292 Henry Street

also 333 Madison Street | Lower East Side | built 1920

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1824

   May 27

   All Saints' Free Church is organized as a parish under the Rev. William A. Clark

   The congregation behind St. Augustine's began in 1819 as a mission near the old Grand Street Ferry, run by students from the General Theological Seminary. It grew under the lay leadership of Colonel Marinus Willett, a Revolutionary War figure. On May 27, 1824, All Saints' was formally organized as a church under the Rev. William A. Clark, who stayed on as rector until 1837.

   Source: nycago.org

2. 1829

   All Saints' Church on Henry Street is completed as a stone Federal-era parish church

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission describes the church, completed in 1829, as a Federal-period building that held to the Georgian church form, with a central tower pushed forward to break the gable end. Pointed Gothic windows are set above the balcony level. The walls are built of small stones, with brick trimming and banding the upper windows. Wood is used at the cornices and eaves because cut stone would have been too costly, and the wood spire was never completed.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1848

   The church is enlarged with a new sanctuary and chancel

   Wikipedia says the church was enlarged in 1848 by adding a sanctuary and a chancel, roughly two decades after it opened. The congregation began as a mission to the Grand Street Ferry neighborhood and was called a free church because it charged no pew rent. The original building of 1827-1829 used some fieldstone taken from Mount Pitt, a hill that was being leveled nearby.

   Source: Wikipedia

4. 1945

   St. Augustine's Chapel closes and its congregation joins All Saints' on Henry Street

   According to the American Guild of Organists' history of the church, St. Augustine's Chapel, a Trinity Parish mission at 107 East Houston Street, closed after nearly seventy years in the winter of 1944-45. Its congregation merged with that of All Saints' on Henry Street. Furnishings came along, including the chapel's Lady Altar and a large golden rood made in Bruges, Belgium. Trinity gave the church its independence in 1976 and set up an endowment for it.

   Source: nycago.org

5. 2009

   Galleries where Black worshippers were once segregated are restored with the Tenement Museum

   Two small rooms above the church's balconies were used to seat Black worshippers. They are called slave galleries, even though the church was finished after New York abolished slavery in 1827. The parish worked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on a restoration of the galleries that was completed in 2009, meant to preserve the rooms and keep their history in view.

   Source: manhattanbp.nyc.gov

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