17th century

1630s construction First Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam) (1633), Pearl Street in New Amsterdam—Congregation was organized in the 1620s. It was a simple timber structure with a gambrel roof and no spire. It was replaced ten years later.Congregation History

1640s construction Second Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam) (c.1643) -- The second church was located within Fort Amsterdam's walls. The stone church had a spire with a weathercock, and was the tallest structure in the city. After the fall of New Amsterdam to the British, the structure was reused as a military garrison church for the Episcopal faith.

1690s construction Garden Street Church (1693), Garden Street—Located on (what is now) Exchange Place, it was built to replace the garrison church / second (c.1643) after its appropriation by the British. The congregation was granted a full charter as the Dutch Church in America by King William III of England on May 19, 1696. Trinity Church (1698), Wall Street—Founded in 1696 when Governor Benjamin Fletcher approved the purchase of land in Lower Manhattan by the Church of England community for construction of a new church, and chartered 1697 by King William III of England The next year a modest rectangular church with a gambrel roof and small porch was constructed.Trinity Church - Historical Timeline A steeple was reported in the early 18th century where Trinity School, a charity school, were held. The church was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War in the Great New York City Fire of 1776, which destroyed nearly 500 buildings.

18th century

1710s construction St. Andrew's Church (c.1712), Arthur Kill Road—Built around 1712–1713, the church was damaged in fires in 1867 and 1872, when the structure was rebuilt.Historic Richmondtown Village Map

1720s construction Middle Collegiate Church (1729), Nassau Street near Cedar—Built in 1729, "a North Church was added in 1769, to serve a growing congregation." The church "later became the Post Office, and was demolished in 1882."Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.147

1740s construction The Old Brick Church (1767), predecessor congregation of Brick Presbyterian Church, located on the northeast corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets – A five-bay double-height Federalist-styled Presbyterian church, built 1767 to designs by John McComb Sr. It was rectangular in plan with a projecting square-in-plan four-stage tower (final stage setback) with a three-stage round colonnaded spire extension. It was illustrated in 1856 for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, who reported that the land was “probably the most valuable in the city.” The city planned to put a post office on the site that year but the deal fell through and “the congregation managed to sell the property to the New York Times which put up a building on the site in 1857-1858.” Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.146

1760s construction North Church (1769) -- Built to serve a growing congregation of Middle Collegiate Church (built 1729). First Reformed Dutch Church of Richmondtown (c.1769), located on Arthur Kill Road near the first county courthouse in Historic Richmondtown, Staten Island. The church, along with the first courthouse, was burned down by the British during the American Revolution.

1780s construction Trinity Church (1788–1790), Wall Street—Building began in 1788, it was consecrated in 1790, and torn down after being weakened by severe snows during the winter of 1838–39. The present (third) Trinity Church, completed in 1846 to designs by Richard Upjohn, with its spire and cross was the highest point in New York until being surpassed in 1890 by the New York World Building.

19th century

1800s construction

St. John's Chapel (1803) – A chapel in the Episcopal parish of Trinity Church (New York City). It was built in 1803 to a design by John McComb Jr. and his brother Isaac McComb on Varick Street with a sandstone tetra-style prostyle portico supporting a tower (with spire) rising to 214.25 feet. The chancel was added in 1857 to designs by Richard M. Upjohn. The congregation had left in the 1890s and the structure was torn down in 1918.Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), pp. 151–152 It was cleared during a road-widening scheme for New York City's Varick Street, with city officials fighting to allow the portico to protrude into the widened street and vault the flanking pedestrian sidewalk.J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), pp. 26–31.Christopher Gray. "Streetscapes: A Chapel the City Fought to Save", The New York Times (April 27, 2008). Second Reformed Dutch Church of Richmondtown (1808), located on Arthur Kill Road on the site of the first church (burned during the American Revolution) and near the second county courthouse (burned in the 1930s) in Historic Richmondtown, Staten Island. The church was moved in 1888 and demolished in 1903.

