Union Baptist Church
151 Noble Street | Greenpoint | built 1863
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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.
- 1862
Samuel J. Tilden offers a Noble Street lot to the First Baptist Church of Greenpoint for $2,400
The First Baptist Church of Greenpoint, incorporated in 1847, met in private homes until 1850, when it put up a small wooden church at Leonard and Calyer Streets. By 1861 that building was too small. In August 1862 Samuel J. Tilden, who owned much of Greenpoint, offered the congregation a lot on Noble Street for $2,400 and agreed to contribute $400 of that price.
“In August 1862, Samuel J. Tilden, who owned a large part of Greenpoint, offered to sell the church a lot on Noble Street for $2400, of which he would contribute $400.”
- 1863
The First Baptist Church dedicates its new Noble Street building, begun with a cornerstone in 1862
By 1861 the First Baptist Church of Greenpoint had outgrown its small wooden building at Leonard and Calyer Streets. After the congregation bought the Noble Street lot, the cornerstone of its new church at 151 Noble Street was laid on November 12, 1862. It was dedicated in July 1863, and an enlargement followed in 1865.
- 1863
The church is a late Early Romanesque Revival design with two square towers
The brick church with stone trim is described by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as among Brooklyn's finest Early Romanesque Revival churches, a late example of the style. A round-arched entrance sits in the center, flanked by projecting square towers. Spires were probably planned for the towers but there is no evidence they were built, and an 1883 engraving shows the church almost as it looks today.
- 1869
Forty members leave the Noble Street Baptists and found the Union Avenue Baptist Church
In 1869, seven years after work on the Noble Street church began, the congregation divided over a doctrinal dispute. Forty members withdrew and set up a new congregation, the Union Avenue Baptist Church. Years later that group put up its own brick church on Manhattan Avenue, which was then called Union Avenue.
- 1900
Greenpoint's two Baptist congregations merge as the Union Baptist Church at Noble Street
As Greenpoint's population changed, Baptists moved away and Lutherans and Roman Catholics took their place. In 1900 the neighborhood's two Baptist congregations joined, and the Union Baptist Church was incorporated on June 7 in the earlier Noble Street building. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1982 report says the congregation still worshipped there.
- 2016
Two pastors raise money to repair the Union Baptist Church after the city orders it vacated
After the Department of Buildings issued a full vacate order in October, the church's congregation, long without a pastor of its own, asked for help. Pastor Mike Newburger of North Brooklyn Baptist Church and Rev. Pete Montoro of Open Door Bible Baptist Church in Queens took up the repairs, which they estimated at about $250,000 and which included reinforcing the stained glass windows. They said they had raised $107,000 from other Baptist churches and were applying for Landmarks Preservation Commission grants.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
- 2018
The restored Union Baptist Church plans a rededication service after two years of work
Greenpointers reported that the church, shuttered by the city and once facing demolition, was ready to reopen after a change in leadership and two years of renovation work. A rededication service was set for Sunday, May 6, at 11 a.m., with music and presentations, and preaching by the Montoro family, who are from Astoria in Queens.
Source: greenpointers.com
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