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Calvary Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist church, located at 123
West 57th Street 57th Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at ...
between the
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(Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue, near
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. , the church is at a temporary location while its building at 123 West 57th Street is being demolished and replaced.


History

The church was founded in 1847, and its first sanctuary was at 50 West 23rd Street, completed in 1854. It then moved to a red sandstone Gothic church designed by John Rochester Thomas at its current location, which was built in 1883–1884. It also had a chapel at 223 West 67th Street, which was later used by St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church., p.37 In 1923, Calvary became one of the earliest churches to operate its own radio station and has since maintained a long tradition of widely followed religious broadcasts. "Tell It From Calvary" is a radio show that the church still produces weekly; it is heard on WMCA. The building at 123 West 57th Street was an early example of an urban high-rise, or "skyscraper", church, a 16-story building which also included the Hotel Salisbury, an apartment hotel. Planning for the edifice began in 1929, with the design credited to the firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdock, and the building was dedicated in 1931. Two
Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...
grand pianos were donated to the church by pianist
Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold ...
, who attended periodically while living in the hotel.
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
and
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
have worshipped at Calvary.
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (; November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...
and
Billy Sunday William Ashley Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American evangelist and professional baseball outfielder. He played for eight seasons in the National League before becoming the most influential American preacher during t ...
have preached there. In early 2020, Calvary Baptist Church and the Salisbury Hotel closed. The Gothic Revival edifice was planned to be demolished to make way for a new office building with space for the church. Following a delay due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
, Alchemy Properties acquired the church in July 2021, and demolition began in 2022. During the renovation, Calvary gathered every Sunday at 10 a.m. on the Manhattan campus of
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
, as well as online.


Senior pastors

* 1847-1849 David Bellamy * 1850-1852 John Dowling * 1852-1863 A. D. Gillette * 1864-1869 R. J. W. Buckled * 1870-1911 Robert Stuart MacArthur * 1915-1917 Joseph W. Kemp * 1918-1929 John Roach Straton. During his tenure, Calvary was nationally known as a center for fundamentalism and efforts to reform society in his vision of Bible-based morality. * 1930-1934 Will H. Houghton Houghton resigned from Calvary's pulpit to serve as the fourth president of
Moody Bible Institute Moody Bible Institute (MBI) is a private evangelical Christian Bible college in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Historically, MBI has maintained positions that have identified it as ...
in Chicago, IL. * 1936-1949 William Ward Ayer A poll found preacher and religious broadcaster Ayer to be Manhattan's "third-most influential citizen", behind
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
and religious broadcaster Bishop Fulton Sheen. * 1950-1957 John Summerfield Wimbish * 1959-1973 Stephen F. Olford Olford "took it as a challenge to seek to overcome prejudice" and the church was desegregated under his leadership. Today, the church "celebrates hecongregation’s ethnic, racial, social-economic, generational, and cultural diversity within heunity in Jesus Christ" as one of its core values, a diversity that "reflects what heaven will look like one day." * 1976-1986 Dr. Donald R. Hubbard * 1989-1994 James O. Rose Jr. * 1997–2018 David Paul Epstein * 2022–present Abraham Joseph


References


External links

* {{Midtown North, Manhattan Baptist churches in New York City Churches in Manhattan Religious organizations established in 1847 Midtown Manhattan 1847 establishments in New York (state) Skyscrapers in Manhattan Evangelical megachurches in the United States Megachurches in New York (state) Independent Baptist churches in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Buildings and structures demolished in 2022