The West End Collegiate Church is a church on

West End Avenue West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

at 77th Street on

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 ...

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. It is part of The Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the City of New York, the oldest Protestant church with a continuing organization in America. The Collegiate Church of New York is dually affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The West End Collegiate Church is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

History

West End Collegiate was built as part of the rapid development of the

in the late nineteenth century—from country estates to an urban neighborhood of town houses and, later, apartment buildings. On October 16, 1890, the Consistory of the Collegiate Church instructed the "Committee on a new church site west of

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

" to price several plots of land of a minimum size of seven lots. The Committee purchased four lots on

and three lots on 77th Street for $89,000. A building committee was formed and construction began in 1891. The building stood complete in the fall of 1892 and dedicated on November 20, 1892. On November 19, 1892, The Reverend Henry Evertson Cobb of West Troy, New York was called to become the first minister of the Church. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the church was a center for the Dutch refugee and relief effort; Princess

Juliana of the Netherlands Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. ...

visited twice during the war. The church buildings were designated a

New York City Landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

in 1967 and 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 1980.

Architecture

Architect

Robert W. Gibson Robert W. Gibson, AIA, (1854 in England – 1927 in New York City) was an English-born American ecclesiastical architect active in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century New York state. He designed several large Manhattan churches and a ...

designed the church in

Dutch Colonial Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial R ...

style, following the design of the 1606

Vleeshal The Vleeshal is a historical building dating from 1603 on the Grote Markt in Haarlem, the Netherlands. History ''Vleeshal'' means meat-hall; it was the only place in Haarlem where fresh meat was allowed to be sold from 1604 to the 18th century. ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. This building has the picturesque qualities of the Gothic, highly valued in the late nineteenth century and deemed especially appropriate to church architecture. Authenticity is enhanced by the choice of long, thin, brown bricks laid in Roman pattern, and by the generous use of

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

and blockings of buff terra cotta. The architect further enhanced the antique effect by inserting several handsome, terra cotta panels carved with the coats-of-arms of the church and of past benefactors. The large, octagonal pulpit is carved from oak. Its panels show the coat-of-arms of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

and the great seal of the Church. The pulpit chairs are carved of oak in Old Dutch style. The stained glass windows were donated and created over the course of several decades; three are by

Tiffany Studios Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname Known mononymously as "Tiffany": * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter, actress know ...

and one, the east transept window titled ''The morning cometh and the shadows flee away'', was designed by Clara Miller Burd. In the early 2000s, all the stained glass windows of the church were removed, repaired and reinstalled.

The morning cometh and the shadows flee away by Clara M Burd

References

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control 19th-century Reformed Church in America church buildings Churches completed in 1892 Churches in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Robert W. Gibson church buildings Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Reformed Church in America churches in New York (state) West End Avenue Upper West Side Reformed churches in New York City 1892 establishments in New York (state)

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links