Hanson Place Seventh-day Adventist Church

88 Hanson Place | also 82 Hanson Place, 127 South Portland Avenue | Fort Greene | built 1860

Open on the map6 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. 1857

    October 27

    Baptists lay the cornerstone of Hanson Place Baptist Church

    The Hanson Place Baptist Church was an offshoot of the Atlantic Street Baptist Church, which had organized in 1854. Its cornerstone went down on October 27, 1857, at the corner of Hanson Place and South Portland Avenue. The finished building opened to worshippers in September 1860, and a panel over the main doorway reads 1860.

    “The cornerstone of the present edifice was laid on October 27, 1857, and the church was opened in September 1860.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1860

    George Penchard's Italianate church opens with Greek Revival details

    Architect George J. Penchard designed the church in a mostly Italianate manner, with Greek Revival touches in the classical entryway and in brick pilasters with Corinthian capitals along the side. Penchard had worked in Albany, where in 1851 his firm redesigned an old firehouse for a university campus. Writer Francis Morrone compared the church to Philadelphia's Arch Street Presbyterian Church, and Brownstoner's Suzanne Spellen called it very unusual for Brooklyn.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  3. 1864

    Robert Lowry's hymn 'Hanson Place' takes its name from the church

    Robert Lowry wrote the Baptist hymn 'Hanson Place' in 1864, and Wikipedia says it was named after this church. The building had opened in 1860 as the Hanson Place Baptist Church, an outgrowth of the Atlantic Street Baptist Church.

    “The noted 1864 Baptist hymn, "Hanson Place," by Robert Lowry, was named after this church.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1963

    Caribbean-founded Seventh-day Adventist congregation takes over the church

    The church was sold to the Seventh Day Adventists in 1963. Brownstoner reports that this congregation's founders all came from the Caribbean and wished to establish a church meeting their religious and cultural needs. When Brownstoner profiled the building in 2011, it was Brooklyn's largest church of that denomination.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  5. 1970

    October 13

    The Landmarks Commission designates the church, which has a school program of 400 pupils

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church as an individual landmark on October 13, 1970, after a hearing in March at which two speakers for the congregation backed the idea. The designation report noted that the Adventists, owners since 1963, had altered the interior for their school program, which enrolled 400 pupils of various denominations. The old lecture hall off South Portland Avenue was by then used for classes.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1980

    The church joins the National Register of Historic Places

    Wikipedia says the building went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Its interior and exterior had been restored during the 1970s.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 18 buildings with stories in Fort Greene