Interchurch Center
475 Riverside Drive | also 61 Claremont Avenue, 621 West 119th Street, 470 Riverside Drive | Morningside Heights | built 1958
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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.
- 1958
President Eisenhower lays the Interchurch Center's cornerstone
More than 30,000 people watched Dwight D. Eisenhower lay the cornerstone of this 19-story limestone office building, built with support from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to bring religious denominations together under one roof. Its concentration of church offices earned it the nickname 'the God Box.' The National Council of Churches had its offices here from the start until moving to Washington in February 2013.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1969
Activist James Forman leads sit-ins demanding reparations
In 1969 civil rights activist James Forman, head of the National Black Economic Development Conference, led sit-ins at denominational offices inside the Interchurch Center to demand that the churches pay reparations to Black Americans. Roughly half of the building's 2,000 employees stayed away from work at the height of the protests. Tenants later won a court injunction barring Forman and his organization from the building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
LGBTQ worshippers hold 'Hands Around the God Box' vigil
In June 1994 an interfaith prayer vigil called 'Hands Around the God Box' drew more than 500 LGBTQ religious participants to the building, home to Church World Service and the offices of several mainline Protestant denominations. It was not the first protest here: in 1969 civil rights activist James Forman organized sit-ins at the center demanding reparations.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
The National Council of Churches leaves the Interchurch Center
In February 2013 the National Council of Churches moved its headquarters out of the Interchurch Center to Washington, D.C., ending decades of ecumenical work centered in the building. The departure marked a symbolic turning point for the mainline Protestant organizations that had anchored the tower since its 1958 opening.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Interchurch CenterWikipedia
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