First Reformed Church of Jamaica
153-10 Jamaica Avenue | Jamaica | built 1859
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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.
- 1715
Dutch settlers build an eight-sided wooden church on this site
An earlier building: Jamaica's Dutch congregation, whose oldest record is a 1702 baptism, had been worshipping in the town-owned Presbyterian church. In 1715 its consistory put up its own octagonal frame church with a steep roof and cupola here, near Jamaica Avenue. Jamaica was still small, and the church had no pastor of its own until 1741.
“…a wooden, octagonal-shaped edifice with a steep roof and cupola was constructed on this site, close to Jamaica A venue.”
- 1775
Patriot minister Solomon Froeligh preaches against the British until forced into hiding
In the earlier octagonal church on this site, Froeligh, an ardent Whig, took over the pulpit in 1775 and attacked the British from it, breaking with earlier ministers who had generally sided with the Crown. Once the British took New York he had to hide, and their soldiers used the church building as a storehouse.
“In 1775, however, Solomon Froeligh, an ardent Whig, assumed the ministry and began a regular attack on the British from his pulpit.”
- 1833
The last Dutch sermon is preached and the 1715 church comes down the next day
An earlier building: the congregation had begun splitting sermons half English and half Dutch in 1792, and by the 1830s it had outgrown the octagonal church. With a cornerstone laid in 1832 for a Classical Revival frame church, the minister gave a final Dutch sermon in the 117-year-old building on June 2, 1833, and it was demolished on June 3.
“On June 2, 1833, the minister preached the last Dutch sermon in the 117-year-old church, and on the following day the old church building was torn down.”
- 1857
A fire from a nearby carriage works destroys the church and nineteen other buildings
The earlier, 1833 frame church on this site burned just after the congregation had finished redecorating it; the fire began in a carriage factory close by and consumed twenty buildings that night. Some members wanted to rebuild away from the bustle of Jamaica Avenue, but others argued for tradition and the old site, and the consistory sent members out to study other New York-area churches for ideas.
“…a fire started in a carriage manufactory nearby and spread to engulf the church. It was one of twenty buildings which were destroyed that night.”
- 1859
Church member Sidney Young's new brick church is dedicated
Master carpenter Sidney J. Young, a member of the congregation, designed the new church, and the cornerstone went down in September 1858. The masonry was by master mason Anders Peterson, whose earlier work included St. Monica's Roman Catholic Church nearby, with many other local craftsmen. The church was dedicated in October 1859 with an organ, new gas lighting and elaborate frescoes painted by the Manhattan artist J. Stanley D'Orsay.
“The cornerstone for the new building was laid in September 1858, with the dedication of the new structure taking place in October 1859.”
- 1902
Hollis glassmaker Emil Zundel fills the church with new stained-glass windows
A renovation from 1900 to 1902 brought new frescoes, a new organ and sixteen new windows. Zundel, a member of the congregation, designed and made all but one of them, eight being memorial windows showing Bible scenes after paintings by an artist named Hoffmann. The exception, a Good Samaritan window, was designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb and made by J. & R. Lamb. Jamaica architect Cuyler B. Tuthill added a choir-loft extension at the south end.
“Sixteen windows were commissioned for the church, and all but one were designed and executed by Emil Zundel, a member of the congregation from Hollis.”
- 1973
The congregation sells its church to the city for urban renewal and it sits vandalized
With the site taken into the Central Jamaica Urban Redevelopment Project, the church under Rev. Dean Wolbrink sold the building to New York City and moved into a larger renovated building nearby. The empty church was heavily vandalized and marked for demolition in 1975, until community groups campaigned to keep it. A 1979 landmark designation was overturned by the Board of Estimate later that year.
“…the First Reformed Church, under the leadership of Rev. Dean Wolbrink, sold the building in 1973 to the City of New York.”
- 1982
Rev. Elder James Hamlet's Glorious Church of God in Christ rents the old church
From 1982 to 1990 Hamlet and his congregation leased the building from the city. By the mid-1990s it was under the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and plans called for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation to turn the old church into a local performing arts center.
“Between 1982 and 1990, the Reverend Elder James Hamlet and his church, the Glorious Church of God in Christ, rented the building from the city.”
- 1996
Landmark report ranks the church among the city's finest Early Romanesque Revival designs
The commission ranked the 1858-59 church among New York's finest Early Romanesque Revival buildings, following the model Richard Upjohn set with his 1844 Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn. Its two unequal towers, corbel tables and round-arched openings show skilled brickwork and the growing pull of the German round-arch style known as Rundbogenstil. Six people spoke for designation at the November 1995 hearing and none against.
Further reading
- First Reformed Church (Queens)Wikipedia
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