Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church

Last updated

Marble Collegiate Church, on Fifth Avenue at 29th Street Marble Church NYC.jpg
Marble Collegiate Church, on Fifth Avenue at 29th Street

The Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church is a Dutch Reformed congregation in Manhattan, New York City, which has had a variety of church buildings and now exists in the form of four component bodies: the Marble, Middle, West End and Fort Washington Collegiate Church, all part of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Churches of New York. The original congregation was established in 1628. [1]

Contents

History

First church

Peter Minuit "had Kryn Frederick, the Company's engineer, build a solid fort ... called Fort Amsterdam. It was surrounded by cedar palisades, and was large enough to shelter all the people of the little colony in case of danger. Inside this fort there was a house for the Governor, and outside the walls was a warehouse for furs, and a mill which was run by horse-power, with a large room on the second floor to be used as a church." [2]

1633 church

The congregation's first church building, built on what is now Pearl Street in New York City facing the East River, to replace services held in lofts, was a simple timber structure with a gambrel roof and no spire. [1] The lofts described probably indicate the premises provided by Kryn Frederick.

Other sources claim a "second church" was built was located just outside the fort. In those sources, this claimed as the church that Governor Van Twiller built, which was described as "little better than a barn". This is probably describing the Pearl Street premises of 1633. "By this time negro slaves were being brought to the colony from Africa. They did the household work, while the colonists cultivated the fields. These slaves did most of the work on a new wooden church which was set up just outside the fort, for the new minister." [3]

By 1638, when Willem Kieft became director, "The fort was almost in ruins from neglect. The church was in little better condition. The mills were so out of repair that even if the wind could have reached them they could not have been made to do their work properly." [4]

c.1643 church

The second church was located within Fort Amsterdam's walls. The stone church had a spire with weathercock, and was the tallest structure in the city. After the fall of New Amsterdam to the English, the structure was reused as a military garrison church for the Anglican faith. [1]

The church that Walter Van Twiller had built was little better than a barn. The minister wanted a new one, and so did his congregation. Governor Kieft decided that there should be one of stone, and that it should be built inside the fort. There was a question as how to secure the money to build it. Kieft gave a small amount, as did other colonists, but there was not enough. Fortunately, just at this time, a daughter of Bogardus, the minister, was married. At the wedding, when the guests were in good humor, a subscription-list was handed out. The guests tried to outdo one another in subscribing money for the new church. Next day some of the subscribers were sorry they had agreed to give so much, but the Governor accepted no excuses and insisted on the money. It was collected, and the church was built. [4]

This church was the site where the Rev. Everardus Bogardus denounced Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft's administration during Kieft's War [5] which was probably the reason the church was moved into the fort in the first place and where the banished shipwreck survivor Cornelis Melyn returned and caused a writ from the States General to be presented to Petrus Stuyvesant on March 8, 1649. As Burton describes the confrontation: [6]

Melyn appeared at this meeting and demanded that Their High Mightinesses' Letter and the mandamus be read and explained to the people. In the midst of considerable excitement, Melyn handed the mandamus to Arnoldus van Hardenbergh to be read aloud. Stuyvesant in a rage snatched the mandamus from van Hardenbergh's hands, and in the confusion the seal was torn off. Melyn then offered Stuyvesant a copy of the mandamus, whereupon the latter was induced by some of the bystanders to return the original, which was read, including of course the summons commanding Stuyvesant to enter appearance without delay at the Hague to defend the judgment. Stuyvesant replied: "I honor the States General, and their commission and will obey their commands, and will send an agent to maintain the judgment as it was well and legally pronounced." Melyn demanded a written reply, but this neither Stuyvesant nor his Secretary would give.

The 1731 Middle Dutch Church as it appeared in 1830 The old Sugar House & Middle Dutch Church, Liberty St. N.Y. in 1830 by George Hayward in 1858..jpg
The 1731 Middle Dutch Church as it appeared in 1830

1693 Garden Street Church

The Garden Street Church, located on what is now Exchange Place, was built to replace the garrison church after its appropriation by the authorities. The congregation was granted a full charter as the Dutch Church in America by King William III of England on May 19, 1696. [1]

1731 Middle Collegiate Church

The original Middle Collegiate Church was on Nassau Street near Cedar Street, and was built in 1731. During the Revolutionary War, it was occupied by the British, who used it at various times as a prison, a hospital and a riding school. It reverted to being a church after the war. [7] From 1844 to 1875, the building was the city's main Post Office. It was torn down in 1882. [8]

1769 North Church

In 1769, to serve the needs of a growing congregation, the North Church was established. [1]

The New Middle Collegiate Church, on Second Avenue in the East Village Middle Collegiate Church NYC.jpg
The New Middle Collegiate Church, on Second Avenue in the East Village
West End Collegiate Church, at West End Avenue and West 77th Street West End Collegiate Church 77 jeh.JPG
West End Collegiate Church, at West End Avenue and West 77th Street
The Fort Washington Collegiate Church at 470 Fort Washington Avenue and West 181st Street Fort Wash Collegiate Ch jeh.JPG
The Fort Washington Collegiate Church at 470 Fort Washington Avenue and West 181st Street
Fort Washington Collegiate Church Parish Hall 2022 renovation Fort Washington Collegiate Church Parish Hall 07.jpg
Fort Washington Collegiate Church Parish Hall 2022 renovation

