400 East 67th Street at First Avenue New York, N.Y. 10021 http://churches.rca.org/bethany_nyc
Bethany Memorial Reformed Church can trace its origins back to 1882 when the Madison Avenue Reformed Church founded a mission to serve the immigrants flocking to the east side of Manhattan. Located on 60th Street and First Avenue, the the mission was organized as a chapel in 1893. From 1906-1910, the chapel was located at 1044 First Avenue, and at some point a "Day Nursery" was established to provide child care while immigrant mothers worked in the cigar factories of the east side. In 1910, a new mission building was erected on the corner of East 67th Street and First Avenue. Designed by Nelson & Van Wagenen, the facility included a gymnasium, meeting and activities rooms, and a chapel. In 1917, the Madison Avenue Church disbanded, but turned over the Bethany property and assets of approximately $250,000 to the Collegiate Church Corporation. In return, Collegiate agreed to support the Bethany ministry for ninety-nine years. Bethany continued to maintain its original calling by serving the community, children and youth of the east side. In the early 1980s, the church began "the cancer ministry" to area hospitals by informally providing inexpensive lodging for cancer patients undergoing outpatient chemotherapy or radiation treatment or families of in-patients. Bible study rooms and the choir room were renovated into bedrooms that could accomodate up to 20 people, and visitors were able to cook meals in the church kitchen. In the 1990s, the Collegiate Church Consistory decided to take advantage of the Manhattan real estate boom by selling the land under Bethany Church to a developer, who would demolish the church and put up a 29-story apartment building that would include some space for the church. Members of Bethany Church fought the Collegiate Corporation's decision, but ultimately the mission building was torn down in 2002. The Bethany congregation now shares the facilities of the nearby First Hungarian Reformed Church at 344 East 69th Street. |
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