Middle Collegiate Church

The Middle Collegiate Church is a 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.[1]

Middle Collegiate Reformed Church
Middle Collegiate Reformed Church
Middle Collegiate Reformed Church
Middle Collegiate Reformed Church
Location112 Second Avenue
between 6th and 7th Street
Manhattan, New York City
CountryUnited States
DenominationReformed
History
StatusGutted by 6-alarm fire in 2020
Architecture
Architect(s)Samuel B. Reed
Architectural typeGothic Revival
Years built1891–1892

The Gothic Revival church was built from 1891 to 1892 as the congregation's fourth location, and was designed by Samuel B. Reed. It featured stained-glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It is located within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.[2][3] It is part of the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.

On December 5, 2020, the church was gutted by a fire that left only its stone exterior and its bell intact.[4][5][6][7]

Church building

The church was built in 1891 on a site directly north of the Isaac T. Hopper House, and was designed by the architect S. B. Reed, "'thoroughly equipped' as one guide said, 'with reading-rooms, gymnasium, and all appliances for aggressive modern church work'."[8] The stained-glass windows were of Tiffany glass.[3]

The church bell, moved to the current building in 1949,[9] was cast in Amsterdam in 1729.[4] It was known as "New York's Liberty Bell" because it was rung to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.[10] It also marked the inaugurations and deaths of American presidents, remembrances of the September 11th attacks, and other occasions, such as the death of King George VI in 1952.[11][12]

The congregation is known for its activism.[13]

Previous locations

The congregation was founded in 1628, and built its first church in 1731 on Nassau Street.[10] It is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregations in North America. During the American Revolutionary War, when the British occupied New York, the Nassau Street building was used as a prison, a hospital, and a riding school. After the war it was converted back to a church, but became the city's main post office in 1844, a role it played for over 30 years.[10]

Meanwhile, the congregation built another sanctuary on Lafayette Place from 1836 to 1839. Called the Second Middle Collegiate Church, or the Lafayette Place Middle Dutch Church, it was an Isaiah Rogers-designed Greek Revival building with a spire, an unusual combination which provoked the remark that the spire was there to Christianize the pagan building below it. The congregation abandoned the building in 1887, and it was razed, but not before the bell was moved to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas.[10] It returned to the Middle Collegiate Church – by now at Second Avenue – when St. Nicholas was demolished in December 1949.[9]

Other existing churches tracing their congregational founding to the same first Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of 1628 include West End Collegiate Church (built 1892), located on the corner of West End Avenue and 77th Street; Marble Collegiate Church, at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street; and the Fort Washington Collegiate Church, at Magaw Place and 181st Street. All are part of the Reformed Church in America.[1]

Fire
Burned out window

On December 5, 2020, a fire spread to the church from a neighboring building, engulfing the structure and leaving intact only the exterior stone walls.[6][14] The fire, the cause of which is under investigation,[15] took nearly eight hours to extinguish.[4][5] The roof collapsed,[7] the Tiffany windows were blown out and the sanctuary was destroyed.[4] Only the "Liberty Bell" and the exterior survived.[7][16] The tower in which it hung was also not destroyed.[13]

A senior minister of the church described the aftermath as "a gutted building full of smoke".[4] New York City Fire Department Assistant Chief John Hodgens described the church and an adjacent building as "total losses",[5][6] and their structural stability was being evaluated by engineers in the wake of the blaze.[17]

The fate of the church building was initially unclear, but the ministry will continue, and fundraising to rebuild commenced. Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged the city's assistance with rebuilding. Services have been conducted online since March 2020, and continued after the blaze.[5][16] The church was insured for fire, but as of Christmas 2020 required about $500,000 to rebuild.[7]

References
  1. "The Collegiate Churches of New York City", Reformed Church in America.
  2. Betts, Mary Beth (ed.) (October 9, 2012) "East Village/Lower East Side Historic District Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
  3. White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
  4. Cramer, Maria and Sandoval, Edgar (December 5, 2020) "East Village Fire Damages 128-Year-Old Church" The New York Times
  5. Raskin, Sam; Balsamini, Dean (December 5, 2020). "Massive East Village fire destroys historic church". New York Post. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  6. Tracy, Thomas; Williams, Nicholas; McShane, Larry (December 5, 2020). "'God is right here weeping with us': Historic 19th century East Village church destroyed by raging fire started in vacant building". New York Daily News. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  7. Henao, Luis Andres; Leshner, Emily (2020-12-24). "Christmas unites New York City community after fire guts historic church". ABC7 New York. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  8. Silver, Nathan (1967) Lost New York, New York: Weathervane Books. p.147
  9. "Our Liberty Bell Moves Again". The Daily News. December 20, 1949. Retrieved December 8, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 145. ISBN 0-231-12543-7.
  11. "Free World Pays Tribute to Dead King". The Times Record. Troy, N.Y. United Press. February 15, 1952. p. 1. Retrieved December 8, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Slotkin, Jason (December 5, 2020) "Massive Fire Tears Through Historic Church Home To 'New York's Liberty Bell'" NPR
  13. Lewis, Jacqui (December 6, 2020). "Congregation 'Devastated' After Fire Guts Historic New York Church". All Things Considered (Interview). Interviewed by Martin, Michel. NPR. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  14. Bote, Joshua (December 5, 2020). "Devastating New York City fire destroys 19th-century church, a 'beloved' institution". USA Today.
  15. "Historic Middle Collegiate Church Destroyed In East Village Fire; Cause Under Investigation, FDNY Says". CBS2New York. December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  16. Henao, Luis Andres (December 5, 2020). "Fire guts historic church home to New York's Liberty Bell". Associated Press. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  17. "Raging fire in East Village damages historic church; 4 firefighters suffer minor injuries". WABC-TV Eyewitness News. December 6, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
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