New Utrecht Reformed Church is the fourth oldest

Reformed Church in America The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a Mainline Protestant, mainline Reformed tradition, Reformed Protestant Christian denomination, denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 152,317 members. From its beginning in 1628 unti ...

congregation and is located in

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22n ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

."About Us", New Utrecht Reformed Church
/ref> The church was established in 1677 by ethnic

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

residents in the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

New Utrecht, Brooklyn New Utrecht ( nl, Nieuw Utrecht) was a town in western Long Island, New York encompassing all or part of the present-day Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City. ...

, several years after the English took over

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

. It is affiliated with the

, a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

denomination. The

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

was consecrated in 1654; 1300 dead are interred there. The Liberty Pole, the sixth on the site of the present church, was originally erected in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War to harass departing British troops. The present church was built in 1828 of stones taken from the original church, built in 1700. Construction was supervised by US Army engineer, Rene Edward De Russy, who led the construction of

Fort Hamilton Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which is ...

at New York harbor. The parish house was built in 1892 and the parsonage in 1906. The church was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1966; the parish house and the cemetery received landmark status in 1998. Both the church and the cemetery are listed in 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 v ...

. ''See also:'' ''See also:'' New Utrecht Reformed Church jeh.JPG, Steeple New Utrecht parish house jeh.jpg, Parish House NEW UTRECHT REFORMED CHURCH, KINGS COUNTY NY.jpg, Church __NOTOC__

References

External links

New Utrecht Reformed ChurchFriends of Historic New Utrecht
* Includes photos of the interior.

New York City Landmarks Commission

New York City Landmarks Commission
New Utrecht Reformed Church
Historic Marker Database Churches in Brooklyn Dutch-American culture in New York City 1677 establishments in the Province of New York Religious organizations established in the 1670s 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed churches Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn Reformed Church in America churches Former Dutch Reformed churches in New York (state) Churches completed in 1828 Bensonhurst, Brooklyn New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn {{Brooklyn-NRHP-stub