Mariners' Temple Baptist Church

6 Oliver Street | also 12 Oliver Street | Two Bridges | built 1900

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1799

   June 30

   Baptist congregation acquires two Henry Rutgers lots on Fayette Street

   The Second Baptist Church, formed in 1791, is recorded as buying two lots from Henry Rutgers on June 30, 1799, though it had already built a church there. The plain two-and-a-half-story wooden building stood on what was then Fayette Street. When Oliver Street was extended in 1819 and Fayette Street became part of it, the congregation took the name Oliver Street Baptist Church. A fire destroyed the wooden building in 1843.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1845

   Oliver Street Baptists rebuild in Greek Revival after the fire

   The congregation replaced its burned church with a brownstone-fronted Greek Revival building completed in 1845, with a pediment and portico across the facade. The design is credited either to church member Isaac Lucas or, as the Landmarks Preservation Commission believes, to Minard Lafever. Decades later the Oliver Street congregation merged with the Madison Avenue Baptist Church and won a long court fight over the Madison Avenue property. Its Oliver Street building was sold to the Mariners' Temple, which carried on the neighborhood mission work.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1910

   September

   Mariners' Temple opens a Chinese Rescue Mission

   In May 1906 the church held a benefit for the Christian Chinese of San Francisco who lost everything in the earthquake. The New-York Tribune described a program of Chinese instrumental music, moving pictures, a male quartet and singing by Chinese women and children in costume. In September 1910 the church opened a Chinese Rescue Mission.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1966

   February 1

   Landmarks Commission designates Mariners' Temple as a model small Greek Revival church

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church on February 1, 1966, after hearings in October and November 1965. It praised the small rectangular building for achieving great classical dignity with cheap materials and little costly detail, centered on a recessed portico with two Ionic columns under a low pediment. The report noted that its plan, with galleries lit by full-length side windows, was a basic model for many larger Greek Revival churches in the city.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

5. 1983

   Suzan Johnson Cook becomes pastor of Mariners' Temple

   In 1983 Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook was named pastor of Mariners' Temple, and Bedford + Bowery reports she was the first African-American woman to be named pastor during the American Baptist Association's 200-year history. In 1989 the jazz bandleader Lionel Hampton performed at the church. The New York Amsterdam News reported that he played spirituals, including "A Closer Walk with Thee."

   Source: bedfordandbowery.com

Further reading

• The 1845 Mariners' Temple -- 12 Oliver StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• Mariners' Temple12 Oliver Street | 4 entries
• Daniel Riordan House15 Oliver Street | 5 entries
• P.S. 1 Alfred E. Smith School8 Henry Street | 3 entries
• Alfred E. Smith House25 Oliver Street | 4 entries
• Alfred E. Smith House25REAR Oliver Street | 5 entries
• Woolsey G. Sterling House27 Oliver Street | 8 entries

All 43 buildings with stories in Two Bridges