1839 Second Middle Collegiate Church, or Middle Dutch Church

The Middle Dutch Church or Middle Collegiate Church, which was built from 1836–1839, was located on Lafayette Place, now Lafayette Street, near La Grange Terrace. It was built as the second Collegiate Church congregation continued to move uptown with the population. Nathan Silver in Lost New York describes this structure as "a single-mindedly classic Greek Revival church by Isaiah Rogers, perhaps his best work." [8] This church was abandoned in 1887 and is no longer existent. Its bell was relocated to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, and then went to the New Middle Collegiate Church when St. Nicholas was demolished. [7]

1854 Marble Collegiate Church

The Marble Collegiate Church was built in 1854 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 29th Street. Originally called the Fifth Avenue Collegiate Church and sometimes referred to as the 29th Street Church, the church received the name "Marble" in 1906, after its facade made of Tuckahoe marble. [1] [9] The pastor for many years was Norman Vincent Peale, well known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking .

1872 St. Nicholas Collegiate Church

The St. Nicholas Collegiate Church at 600 Fifth Avenue at 48th Street was built in 1869-72, designed by W. Wheeler Smith in the Gothic Revival style, which critic Montgomery Schuyler called "Gothic gone roaring mad". Before being named after St. Nicholas, it was known as the Fifth Avenue Church and the Forty-Eighth Street Church. The church was demolished in 1949. [10]

1891 New Middle Collegiate Church

The New Middle Collegiate Church, built in 1891-92 and designed by S.B. Reed, [7] is located on Second Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets. [1] When initially built, the church had reading-rooms and a gymnasium. [8] The sanctuary's stained-glass windows were of Tiffany glass. [11] It is located within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, created in October 2012. [12] It housed the New York Liberty Bell. A fire in December 2020 significantly damaged the facility. [13] [14]

1892 West End Collegiate Church

The West End Collegiate Church, located at the northeast corner of West End Avenue and West 77th Street was built 1891-92, to the design of Robert W. Gibson.

1909 Fort Washington Collegiate Church

The Fort Washington Collegiate Church at 470 Fort Washington Avenue began as an outreach of the West End Collegiate Church. [15] The church was built in 1908-09 and was designed by the firm of Nelson & Van Wagenen in the Country Gothic style. In 1916, it became a full member of the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, along with the Marble, Middle and West End Collegiate Churches. It incorporates the congregation of the Hamilton Grange Reformed Church and former members of the Harlem Reformed Dutch Church. [1] [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Stuyvesant</span> Dutch director-general of New Netherland (c.1610–1672)

Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies, and later, states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Amsterdam</span> Colonial fort on Manhattan, New York (1625 to 1788)

Fort Amsterdam was a fortification on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. The fort and the island were the center of trade and the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then British/Colonial rule of the colony of New Netherland and thereafter the Province of New York. The fort was the nucleus of the settlement on the island and greater area, which was named New Amsterdam by the first Dutch settlers and eventually renamed New York by the English, and was central to much of New York's early history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willem Kieft</span> Dutch colonial governor (1597–1647)

Willem Kieft, also Wilhelm Kieft, was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland from 1638 to 1647.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wouter van Twiller</span> Dutch colonial administrator

Wouter van Twiller was an employee of the Dutch West India Company and the fourth Director of New Netherland. He governed from 1632 until 1638, succeeding Peter Minuit, who was recalled by the Dutch West India authorities in Amsterdam for unknown reasons.

The Eight Men was a group of eight residents chosen by the people of New Netherland in 1643 to advise Director Willem Kieft on his governance of the colony. An early form of representational democracy in colonial North America, it replaced the similarly selected Twelve Men and was followed by the Nine Men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marble Collegiate Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Marble Collegiate Church, founded in 1628, is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregations in North America. The congregation, which is part of two denominations in the Reformed tradition—the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America—is located at 272 Fifth Avenue at the corner of West 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in 1851–54 and was designed by Samuel A. Warner in Romanesque Revival style with Gothic trim. The façade is covered in Tuckahoe marble, for which the church, originally called the Fifth Avenue Church, was renamed in 1906.

