Mariners' Temple

12 Oliver Street | also 3 Henry Street, 8 Oliver Street | Two Bridges | built 1900

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1799

   Henry Rutgers sells land for a Baptist church on Fayette Street

   Henry Rutgers sells two lots on what is then Fayette Street to a recently formed Baptist congregation, which puts up a small wooden church there. The street is renamed Oliver Street in 1819, and a later brownstone church on the same lot eventually becomes home to Mariners' Temple.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1845

   The Oliver Street Baptist Church rebuilds in brownstone after a fire

   Henry Rutgers sold two lots here to a Baptist congregation on June 30, 1799, and a wooden church stood on the site until fire destroyed it in 1843. Its replacement, a Greek Revival brownstone temple, was completed in 1845. The Landmarks Preservation Commission credits the design to Minard Lafever, though church records point to a member named Isaac Lucas. After a merger, the building became the Mariners' Temple, a mission to seafarers and the poor.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1910

   September

   A Chinese Rescue Mission opens inside the church

   As the surrounding streets fill with Chinese immigrants, the church opens a Chinese Rescue Mission in September, part of a decades-long shift in the congregation's outreach from sailors to the neighborhood that becomes Chinatown.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1983

   Suzan Johnson Cook becomes senior pastor of Mariners' Temple

   In 1983 the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook became senior pastor of Mariners' Temple, the first woman to be a senior pastor in the 200-year history of American Baptist Churches USA. She led the church for about 13 years before founding a congregation in the Bronx in 1996. From 2011 to 2013 she served as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the first woman and first African American in that post.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• Mariner's TempleWikipedia
• The 1845 Mariners' Temple -- 12 Oliver StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• Mariners' Temple Baptist ChurchPlace Matters

Nearby

• Mariners' Temple Baptist Church6 Oliver Street | 5 entries
• P.S. 1 Alfred E. Smith School8 Henry Street | 3 entries
• Daniel Riordan House15 Oliver Street | 5 entries
• Alfred E. Smith House25 Oliver Street | 4 entries
• Woolsey G. Sterling House27 Oliver Street | 8 entries
• Alfred E. Smith House25REAR Oliver Street | 5 entries

All 43 buildings with stories in Two Bridges