Judson Hall tower
53 Washington Square South | also 51 Washington Square South | Greenwich Village | built 1900
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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.
- 1889
Edward Judson lines up $220,000 for a memorial complex that includes a young men's building and a tower
By October 2, 1889, the Baptist minister Edward Judson had secured $220,000 of the $280,000 he needed to build a memorial to his father, the missionary Adoniram Judson. The plan joined a church, a children's home, a young men's building and a tower on Washington Square South. John D. Rockefeller was the largest single donor, giving $40,000, and McKim, Mead & White received the commission.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1890
Cornerstone is laid for the Judson complex, with rooms and a gym planned for young men
More than 2,000 people attended the cornerstone ceremony, which The New York Times reported on June 30, 1890. The cornerstone box held a Burmese Bible translated by Adoniram Judson. The Times described a 165-foot tower beside the church and a young men's building offering furnished rooms, a library, a reading room and a gymnasium, with the rent going to the church's mission work.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1893
Critics fault the Judson tower for the rooms stacked inside it
The ten-story campanile took its models from Roman bell towers, San Giorgio in Velabro and San Lorenzo in Lucina, and was the focal point of the complex completed in 1892 and dedicated in January 1893. The Architectural Review of April 1893 said the windows of the rooms stacked one above another inside the tower damaged its design. The critic Montgomery Schuyler argued that a memorial tower should be useless to qualify as a monument, and that this one fell short.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1894
Judson Memorial Church lights an electric cross at the top of its tower
In 1894 the church mounted a big lit cross at the very top of the tower, a beacon that could be seen from blocks away. Tom Miller of Daytonian in Manhattan calls it an unexpected use of electricity that may have startled conservative neighbors. The tower had been finished with the rest of the complex in 1892 and formally dedicated in January 1893.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1915
Baptists plan to clear the Judson debt so income from the young men's building can fund the church's work
Edward Judson died in 1914 with the church still paying off its building debt. The New-York Tribune reported on March 13, 1915, that New York Baptists were leading an effort to put the church on a sound footing. Under the plan, the debt would be cleared so that rental income from the young men's building, between $12,000 and $15,000 a year, could go to the church's own work.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1966
Landmarks Commission designates Judson Hall and its tower a city landmark
On May 17, 1966, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Judson Hall, tower included, at 51-54 Washington Square South. At the April 12 hearing three witnesses, among them a representative of the Washington Square Association, spoke in favor and no one opposed. The Commission found the buildings outstanding for their detailed ornament and costly materials, and said that when new they brought a fresh elegance and joy to a city of red brick and brownstone.
“…designates as a Landmark Judson Hall (including the tower), 51-54 Washington Square South, Borough of Manhattan…”
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