Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South | also 243 Thompson Street | Greenwich Village | built 1893
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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.
- 1890
Edward Judson lays the cornerstone with his father's Burmese Bible inside
On a ninety-degree day, several hundred people gathered on June 30, 1890, as Edward Judson launched construction. The cornerstone held a copy of the Burmese Bible that his father, Adoniram Judson, had translated; the elder Judson was the first Baptist missionary to Burma. Edward meant the church as a memorial to his father and as a way to reach the Italian immigrants living nearby.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1893
Judson Memorial Church is dedicated
Designed by McKim, Mead & White with Stanford White in charge, the church has stained glass by John La Farge.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1925
New York University buys the Judson hotel and tower from the Baptist mission society
New York University bought the Judson hotel and tower in 1925, with the New York City Baptist Mission Society as the seller. The two buildings housed NYU students from 1933 until the 1980s. Edward Judson had written that real estate in lower New York does not fluctuate and only gradually rises in value.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1956
Howard Moody becomes senior minister and steers the church toward activism
In 1956, Howard Moody becomes senior minister of Judson Memorial Church, a post he holds until his retirement in 1990. He steers the congregation toward civil-rights organizing and takes public, often controversial stands supporting abortion access and the decriminalization of prostitution. Under his leadership the church becomes a hub for social-service programs serving the neighborhood's most marginalized residents.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1957
The church gives gallery space to unknown artists Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine
In 1957, Judson Memorial Church offers its gallery space to two then-unknown artists, Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine. The show grows out of an experimental arts ministry the church built after polling local artists about what support they needed most: exhibition space free from censorship. The gesture helps establish Judson as an early incubator for downtown visual art.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1961
Robert Nichols and Chuck Gordone found the Judson Poets' Theater
Playwright Robert Nichols and actor-director Chuck Gordone found the Judson Poets' Theater at the church in 1961, staging original, uncensored work free from commercial theater's constraints. The company becomes a foundational venue of what critics later call off-off-Broadway theater. In the 1970s, associate pastor Al Carmines expands the program by writing and staging his own musicals there.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1962
Judson Dance Theater's first concert
Young choreographers including Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton presented A Concert of Dance at the church. Judson Dance Theater went on to reshape American dance.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The Landmarks Commission designates the church after its minister urges it to
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on March 8, 1966. Five witnesses spoke for designation, including the church's minister, Howard Moody, and nobody opposed it. On May 17 the commission named the church a landmark, calling it a rare example of Italian Renaissance Eclectic style that forms, with Judson Hall and the Tower, an architectural composition unsurpassed in the city.
- 1967
Twenty-one clergy launch an abortion referral service at Judson, with Howard Moody as spokesman
In 1967 twenty-one Protestant ministers and rabbis started the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, which ran out of Judson. Howard Moody was its spokesman, and an answering machine at the church gave the names of two clergy on call each week. The New York Times put the launch on page one on May 22. Church administrator Arlene Carmen ran the service, which had chapters in 38 states by 1972.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
Al Carmines's musical The Faggot starts at Judson and runs 203 performances
Howard Moody hired Al Carmines as an assistant minister to found a theater in the sanctuary with the playwright Robert Nichols. Carmines composed and acted as well. His 1973 musical The Faggot was a critical success at the church, then moved to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, where it ran for 203 performances.
“His 1973 musical The Faggot was a critical success which transferred from the Judson Memorial Church to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre and ran for 203 performances.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1999
Facing money troubles, the church sells its parish building to NYU Law
In 1999 the church's trustees sold Judson House, the parish building behind the sanctuary, to New York University's law school. The school put its new Furman Hall on the site. At eleven stories it rose over the church and the park beyond, stirring neighborhood controversy. The church kept offices and a small assembly hall in a condominium suite at 239 Thompson Street.
“In 1999, facing financial difficulties, the church's board of trustees sold the Judson House, the parish building behind the church, to New York University School of Law…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Judson Memorial ChurchWikipedia
- Judson Memorial ChurchPlace Matters
- Hiding in plain sight old phone exchangesEphemeral New York
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