South Bushwick Reformed Church
855 Bushwick Avenue | Bushwick | built 1852
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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.
- 1852
The South Bushwick Reformed Church lays its cornerstone on land given by the Stockholm family
Abraham and Andries Stockholm, two of the first parishioners, gave the land in 1852, and the congregation came from families on twenty neighboring farms. The cornerstone was laid on September 6, 1852. Construction cost $5,900, of which the New York Collegiate Church paid $2,000, and the first pastor was the Rev. John Himrod.
“…land donated in 1852 by two of the first parishioners, Abraham and Andries Stockholm... The cornerstone was laid on September 6, 1852.”
- 1853
The church adapts a Georgian steepled design into a wooden Greek Revival building
The Landmarks Preservation Commission described the main section, finished in 1853, as a frame Greek Revival church built on a Georgian masonry model. Two fluted Ionic columns frame the main door in the portico, and a tower rises from a square base through an octagonal belfry to an octagonal spire. Wings were completed in 1883.
“…an excellent example of the adaptation of a Georgian type masonry church, with tower, to a Greek Revival church of frame construction.”
- 1968
The city designates the Reformed Church of South Bushwick as a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church on March 19, 1968, after a 1966 hearing and with the consent of the church's consistory. It praised the steeple and noted that the small yard around the building still recalled the area's rural past. In 2024 the commission corrected the landmark site's tax lot, which the original report had listed wrongly.
“…the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark the Reformed Church of South Bushwick, 855-867 Bushwick Avenue…”
- 2022
The church repairs its storm-damaged steeple for $87,000, much of it from preservation grants
A storm had damaged the steeple, and in 2022 the church finished repairing it at a total cost of $87,000. Much of the money came from grants from preservation groups, including the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The church estimated that about $250,000 more would be needed to complete the repairs it required.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
- 2026
A fire destroys the landmarked church's sanctuary and topples its steeple
On June 19, 2026, a fire tore through the 1853 Greek Revival church at 855-867 Bushwick Avenue. The blaze toppled the steeple and destroyed the sanctuary. Bushwick residents and preservationists said they were heartbroken, and the church and its allies began trying to save what remained.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
- 2026
The Department of Buildings orders an emergency demolition of the burned church
After the fire, the Department of Buildings issued an emergency demolition order on June 22. The church worked with attorneys, engineers and contractors to meet the conditions for holding that order, but on July 13 its pastor said demolition of the remaining structures would start the next day. Earlier he had said the church was told that demolishing the whole building would likely lead to it being de-landmarked.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
- 2026
The city razes the original 1853 church but spares the attached 1881 Fellowship Hall
In the weeks after the fire, the city completely demolished the original wooden church. In July it halted the demolition and handed the site back to the church, which began asbestos removal on the Fellowship Hall at 867 Bushwick Avenue. That Greek Revival Sunday school addition, finished in 1881, had been judged stable in a June 24 report by the church's engineers, and it was spared, at least for the time being.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
- 2026
Federal prosecutors charge a 24-year-old man with arson in the church fire
On August 5, 2026, a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court accused a 24-year-old man of intentionally setting the June fire. Investigators alleged that surveillance footage places him on the church site shortly before the blaze and shows him purchasing a lighter at a store near the church on Broadway, and that he had been arrested on June 28 over a separate property destruction incident.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
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