Church of Sweden in New York

5 East 48th Street | Midtown | built 1920

Open on the map12 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. 1919

    February 19

    The Bible Society buys a converted house on East 48th Street to remake it

    The New-York Tribune of February 19, 1919 reports that Ella L. Hawk has sold the converted house at 5 East 48th Street, 26 feet wide, which becomes the New York Bible Society's site. Rather than demolish the old structure, the society hires architect Wilfred E. Anthony to alter it heavily. Early in his career Anthony had worked in the offices of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, known for Gothic Revival churches.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1921

    The Fifth Avenue Association gives the new Bible House second prize for alterations

    The Fifth Avenue Association awards the New York Bible Society Building second prize in its alterations category. Architecture magazine praises it as an especially interesting and fitting small business building for the city. In its December 1921 issue the magazine adds that it would have placed the building first, calling its ecclesiastical Gothic design a happy match for its purpose.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1921

    The Bible Society sends President Harding a fine-print Bible before the arms conference

    Rev. Dr. George William Carter, the society's general secretary, lives in the building and answers current events with special presentations. Before President Warren Harding attends the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, which the source places in October 1921, Harding receives a Bible that the New-York Tribune describes as among the finest printings of the Scriptures.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1921

    April

    Wilfred E. Anthony's Gothic limestone building opens for the Bible Society

    Henrietta Talcott funded a new headquarters for the New York Bible Society in memory of her husband James, a merchant who died in 1916. Architect Wilfred E. Anthony designed the Gothic limestone building, completed in April 1921 to replace an 1873 brownstone on the site.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1923

    After a freighter captain dies with no Bible aboard, the society pledges one for every Shipping Board vessel

    Captain A. E. Matthews dies aboard the freighter Hatteras, and Rev. Carter reads reports that the ship had no Bible for the burial service. He announces that the society will give at least one Bible to each United States Shipping Board vessel, with the ship's name in gold letters on the cover, as the New York Times reported on January 5, 1923.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1926

    April

    A thousand young people are to march 7,000 Bibles up Fifth Avenue for hotel rooms

    The New York Times reports on April 10 that 1,000 young people will march up Fifth Avenue the next day under the society's auspices, carrying 7,000 Bibles for hotels, with a police escort. The batch would bring the total placed in hotels to 77,000. That year the society circulated nearly one million copies, in 67 languages, in New York City alone.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1927

    June 13

    The society presents Charles Lindbergh with an Oxford Bible after his Atlantic flight

    A month after Colonel Charles Lindbergh's nonstop flight from New York to Paris, the New York Bible Society presents him with an Oxford Bible. Its cover is stamped in gold with his name and a dedication to his faith, courage and heroism, dated June 13, 1927. The source suggests such gifts were as much about publicity as about religious outreach.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1959

    The Bible Society hands out 40,000 scriptures to curb delinquency

    Operating from its Fifth Avenue-area headquarters, the New York Bible Society, which circulated close to a million Bibles a year in 67 languages, handed out 5,000 Bibles, 10,000 Testaments and 25,000 scripture portions in English, Spanish and Italian in 1959. The distribution was part of an effort aimed at reducing juvenile delinquency in the city.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  9. 1978

    March 31

    Church of Sweden buys the building for its Swedish Seamen's Church

    The Church of Sweden Abroad purchased the former Bible Society headquarters on March 31, 1978, for $570,000, converting it into the Swedish Seamen's Church. In 1981 the congregation sold the building's air rights for $1 million to pay off debt from the purchase.

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 1979

    Billy Butt writes 'Christmas in New York' on the church's piano

    The song 'Christmas in New York' is written by Billy Butt on the piano of the Church of Sweden's building at 5 East 48th Street in 1979, a year after the Swedish Seamen's Church took over the property.

    “The song "Christmas in New York" was written by Billy Butt on the church's piano in 1979.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  11. 1981

    The church sells its air rights for $1 million to clear its debt

    In 1981 the Church of Sweden Abroad sells the air rights above its East 48th Street building for $1 million. The money pays off the debt.

    Source: Wikipedia

  12. 2014

    February 5

    The Gothic building joins the National Register of Historic Places

    After being added to the New York State Register in December 2013, the limestone Gothic building at 5 East 48th Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 5, 2014, recognizing its distinctive 1921 design and long religious use.

    Source: Wikipedia

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