Mulberry Street Baptist Church Fifth Avenue Baptist Church Park Avenue Baptist Church
Architecture
Heritage designation
National Register of Historic Places, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Architect(s)
Allen & Collens and Henry C. Pelton
Architectural type
Neo-Gothic
Groundbreaking
November 21, 1927; 96 years ago (November 21, 1927)
Completed
October 5, 1930; 93 years ago (October 5, 1930)
Specifications
Capacity
2,100
Nave width
89 feet (27 m)
Number of floors
22
Spire height
392 feet (119 m)
Bells
74 (carillon)
Riverside Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New York State Register of Historic Places
New York City Landmark No. 2037
Location
478, 490 Riverside Dr. & 81 Claremont Ave., Manhattan, New York
Built
1930 (main building) 1957 (MLK Wing) 1962 (conversion of Stone Gym)
Architect
Allen & Collens, Henry C. Pelton (main building) Collens, Willis & Beckonert (MLK Wing) Louis E. Jallade (Stone Gym)
Architectural style
Late Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.
12001036
NYSRHP No.
06101.001261[2]
NYCL No.
2037
Significant dates
Added to NRHP
December 12, 2012[4]
Designated NYSRHP
October 18, 2012[2]
Designated NYCL
May 16, 2000[3]
Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, associated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. The church was conceived by philanthropist businessman and Baptist John D. Rockefeller Jr. in conjunction with Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fosdick as a large, interdenominational church in Morningside Heights, which is surrounded by academic institutions.
The church occupies the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street, and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and across from Grant's Tomb. The original building opened in 1930; it was designed by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens in the Neo-Gothic style. It contains a nave consisting of five architectural bays; a chancel at the front of the nave; a 22-story, 392-foot (119 m) tower above the nave; a narthex and chapel; and a cloistered passageway that connects to the eastern entrance on Claremont Avenue. Near the top of the tower is the church's main feature, a 74-bell carillon—the heaviest in the world—dedicated to Rockefeller Jr.'s mother Laura Spelman Rockefeller. A seven-story wing was built to the south of the original building in 1959 to a design by Collens, Willis & Beckonert, and was renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. in 1985. The Stone Gym to the southeast, built in 1915 as a dormitory, was designed by Louis E. Jallade and was converted to a gymnasium in 1962.
Riverside Church has been a focal point of global and national activism since its inception, and it has a long history of social justice in adherence to Fosdick's original vision of an "interdenominational, interracial, and international" church.[3] Its congregation includes members of more than forty ethnic groups. The church was designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2000[3] and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.[4]
^Cite error: The named reference NYT-Butler-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ab"Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. November 7, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
^ abcLandmarks Preservation Commission 2000, p. 1.
^ ab"National Register of Historic Places Weekly Lists for 2012" (PDF). U.S. National Park Service. December 28, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 28, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
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Global Information
