Tabernacle Baptist Church (also known as '

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

') was a church in

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 had its first home on Mulberry Street,

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, in 1839 supported by members of the Mulberry-Street Church. 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 The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Villag ...

. 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." 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. 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 Emery Roth ( hu, Róth Imre, July 17, 1871 – August 20, 1948) was an American architect of Hungarian-Jewish descent who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux ...

. 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 Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, Kuw ...

store.From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship

References

{{coord, 40.730, -73.986, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Baptist churches in New York City 19th-century Baptist churches in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City Churches completed in 1850 East Village, Manhattan