The Elmendorf Reformed Church, formerly known as the Elmendorf Chapel, is a historic

Reformed Church in America The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 152,317 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed ...

(RCA) church located at 171 East 121st Street between Sylvan Court and

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Squ ...

in the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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. It was founded as a parish house and Sunday school for the First Collegiate Church of Harlem, which had its beginnings in 1660 as the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem or Harlem Reformed Dutch Church, the first house of worship in Harlem. The Church's original burying ground for its

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

congregants was discovered in 2008 at the

126th Street Depot MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 29 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, with the exception of one located in nearby Yonkers in We ...

of the MTA Regional Bus Operations when body parts were found upon digging at the location. The

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

agreed to move the Depot by 2015. Sanctuaries were built in 1665–67, 1686–87, 1825 and 1897, at various locations in the area. In 1893-94 a Neoclassical parish house was built on this site under the auspices of Rev. Joachim Elmendorf, designed by Joseph Ireland. Around 1910, the church at the time was torn down, and the parish house was rebuilt as the Elmendorf Chapel, which then became the Elmendorf Reformed Church. It is the oldest congregation in Harlem. p.553 The church is a two-story plus basement building which is "L" shaped in plan and fills much of its 53 feet wide by 120 feet deep lot. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying 19 photographs''
/ref> The church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2010. On September 22, 2002, Patricia A. Singletary became the first female minister of the Elmendorf Reformed Church. The Elmendorf Reformed Church was organized in 1660 as the Harlem Reformed Low Dutch Church 6]

References

Notes

External links

*
Elmendorf Reformed Church website
Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City Churches completed in 1894 19th-century Calvinist and Reformed churches African-American history in New York City Reformed Church in America churches in New York (state) Churches in Harlem {{Manhattan-church-stub