1920 Amsterdam Avenue at 155th Street New York, N.Y. 10032 The Washington Heights Presbyterian Church was originally affiliated with the Congregationalists and known as the Washington Heights Congregational Church. Organized in 1854, the society held services in a wooden chapel on Tenth Avenue, between 155th and 156th Streets. Land was purchased on the corner of Tenth Avenue and 155th Street and the congregation hired Kellum & Sons to draw the plans for a new church. Despite the financial Panic of 1857, the year the congregation began to build, but lacking funds, the congregation abandoned the effort before the end of the year. The Rev. O. H. White, the first pastor of the congregation “was dismissed, at his own request” and for awhile the congregation had to abandon its building and hold services in Cuthell’s Hall, on the corner of 156th Street and 10th Avenue, whenever it could obtain the services of a preacher. On January 29, 1858, the society voted to become a “Presbyterian Church, to change its corporate name, to approve the articles of faith and Covenant, and to elect Elders and Deacons according to Presbyterian usage.” One of the supply preachers was the Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D.D., who in 1859, accepted the call to became pastor of the church. In 1860, the congregation was financially secure enough that it nominated a building committee and work on the building resumed. In 1862, the society moved beyond music that consisted of “a precentor, feebly followed by the congregation” and organized a volunteer choir. After the Civil War, in February 1868, William Wheelock donated an organ and paid to erect an addition to the “rear of the pulpit” to receive it, adding “about $4,500 to the value of the church, besides contributing to the excellence of the services.” The organist was Mr. O. Oxnard. In his Independence Day sermon in 1876, Dr. Stoddard drew the congregation's attention to the church building and reviewed its statistics: 85 feet long and 48 feet wide, “with two brick towers, one of which rises to a height of 120 feet, and is crowned by a belfry, containing a sweet toned bell of 1500 pounds weight. A clock…is a great service to the neighborhood.” The sanctuary or “main audience room” was 72 feet by 46 feet with “a single gallery over the vestibule.” The church had 88 pews of varied lengths that would “accommodate both large and small families with equally eligible seating” and had room for 600 people. Like most churches of the day, the church raised some of its operating funds by renting pews. Stoddard described ceilings and upper walls that were “tastefully frescoed” and lower walls that were “marked off in blocks.” Stained glass windows and oak trim completed the decorations. The total cost of that structure was “about $27,491.96, of which $13,000 was raised upon a mortgage.” All three structures that have housed the Washington Heights Presbyterian Church (now North Presbyterian Church) have occupied land that was part of the original Audubon estate. In 1905, Washington Heights Presbyterian Church merged with North Presbyterian, which has been forced to leave its home at 31st Street and 9th Avenue because its property had been purchased for the terminal of the new tunnel for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The combined congregations took the name North Presbyterian Church and erected a new church on 155th Street, almost in the middle of the block between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. In 1908, the old Washington Heights church, which was to be razed, was destroyed by fire. |
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