USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 20
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This sale was consummated, "subject to the pro- posal made by the church to the Corporation to sell said property at auction," for this proposal had finally been accepted by the city, and the auction did actually take place on Wednesday, May 14th, at twelve o'clock noon, at the Merchants' Exchange. In this the church, of course, was not directly interested. It had already sold its rights and received the payment therefor in full. Yet the trustees could not but regard with interest the event which, in accordance with the city's agreement, would once and forever wipe out those words "private, secular uses," which had so long chained the Brick Church, against its judgment, to its downtown site.
When the auction took place, and the property was sold for $270,000, it was found that Messrs. James, Wesley, and Keep had bought it in .* It was reported that the only bidder against them was Mr. A. T. Stewart. As is well known, upon the ground in question were afterward erected the Potter and Times office buildings.
After following the history of the church through these trying years, the reader will certainly agree that only a very strong organization, sustained by devoted members, could have withstood the effects of such a prolonged period of discouragement and increasingly adverse conditions. How much reserve strength the church possessed, and how soon that strength manifested itself in the reestablish- ment of the old work in a new field, as soon as that was possible, and also in the establishment of new work, even before the move uptown had
* The property therefore cost them $267,500.
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been fully accomplished, will be told in the next chapter.
It is but fair to say that a large element in this ability of the church to outlive such a long wandering in the wilderness was the devotion of all the people to their now venerable pastor. A very convincing evidence of this, and at the same time, a notable proof of the fact that the adverse conditions of the years between 1850 and 1856 had not exhausted the financial resources of the congregation, are sup- plied by the fact that in June, 1854, in the very midst of the period of discouragement, Dr. Spring's salary was increased to $5,000 .* In voting this, the trustees expressed some contrition that for a series of years their pastor had been receiving a salary "below the average amount paid to many of the clergymen of this city." But that this delay had been due to no lack of appreciation, their act at this difficult juncture, and perhaps still more the words of unbounded con- fidence and love by which it was accompanied, t proved beyond any doubt.
* From $3,250. Cf. p. 144.
t The letter which conveyed the notice of the increase of salary was as follows:
NEW YORK, June 13th, 1854.
REV. DR. SPRING :-
DEAR SIR: The undersigned have been appointed a committee to com- municate to you the accompanying resolutions, passed unanimously at a meeting of the congregation, and subsequently in like manner ratified and confirmed by the board of trustees.
It affords us great pleasure to discharge this duty, and it is only em- bittered with the regret that this act of justice has been so long delayed, much of which delay may be chargeable to our own negligence or forget- fulness, not to use a harsher name.
It is gratifying to be able to state that on this occasion but one senti- ment pervaded the entire meeting; not the slightest dissent was mani- fested in thought, word, or deed. It was the spontaneous expression of grateful feelings from full and thankful hearts.
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On Sunday May 25th, 1856, the Brick Church congregation met for the last time in their old down- town church. We need not be told that, in how- ever remote a part of the city they might then be living, they found the distance no bar to their attend- ing on that memorable and affecting occasion. We are even sure that many who had transferred their membership to other churches, or had even moved
For almost half a century you have occupied the same post and the same sphere of labor and of duty. Some of us have sat under your min- istry for more than forty years, and during that long period can bear testi- mony to your untiring industry, your unbending integrity in the exhibi- tion of gospel truth amid conflicts and parties, and your entire devotion to the appropriate duties of the ministry.
We feel, too, that it is neither flattery to you, nor vain boasting in us, but a thankful expression of gratitude to God, to say that yours has not been an unprofitable ministry, nor [has] your influence been confined to this church. We can see traces of your faithful preaching, marked by the divine Spirit, not only in our city and vicinity, but in almost every State of this vast republic; and we expect, if we are ever so happy as to arrive at our Father's house on high, to meet multitudes there, of those whom nei- ther we nor you have known in the flesh, brought home to glory through your instrumentality.
It is a source of delightful reflection to us that in the early evening of your days, after so long a ministry among us, you retain the undimin- ished confidence and affection of your whole people, an affection as warm and fresh as crowned the day when first you devoted your youthful prime in this church to Christ and his cause.
