Elmendorf Reformed Church | |
Location | 171 E. 121st St. Manhattan, New York City |
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Coordinates | 40°48′5.5″N73°56′18″W / 40.801528°N 73.93833°W |
Built | 1893-94 [1] |
Architect | Joseph Ireland [1] |
Architectural style | Classical [1] |
NRHP reference No. | 10000225 [2] |
Added to NRHP | April 27, 2010 |
The Elmendorf Reformed Church, formerly known as the Elmendorf Chapel, is a historic Reformed Church in America (RCA) church located at 171 East 121st Street between Sylvan Court and Third Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded as a parish house and Sunday school [3] for the First Collegiate Church of Harlem, which had its beginnings in 1660 as the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem or Harlem Reformed Dutch Church, the first house of worship in Harlem. The Church's original burying ground for its African American congregants was discovered in 2008 at the 126th Street Depot of the MTA Regional Bus Operations when body parts were found upon digging at the location. [4] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to move the Depot by 2015. [5] Sanctuaries were built in 1665–67, 1686–87, 1825 and 1897, at various locations in the area. In 1893-94 a Neoclassical parish house was built on this site under the auspices of Rev. Joachim Elmendorf, designed by Joseph Ireland. Around 1910, the church at the time was torn down, and the parish house was rebuilt as the Elmendorf Chapel, which then became the Elmendorf Reformed Church. It is the oldest congregation in Harlem. [1] [6]
The church is a two-story plus basement building which is "L" shaped in plan and fills much of its 53 feet wide by 120 feet deep lot. [7]
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. [2]
On September 22, 2002, Patricia A. Singletary became the first female minister of the Elmendorf Reformed Church.
The Elmendorf Reformed Church was organized in 1660 as the Harlem Reformed Low Dutch Church[5][6][7]
Trinity Church is a historic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, whose church is located at 89 Broadway opposite Wall Street, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Known for its centuries of history, prominent location, distinguished architecture and bountiful endowment, Trinity's congregation is said to be "high church", its activities based on the traditions of the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion in missionary outreach, and fellowship. In addition to its main church, Trinity parish maintains two chapels: St. Paul's Chapel, and the Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion on Governors Island. The Church of the Intercession, the Trinity Chapel Complex and many other of Manhattan's Episcopal congregations were once part of Trinity parish. Columbia University was founded on the church's grounds as King's College in 1754.
The Church of the Intercession is an Episcopal congregation located at 550 West 155th Street, at Broadway, on the border of the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City, on the grounds of Trinity Church Cemetery. The congregation was founded in 1846, and the current sanctuary, built in 1912–1915, was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the Gothic Revival style. From 1906–1976, it was a chapel of Trinity Church.
The Church of the Transfiguration, also known as the Little Church Around the Corner, is an Episcopal parish church located at 1 East 29th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The congregation was founded in 1848 by George Hendric Houghton and worshiped in a home at 48 East 29th Street until the church was built and consecrated in 1849.
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has been the site of continuous Christian worship since the mid-17th century, making it New York City's oldest site of continuous religious practice. The structure is the second-oldest church building in Manhattan.
St. Michael's Church is a historic Episcopal church at 225 West 99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. The parish was founded on the present site in January 1807, at that time in the rural Bloomingdale District. The present limestone Romanesque building, the third on the site, was built in 1890–91 to designs by Robert W. Gibson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
St. Cecilia Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and a historic landmark located at 120 East 106th Street between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York. The parish was established in 1873. It was staffed by the Redemptorist Fathers from 1939 to 2007. The church was designated a New York City landmark in 1976. The church and convent were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Old Bergen Church is a historic church congregation in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Established in 1660 in what was then the Dutch colony of New Netherland, it is the oldest continuous religious congregation in what is today the State of New Jersey. The congregation is jointly affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1973. The original church building was constructed in 1680 and the current edifice was built in 1841.
