Park Church Co-op
129 Russell Street | Greenpoint | built 1930
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1902
Dodge & Morrison design the Lutheran Church of the Messiah on Russell Street, and its cornerstone is laid
The church at 129 Russell Street, close to McGolrick Park, was the work of Dodge & Morrison, a Manhattan firm, and the cornerstone went down in 1902. The congregation behind it, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Messiah, had been founded in 1899 and kept that name until 2015. As of 2021 the building had no landmark protection.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2015
Pastor Amy Kienzle quietly opens a ten-person homeless shelter in the Church of the Messiah
At the end of January 2015, Pastor Amy Kienzle of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah quietly opened a shelter for ten homeless people at the church, 129 Russell Street. Greenpointers reported on February 19 that the opening had upset some of the people living nearby.
Source: greenpointers.com
- 2015
The Church of the Messiah closes after years of dwindling membership and is renamed Park Church Co-Op
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Messiah closed in 2015 after years of dwindling membership. Pastor Amy Kienzle, assigned there in 2013, had tried to keep it going in partnership with a nearby Lutheran congregation. That year she won revitalization funding from the Synod and gave the church the new name Park Church Co-Op. The funding ran out in early 2018.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2021
Park Church Co-Op fills its steps with summer concerts and ends the season with a street fair
In the summer of 2021 a newer congregant, Mike Nowotarski, started an outdoor concert series on the church steps at 129 Russell Street, seeking out LGBTQ+ and underrepresented performers. At summer's end the church held a street fair with vendors, performances and food. Partner programs, including an early-learning center, also used the building.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2021
The Synod Council votes to end funding for Park Church Co-op, and a December appeal is declined in January
In October 2021 the Metropolitan New York Synod Council unanimously voted to stop financially supporting Park Church Co-op before the fiscal year ended, according to its meeting minutes. The church had been on a five-year step-down funding plan, with Pastor Jacob Simpson sent there in the summer of 2020. A December letter from the church's core team asking the council to reconsider was taken up on January 18, 2022, and the Synod declined to act, saying it had invested more than $800,000 in the church.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2022
Park Church Co-Op holds its last day of operation as the building goes on sale for $4.5 million
June 30, 2022 was the last day of operation at Park Church Co-Op, 129 Russell Street. A day-long celebration with live music and food had marked the end on June 18, and Pastor Jacob Simpson gave his last sermon the next day. The building had been listed for sale in April at $4.5 million, and on June 7 Council Member Lincoln Restler, Assembly Member Emily Gallagher and Senator Julia Salazar wrote to ask that the sale be paused.
Source: brownstoner.com
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