Washington Square Methodist Episcopal Church was a

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

church which was located at 135 West Fourth Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

for almost 150 years. It was built as a new and larger structure by the Sullivan Street Methodist church in 1860; a balcony added later was the first New York City example of one not supported by columns. The building was sold by its remaining small congregation in 2004, which could no longer support maintenance on the structure. This congregation briefly rented space in

Trinity Chapel, New York University Holy Trinity Chapel of New York University was NYU's former Generoso Pope Catholic Center and Catholic chapel, located at 58 Washington Square South, West Village, Manhattan, New York. It was built 1961–1964 and was a prominent example of the B ...

(1964), before joining with two other

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

congregations to create the Church of the Village. Washington Square United Methodist Church was known as "The Peace Church" when under the leadership of Finley Schaef resulting from the congregation's opposition to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Paul Abels, New York City's first openly gay clergyman, served as the church's pastor from 1973 to 1984 and promoted acceptance of the gay and lesbian community. The church could not be demolished as it was located in the Greenwich Village Historic District and was instead converted into Novare, a condominium apartment building.

References

External links

* 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Churches completed in 1860 Closed churches in New York City Greenwich Village Residential buildings in Manhattan Methodist churches in New York City Methodist Episcopal churches in the United States {{Methodist-stub

See also

References

External links