Misplaced Pages

The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Tabernacle Baptist Church" Manhattan – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Tabernacle Baptist Church
The Second Avenue Baptist Tabernacle (1850)
Location	New York City
Area	less than one acre
Built	1850
Rebuilt	1930
Architect	Henry Kaufman
Architectural style(s)	Gothic
Owner	Urban Outfitters
Location of Tabernacle Baptist Church in New YorkShow map of New YorkTabernacle Baptist Church (Manhattan) (the United States)Show map of the United States

Tabernacle Baptist Church (also known as 'Baptist Tabernacle') was a church in Manhattan, New York City. It had its first home on Mulberry Street, Lower East Side, in 1839 supported by members of the Mulberry-Street Church. The Church played an important role in the 1940s, as it was home to Italian, Polish, and Russian Baptist congregations.

History

On Rev. Edward Lathrop presided over the Baptist Tabernacle Church on Mulberry Street until December 22, 1850, when the Baptist Tabernacle Church moved to a new building on 166 Second Avenue, between 10th and 11th Street in East Village, Manhattan.

In 1896, a New York Times article talks about the foreclosure of the property. “A Baptist Church Sold – Another of the Troubles of the Second Avenue Tabernacle Society.” It goes on to say that “At one time this church was one of the wealthiest Baptist societies in the United States. It has a large and rich congregation and did not want for money. But when the tide of fashion drifted up town, and the character of that part of the city about Second Avenue and Stuyvesant Place changed, the rich members began to drop away, and those who remained and the new recruits were less able to maintain their expensive property."

From 1928–30, on the site of the previous Tabernacle Church on Second Avenue, the Baptist Tabernacle Church was demolished and rebuilt as a "skyscraper church" for the Baptist Tabernacle. Henry Kaufman developed the fifteen-story Warren Hall, which incorporated a new home for the Baptist Tabernacle, at 162-168 Second Avenue (northeast corner of Tenth Street), designed by Emery Roth.

The Church played an important role in the 1940s, as home to Italian, Polish, and Russian Baptist congregations. Today, the words BAPTIST TABERNACLE can be still be seen over the doorway at Warren Hall on 168 Second Avenue. The property is now owned by the Urban Outfitters store.

References

1. The New York Times, October 8, 1889
2. Reminiscences of Baptist churches and Baptist leaders in New York City, George H. Hansell, 1918
3. "A Baptist Church Sold" (PDF). The New York Times. December 19, 1896. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
4. Digital Collections, The New York Public Library
5. Hawks With a Taste for Quality Construction, by Karen Loew, March 19, 2015
6. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship

40°43′48″N 73°59′10″W / 40.730°N 73.986°W / 40.730; -73.986

• Baptist churches in New York City
• 19th-century Baptist churches in the United States
• Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City
• Churches completed in 1850
• East Village, Manhattan