The Trinity Chapel Complex, now better known as the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava is a historic Eastern Orthodox church at 15 West 25th Street between Broadway and the Avenue of the Americas in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
The Metropolitan Baptist Church, located at 151 West 128th Street on the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was originally built in two sections for the New York Presbyterian Church, which moved to the new building from 167 West 111th Street. The chapel and lecture room were built in 1884-85 and were designed by John Rochester Thomas, while the main sanctuary was constructed in 1889-90 and was designed by Richard R. Davis, perhaps following Thomas's unused design. A planned corner tower was never built.
The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is an Episcopal church located on South Greeley Avenue in Chappaqua, New York, United States. It was built in the early years of the 20th century on land donated by Horace Greeley's daughter Gabrielle and her husband, himself a priest of the Episcopal Church. In 1979 it was one of several properties associated with Greeley in Chappaqua listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Church of Saint Mary Virgin and Greeley Grove.
The Flatbush Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, also known as the Flatbush Reformed Church, is a historic Dutch Reformed church – now a member of the Reformed Church in America – at 890 Flatbush Avenue in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The church complex consists of the church, cemetery, parsonage and church house.
The St. Thomas More Church is part of a Roman Catholic church complex located on East 89th Street, off Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York City. The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York. Attached to the complex is the church (1870), a single-cell chapel (1879), a rectory (1880), and a parish house (1893). The church was built for the Protestant Episcopal Church as the Chapel of the Beloved Disciple in the Gothic Revival architectural style. Under various names, the church building has been used by three Christian denominations, including Episcopalians, Dutch Reformed, and Catholics. It is the second-oldest church on the Upper East Side.
St. Philip's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 204 West 134th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Its congregation was founded in 1809 by free African Americans worshiping at Trinity Church, Wall Street as the Free African Church of St. Philip. First located in the notorious Five Points neighborhood, it is the oldest black Episcopal parish in New York City. Historically, it was extremely influential both while located in lower Manhattan and as an institution in Harlem, and many of its members have been leaders in the black community. In 2020, it reported 188 members, 111 average attendance, and plate and pledge income of $224,827.
The Church of Corpus Christi is a Catholic parish church in the Archdiocese of New York, located on West 121st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The parish was established in 1906. In 2022, the parish merged with the nearby Church of Notre Dame.
The Albemarle–Kenmore Terraces Historic District is a small historic district located in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It consists of two short cul-de-sacs, Albemarle Terrace and Kenmore Terrace, off of East 21st Street, and the 32 houses on the two streets, as well as a four-family apartment building at the end of Albemarle Terrace. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which designated the district as a landmark in 1978, noted that the "terraces are distinguished by the uniform use of materials, height and color producing a harmonious effect".
The Flatbush African Burial Ground or FABG is the site of a historic African-American cemetery dating to the 17th century at Church and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, on land formerly owned by the adjacent Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church.
The Harlem African Burial Ground was a segregated cemetery created in 1668 for the burial of enslaved and freed Africans in the Dutch colony of Harlem. It is located at what is presently 2460 Second Avenue in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was maintained until 1858 by the Elmendorf Reformed Church, the successor of the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem which founded the cemetery. Although historians of New York and Harlem, as well as church historians, were aware of the cemetery's existence, the East Harlem community was largely unaware of its history until the late 1990s when the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) began planning the reconstruction of the nearby Willis Avenue Bridge. The investigation revealed that the construction might affect a colonial site and historic burial ground which was under the decommissioned East 126th Street Bus Depot. Per New York State law, the DOT conducted a Phase I-A historical and archeological survey, which verified the existence of the burial ground.
Patricia Ann Singletary is an American pastor, educator, author, and community organizer. She is the founder of Adoni Economic Enterprises, Inc. In 2002, she became the first female minister of Elmendorf Reformed Church in Harlem, the oldest religious congregation in Harlem dating back to 1660. Singletary is the author of “The African-American Guide to Buying Stock Without a Broker.” She is the co-founder of the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force.
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