1810s construction The Quaker Meeting-house (1818), Hester and Elizabeth Streets, Manhattan, New York – Built 1818 and recorded in 1876 by the New York Express that it “has for a long time been the office of the New York Gas Light Company.” It was presumed demolished.J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.395. The (First) Free African Church of St. Philip (1819), Centre Street, Manhattan, New York – Foundation stone laid 1819 of a wood-framed structure damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1822.St Philip's Church History (Accessed 2 August 2010)

1820s construction The (Second) Free African Church of St. Philip (1822), Centre Street, Manhattan, New York – Rebuilt 1822 in brick after fire damaged earlier wooden church. Here, the church had its first rector from 1826 to 1840, the Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., a leading abolitionist. Twice reconstructed, "In 1834, irate whites vandalized the church and in 1863, New York City police used the church as a barracks for militia and police handling draft riots. By 1886 the church was located on 25th Street." Second Free Presbyterian Church (Theatre constructed 1824, converted into a church in 1832), Chatham Street—Organized 1832 by Lewis Tappan for the revivalist preacher Charles Grandison Finney and founded in the former Chatham Theatre, which became known as the Chatham Street ChapelLoveland, etc., From Meetinghouse to Megachurch, p.27.Review in The New York Evangelist quoted in Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), p.252. The Chatham Street Chapel was abandoned for the purpose-built Broadway Tabernacle (1836), and demolished shortly thereafter.Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.46J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.216. Friends Meeting House (1828), 38 Henry Street—Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The structure was converted for use as a synagogue by congregation Ansche Chesed in 1840. The building was purchased in 1850 by the Polish Jewish congregation Shaare Zedek (founded in 1837).Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 260. Shaare Zedek replaced this building with a new building on the same property in 1891 and in 1900 opened a branch synagogue at 25 West 118th Street in the newly-fashionable neighborhood of Harlem.Israelowitz, Oscar. Synagogues of New York City: A Pictorial Survey in 123 Photographs, Dover Publications, 1982, p. 63. The building is now a church. The Henry Street building was sold to Congregation Mishkan Israel Anshei Suwalk in 1911.

1830s construction

Jones Chapel (c.1830), E. 64th Street, New York City – a timber Greek Doric temple-style church with a prostyle tetra-style pedimented portico.Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.144 West Presbyterian Church (1831–1832), also known as Carmine Street Church, Carmine Street near Varick Street in Greenwich Village—Designed by Town & Davis. It has since been demolished.New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. "Designation List 425" St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (1832, converted into a church in 1922), Liberty Street—Destroyed 2001. The Second Middle Collegiate Church (1839), Lafayette Place, near La Grange Terrace – “a single-mindedly classic Greek Revival church by Isaiah Rogers, perhaps his best work. Unfortunately for posterity, the Dutch Reformed (Collegiate) denomination was wealthy enough to move as frequently as the neighborhood ran down. The church’s forerunner was built in 1729 at Nassau Street, later became the Post Office, and was demolished in 1882. After the Lafayette Place church was evacuated in 1887 prior to its destruction, a third church was erected at Second Avenue and 7th Street, “thoroughly equipped” as one guide said, “with reading-rooms, gymnasium, and all appliances for aggressive modern church work.” Broadway Tabernacle (1836), 340-344 Broadway, between Worth and Catherine Lane—Built 1836 to designed by Leopold Eidlitz. This was considered one of the most influential churches constructed in America. It was built for the Second Free Presbyterian Church for revivalist preacher Charles Grandison Finney moving from the smaller Chatham Street Chapel. Finney left the church to join the Oberlin College’s Theology Department in April 1837 and the church building was demolished in 1856.Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.76.J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.217.Kathryn E. Holliden, Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2008), p.171

The Church of the Messiah (1839), Broadway near Waverly Place, Lower East Side, Manhattan—A former Unitarian church sold as a theater and burned down in 1884.

1840s construction St. George's Church (c.1840), East 7th Street, between Hall Place and Second Ave—A Ukrainian Catholic in the East Village, it was later termed the Old Building by the new Ukrainian Catholic owners before being demolished in 1977: The AIA Guide to NYC described it as “A Greek Revival temple in stucco, with a mini-onion dome.” The new similarly named building on (E. 7th Street southeast corner of Hall Place) was built 1977 to designs by Apollinaire Osadca. The AIA regretted the “domed symbol of the parish’s wealth and burgeoning membership: Miami Beach on 7th Street replaces the real Greek Revival thing.”Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York: Collier Books, 1978), p.101.

St. Ann's Church (c.1840) -- Sold to the Roman Catholics as the new parish of the same dedication, established in 1852. That parish left 1871 and the church was demolished around 1880. Mount Washington Church (1844, enlarged 1856), Broadway and Dyckman Street, a timber Carpentry Gothic church with crenelated tower and spire.Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.144-145