Our beloved Pastor, these expressions but feebly represent our own sincere emotions. We would humbly commend you to the Great Head of the Church, and earnestly pray that he may preserve you yet for many years to come, to preach the everlasting gospel to this people; that he may make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you; and finally, when our warfare is accomplished, that he may receive you and us to that blessed communion where our love shall be forever perfect, and our joy forever full.
Respectfully and affectionately,
HORACE HOLDEN, SAMUEL MARSH, MOSES ALLEN, IRA BLISS, GUY RICHARDS.
Committee.
Quoted from "Br. Ch. Mem.," p. 32. note.
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out of New York, were found in the pews that day, their hearts full of old memories which made it good to be there .*
We may leave it to Dr. Spring himself to express the emotions which characterized that last meeting in the familiar place, and to interpret its significance. The following extracts from the farewell sermon which he that day delivered ; will fitly bring this chapter to its conclusion.
"The present service," he began, "closes the pub- lic worship of God in an edifice where it has been en- joyed for eighty-eight years. For whatever purposes this hallowed ground may be hereafter employed, ex- perience has convinced us that it is no longer a fit place for religious worship. We have admitted this conviction reluctantly; we have resisted it too long. It is now forced upon us by considerations which we have no doubt God approves, and the best interests of his kingdom demand.
"With the future," he continues, "we have less to do on the present occasion, than the past"; and with this introduction he proceeds to tell briefly that his- tory which has already been told with greater fulness in the preceding pages of the present volume, includ- ing an account of the discouragements and losses of the last six years. One detail only needs to be added at this point. "The question has been asked," says Dr. Spring, "Why not leave this church as a church for strangers, and for the hotels and boarding-houses in this part of the city ? To this we have this conclu-
* When the building was torn down many were seen rescuing "bricks" from the ruin, and one of these, preserved by Miss Sarah Casper, now of Fort Lee, N. J., is to-day among the church's relics.
t The text was Psalm 48 : 9-14.
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sive answer, We ourselves have proposed to do so. At a meeting of the Presbytery of New York I myself made the proposition to the churches, that this con- gregation would subscribe $50,000, for that purpose, on condition that the other congregations would unite in raising the balance of $150,000. The Presbytery received the proposal with favor, and appointed a committee to take it into consideration. That com- mittee reported against the proposed arrangement, and the Presbytery and the congregations dropped the subject.
"And now," says Dr. Spring, after he has com- pleted his historical survey, "in this brief review, what shall we say? One thought forces itself upon your minds and my own. It relates to a theme on which I have so often dwelt in this sacred desk: The goodness of God, how wonderful it is! The rising and setting sun proclaim it, and every star of the dark night. . Every sea, every lake and fountain, every river and stream and sparkling dew-drop, re- ceive alike their riches and their beauty from this un- created source. How much more richly and purely, then, does it flow here in the sanctuary, where all its streams are confluent, and from the mountain tops of Zion send gladness through the city of our God. . .
"On an occasion like the present something is due to this ancient sanctuary. The speaker stands here for the last time; and you, beloved friends, meet for the last time in the consecrated place, where we have so often assembled for the worship of God. . . . We call upon you to witness, we call upon the sacred spirits of the departed to witness, we make our appeal to the walls of this hallowed edifice, if the truth of
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God ... has not been proclaimed from this pulpit. This house has also been greatly endeared to us as 'the house of prayer,' as 'the house of prayer for all people.' ... This house has been our thankful re- sort in prosperity ; in adversity it has been our refuge. Here the aged and the young have come for the first and the last time to commemorate the love of Christ at his table. Here our children have been baptized, and their children after them, and here we have wept and prayed together as God has called them from these earthly scenes. . .. I seem to stand to-day amid generations that are past, so vividly does my imagination people these seats with faces and forms whose place now knows them no more.
"This house has also been the stranger's home. Of this and of that man it shall one day be said, that 'he was born here.' Many a wanderer from other lands, and more from distant regions of our own broad ter- ritory, have here sought and made their peace with God. 'We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple,' that 'we may tell it to the generations following.