Cornelis Melyn was an early Dutch settler in New Netherland and Patroon of Staten Island. He was the chairman of the council of eight men, which was a part of early steps toward representative democracy in the Dutch colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Netherlander</span> Historical cultural group of colonial New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

New Netherlanders were residents of New Netherland, the seventeenth-century colonial outpost of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America, centered on the Hudson River and New York Bay, and in the Delaware Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Nicholas Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church</span> Demolished church in Manhattan, New York

St. Nicholas Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church was a Reformed Protestant Dutch church in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which was Manhattan's oldest congregation when it was demolished in 1949. The church was on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 48th Street near Rockefeller Center. The church was built in 1872 to Gothic Revival designs in brownstone by architect W. Wheeler Smith and "distinguished by an elegantly tapered spire that, according to John A. Bradley in The New York Times, 'many declare…the most beautiful in this country.'" The congregation dated to 1628.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac T. Hopper House</span> Historic house in Manhattan, New York

The Isaac T. Hopper House is a Greek Revival townhouse at 110 Second Avenue between East 6th and 7th Streets in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Located just south of the New Middle Collegiate Church, it was built in 1837 and 1838 as a rowhouse. The building was also known as the Ralph and Ann E. Van Wyck Mead House, after its first owner. 110 Second Avenue is the only remaining rowhouse out of a group of four at 106–112 Second Avenue that was used by the Meads' extended family, and was originally known as 108 Second Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Collegiate Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Middle Collegiate Church is a dually aligned United Church of Christ and Reformed Church in America church located at 112 Second Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everardus Bogardus</span> Dutch American clergy

Everardus Bogardus was the dominie of the New Netherlands, and was the second minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest established church in present-day New York, which was then located on Pearl Street at its first location built in 1633, the year of his arrival. Bogardus was, in fact, the second clergyman in all of the New Netherlands.

Princess Amelia was a Dutch merchant ship of 38 guns and 600 tons (bm) built in 1634 and wrecked off Swansea, Bristol Channel, in 1647. She served the Dutch West India Company and was one of the largest merchant ships of her day with 38 guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jochem Pietersen Kuyter</span> Colonist of New Netherland

Jochem Pietersen Kuyter was an early colonist to New Netherland, and one of the first settlers of what would become Harlem on the island of Manhattan. He became an influential member of the community and served on the citizen boards known as the Twelve Men, the Eight Men and the Nine Men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Megapolensis</span>

Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) was a dominie (pastor) of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, beginning in 1642. Serving for several years at Fort Orange on the upper Hudson River, he is credited with being the first Protestant missionary to the Indians in North America. He later served as a minister in Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, staying through the takeover by the English in 1664.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Washington Collegiate Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

Fort Washington Collegiate Church is a Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church located at Magaw Place and 181st Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuyvesant Farm</span> Farm in New Amsterdam

Stuyvesant Farm, also known as the Great Bowery, was the estate of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland, as well as his predecessors and later his familial descendants. The land was at first designated Bowery No. 1, the largest and northernmost of six initial estates of the Dutch West India Company north of New Amsterdam, used as the official residence and economic support for Willem Verhulst and all subsequent directors of the colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nechtanc</span> Former Lenape settlement

Nechtanc was a Lenape settlement of the Canarsee located in what is now Two Bridges, Manhattan or the Lower East Side where the East River begins to turn north. In 1643, the settlement was the site of a massacre of Lenape people, mostly women and children, after the governor of New Netherland ordered the people killed as they slept. A simultaneous massacre occurred at Pavonia, just across the East River. The village is alternatively referred to in historical documents as Rechtauk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Amsterdam's windmills</span> Windmills of a 17th-century Dutch colony

In September 1609, Henry Hudson, accompanied by around 20 sailors, navigated the Halve Maen into present-day New York Harbor. Tasked by the Dutch East India Company to discover a route to Asia, Hudson's journey instead led to the Dutch staking claim over an area they named Nieuw Nederland, encompassing what are now parts of the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Between 1625 and 1626, the newly formed Dutch West India Company founded a settlement at the southern tip of Manhattan to serve as the capital and main trading hub of the colony, dubbing it Nieuw Amsterdam, which would eventually evolve into New York City.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Congregation History
  2. Hemstreet, Charles "Chapter III: Peter Minuit, First of the Dutch Governors". The Story of Manhattan, (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901) on Project Gutenberg
  3. Everardus Bogardus, from Hemstreet, Charles "Chapter IV: Walter Van Twiller, Second of the Dutch Governors From 1633 to 1637" The Story of Manhattan, (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901) on Project Gutenberg
  4. 1 2 Hemstreet, Charles. "Chapter V: William Kieft and the War with the Indians". The Story of Manhattan, (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901) on Project Gutenberg
  5. Shorto, Russell, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. New York City: Vintage Books, 2004. ISBN   1-4000-7867-9
  6. Burton, Paul Gibson (1937). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 8.
  7. 1 2 3 Dunlap 2004, p. 145.
  8. 1 2 3 Silver, Nathan (1967). Lost New York. New York: Weathervane Books. p. 147. OCLC   1706011.
  9. Dunlap 2004, p. 140.
  10. Dunlap 2004, p. 232.
  11. White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN   978-0-8129-3107-5.
  12. Brazee, Christopher D., et al. "East Village/Lower East Side Historic District Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (October 9, 2012)
  13. Slotkin, Jason (December 5, 2020). "Massive Fire Tears Through Historic Church Home To 'New York's Liberty Bell'". NPR.org. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  14. Cramer, Maria; Sandoval, Edgar (December 5, 2020). "East Village Fire Damages 128-Year-Old Church". The New York Times.
  15. Alexander, Cathy. "Fort Washington Collegiate Church" in Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-11465-2., p.474
  16. Dunlap 2004, p. 80.

Bibliography