunday School.  Free classes were offered in cooking and sewing, and another in gymnastics.  The kindergarten classroom was located at the rear of the first floor.  Directors told reporters, "it is believed that the accommodations in the new building will be as pleasant and as suitable as those of any kindergarten rooms in the city."

Like other missions, in the summer the Sunshine Chapel did "fresh-air work," which took children who had never played on grass or enjoyed fresh air into the country.

On December 17, 1907 the Sunshine Chapel celebrated its first anniversary in the new building with a two-part reception.  The New York Post reported "From nine to twelve...the kindergarten will welcome visitors," and that evening, "The clubs, physical culture class, and basketball teams will be seen in operations."  The basketball teams were a major source of recreation for the neighborhood youth, and their victories and defeats were followed in the sports columns.

The auditorium of Sunshine Chapel was the scene of nearly weekly lectures throughout the fall through spring seasons.  The topics were more likely to attract a middle- or upper-class audience, rather than the impoverished and ill-educated locals.  On October 21, 1908, for instance, Rubin Goldmark discussed "Siegfried," and on February 2, 1910, Dr. Toyokichi Iyenaga spoke on "An Andean Tour."  Although the lectures were free, the affluent audiences were almost assuredly asked for donations.

Donations, after all, were essential in keeping the Sunshine Chapel in operation.  Groups around the city routinely held benefit activities to support it.  On April 30, 1915, for instance, The Sun reported that the students of the private Gardner School on Fifth Avenue had presented Robert Bridges's play Achilles in Scyros at the Bandbox Theatre.  "It was an annual effort of these pupils in aid of charity," said the article.   "The proceeds this year are for the benefit of the Sunshine Chapel, at 550 West Fortieth street, a mission which is seeking to relieve some of the conditions brought about by the hardships of the winter."

Children are corralled to either side to allow the photographer a clear shot of the building.  photo by Byron Company, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. 

By 1913 the chapel operated an industrial school, as well.  Here local boys learned skills that would enable them to find work as adults--carpentry and metal working, for example.  On August 9 that year, the New York Herald reported that the school had 200 enrollees.

Since the building's opening, Rev. Harry Williams Murphy had been in charge of the Sunshine Chapel.  His varied experiences here prompted him to write his 1931 book, Twenty-five Years in Hell's Kitchen.

When Rev. Murphy died in 1935, the West Side Improvement Project was seeking to redevelop the squalid Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.  The following year, the Sunshine Chapel along with blocks of surrounding properties, were demolished to make way for the New York Central railroad beds.

The entire block was rubble on May 1, 1936.   In the background is Sts. Cyril & Methodius, St. Raphael Croatian Catholic Church, which survives.  photo from the collection of the New York Public Library.

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