Mount Calvary United Methodist Church

116 Edgecombe Avenue | Harlem | built 1926

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1897

   Henry Andersen designs a Lutheran church on Edgecombe Avenue

   Architect Henry Andersen designed the church in 1897-98 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement. It has a limestone-and-brick Gothic Revival facade with two copper-roofed turrets, a central stained-glass rose window and Roman-numeral clocks in the north tower. It went up as new transit and European immigration drew development into Upper Manhattan in the late 19th century.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1920

   Breakaway Bethel AME members found Mount Calvary Independent Methodist Church

   A group of parishioners left Bethel A.M.E. Church around 1920 and organized Mount Calvary Independent Methodist Church. The new congregation first rented a second-floor room in the Lafayette Building, then within a few years bought the former Lutheran church at 116 Edgecombe Avenue. By the 1940s it had one of the largest Black congregations in Harlem.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1946

   Shirley Chisholm teaches nursery school at Mount Calvary

   In 1946 Mount Calvary hired Shirley Chisholm as a teacher in its church nursery school, where she taught until 1953. She was later elected to the U.S. Congress as its first Black woman member and ran for president in 1972.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

4. 2021

   June 15

   The church becomes a contributing building in a new Harlem historic district

   On June 15, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Dorrance Brooks Square Historic District, with Mount Calvary as a contributing building. The church's owner supported the district but asked that the property be removed from its boundary. The district protects the church's Gothic Revival facades, two turrets and stained-glass rose window along with the surrounding Harlem buildings.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

• Mount Calvary United Methodist ChurchWikipedia

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