Unitarian Church of All Souls

160 East 80th Street | also 1157 Lexington Avenue, 150 East 80th Street | Upper East Side | built 1932

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1929

    All Souls sells its Fourth Avenue church and buys the Lexington Avenue corner at 80th Street

    In the spring of 1929 the congregation sold its Fourth Avenue property for $475,000 and bought land at the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 80th Street, with plans for a $1.25 million church. While it waited, it worshiped at the MacDowell Club at 166 East 73rd Street. After the Depression began, the buyer of the old property defaulted and it reverted to the church, and the son of longtime trustee George F. Baker arranged to cover the interest on the new building's loan.

    Source: nycago.org

  2. 1932

    November 13

    Hobart Upjohn's Georgian church at Lexington Avenue and 80th Street is dedicated

    The congregation's new church, built in 1931 and 1932 after the old Fourth Avenue landmark burned on August 23, 1931, was dedicated on Sunday, November 13, 1932. Architect Hobart Upjohn, grandson of Richard Upjohn, gave it an austere take on the Georgian style, with crisp geometry and few traditional details. The design signaled an openness to non-Gothic architecture. Its tower climbs from a rectangular base, through a square lantern, to an octagonal steeple.

    Source: nycago.org

  3. 1932

    November 6

    Organist Bruno Huhn plays the dedicatory recital on the church's new Austin organ

    The new church's first organ was Austin Organ Company Opus 1707, built in 1932 with three manuals and 37 stops. Its pipes were placed in chambers on either side of the rear gallery, and six Swell stops were double-enclosed to give a quasi-Echo division. Bruno Huhn was the organist for the dedicatory recital, held on Sunday, November 6, 1932.

    Source: nycago.org

  4. 1989

    A Holtkamp organ with a gold-decorated pipe tower is installed in the church's gallery

    In 1989 the Holtkamp Organ Company of Cleveland installed a new organ, Job 2016, at the rear of the church gallery. It has three manuals, 40 stops and 53 ranks, and stands where it can be seen and heard directly from the sanctuary, with room around it for a choir and a small orchestra. The exposed pipework includes a tower of three 16-foot Principal pipes decorated in deep gold. It came after a 1970s rebuilding of the 1932 Austin organ by Austin Organs, Inc.

    Source: nycago.org

  5. 2007

    Forrest Church steps down as senior minister after almost thirty years and Galen Guengerich succeeds him

    Forrest Church, the author and theologian, was All Souls' senior minister for almost three decades, stepping down at the start of 2007. Galen Guengerich succeeded him in the pulpit, and Church took on the lighter duties of minister of public theology. His charismatic style has been credited with reviving the congregation.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 93 buildings with stories in Upper East Side