Kismet Temple (Friendship Baptist Church)

92 Herkimer Street | also 90 Herkimer Street | Bedford-Stuyvesant | built 1909

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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. 1910

    Shriners build Kismet Temple as the home of a Mystic Shrine chapter on Herkimer Street

    The Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine, a Shriner chapter, had this hall built on Herkimer Street between Nostrand and Bedford avenues. Brownstoner's Building of the Day profile describes it as the site of many public and political gatherings, in addition to its use by the Shriners themselves.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  2. 1910

    The Moorish Revival temple has onion domes, golden brick and terra-cotta Arabic script

    R. Thomas Short designed the temple in an Eclectic Moorish Revival style. Its onion domes, silhouetted against the horizon, are covered in pressed metal, and the golden brick front is decorated with terra-cotta Arabic lettering and ornament. Brownstoner calls it a wonderfully surprising piece of Moorish architecture and notes that the building is not landmarked.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  3. 1910

    Architect R. Thomas Short, a Canadian who came to Brooklyn in 1885, designs his Brooklyn masterpiece

    R. Thomas Short was born in Canada and arrived in Brooklyn in 1885. He teamed up with Herbert Spencer Harde, and their firm Harde & Short designed the Alwyn Court apartment building on West 58th Street in Manhattan, finished in 1909. The firm broke up soon afterward, and Brownstoner describes Kismet Temple as, as far as anyone knows, Short's Brooklyn masterpiece.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  4. 1932

    The Herkimer Street temple becomes a movie theater

    According to Brownstoner's Building of the Day profile, the former Kismet Temple on Herkimer Street, between Nostrand and Bedford avenues, became a movie theatre in 1932. The profile says the building had earlier been the site of many public and political gatherings.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  5. 1966

    Friendship Baptist Church buys the former Shriners' temple

    Friendship Baptist Church bought the building in 1966. The Shriners had put it up in 1909-1910 as Kismet Temple, designed by R. Thomas Short in the Moorish Revival style. Wikipedia lists it under the names Kismet Temple, Kismet Mosque and Friendship Baptist Church.

    “The building was sold to Friendship Baptist Church in 1966.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2013

    The temple is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

    In 2013 Kismet Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Wikipedia says it is thought to be the oldest Shriners mosque that remains intact. Brownstoner's profiles, written earlier, noted that the building was not landmarked and argued that it should be.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 23 buildings with stories in Bedford-Stuyvesant