Tabernacle Baptist Church (Manhattan)

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.[1]

Tabernacle Baptist Church
The Second Avenue Baptist Tabernacle (1850)
LocationNew York City
Arealess than one acre
Built1850
Rebuilt1930
ArchitectHenry Kaufman
Architectural style(s)Gothic
OwnerUrban Outfitters

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.[2]

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."[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

Warren Hall at 168 Second Avenue

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.[6]

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

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