"But our work and our privileges in this house of God here have an end. It is his voice which to-day says to us, 'Arise ye, and depart hence, for this is not your rest.' We have occupied it too long; and, al- though it has been for the benefit and enlargement of other congregations, it has been not only to the dimi- nution of our strength, but to the injury of our habits as a people. . .
"We have been a harmonious people for six and forty years; and we are now harmonious in this great and agitating question. . . We bid [this house]
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adieu, to follow the guidance of [God's] providence, and pitch our tabernacle under the pillar and the cloud. ... Farewell, then, thou endeared house of God! Thou companion and friend of my youth, thou comforter of my later years, thou scene of toil and of repose, of apprehension and of hope, of sorrow and of joy, of man's infirmity and of God's omnipo- tent grace, farewell! *
"But not to thee, O thou that hearest prayer . . . do we say farewell. . . Even now, at this late, this last hour, from the bottom of our hearts do we say, 'If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.' ... Nor, my beloved people, is it to you that your pastor says farewell. These brick walls and this plastered ceiling, and these pillars and seats, do not constitute the Brick Presbyterian Church. Ye are these constituents, and 'ye are our glory and joy.'
"These days of solicitude and agitation will soon be over. 'The root of Jesse' yet stands as an ‘en- sign to the people, and his rest shall be glorious.'
* In "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," for May 10th, 1856, ap- peared pictures of both the exterior and interior of the church. The fol- lowing is a part of the accompanying text: "It is probable that in the course of a few weeks the Old Brick Church in Beekman Street, known for so many years as 'Dr. Spring's' will be torn down to make way for 'mod- ern improvements.' It is thus that one old landmark after another disap- pears, and the time is not far distant when 'old fogies' will not find a fa- miliar wrinkle upon the entire face of New York. . .. Our engravings make any allusion to the architecture of the building and its interior un- necessary. Suffice it to say that, with all our wealth and extravagance, but little advance has been made upon the real beauty and picturesque effect of the old churches, built when New York had but little wealth, and was really but a country village. Embalmed in our columns, the antiquarian will, in future times, turn to them with pleasure, and learn what was the appearance of the Old Brick Church before it gave way to the wants of our ever-increasing population."
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Only take diligent heed and be very courageous to do his will, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, and his presence and blessing shall be with you and yours for a great while to come. The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord cause his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. His name be upon you and your children. Amen and Amen. And let all the people say, Amen." *
* "Br. Ch. Mem.," pp. 7-42.
CHAPTER XVI THE MOVE TO MURRAY HILL: 1855-1858
"So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shout- ing, and with the sound of the trumpet. And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it."-2 Samuel 6 : 15, 17.
"We have lived to see the top stone of this edifice laid, and its doors open to us. We have nothing to ask in the external and material arrangements of this house. It is not a gorgeous edifice; it has no decorated walls and arches, and no splendid magnificence. Yet there are stability and comfort and tasteful architecture, which do honor to the genius and fidelity of those employed in projecting, erecting, and embellishing it. 'Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.'"-GARDINER SPRING, 1858, "The Brick Church Memorial," p. 71.
A PERIOD of fifty years in the life of a city does not seem very long, but when we realize the changes that have taken place in New York in the last half century, we cannot but realize that, counted by results, it may be a very long time indeed. It is, in truth, hard to picture to ourselves the city that existed on Manhattan Island in 1855, when the Brick Church first definitely began to look at new sites. One is almost inclined to doubt that Thirty-fourth Street, which to-day is fast becoming the centre of the retail shopping district, was then al- most at the northern limit of the built-up part of the city, with open fields beyond, and indeed many unoc- cupied spaces below it; but such was, indeed, the fact.
An extract from some unpublished reminiscences of New York in the forties and fifties * will serve to
* By the author's mother.
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introduce us to the conditions then existing in the neighborhood of the present Brick Church. In 1848, we are told, the last houses on Madison Avenue were just above Twenty-seventh Street. "A grove of trees was where the next block now is, and nothing ob- structed the view from our windows, so that we could see as far as Hoboken. . . . I could roll my hoople before breakfast to the end of Madison Avenue, which stopped at Forty-second Street." One de- tail of the life of the city at that time I venture to add from the same source. It goes far toward showing how different conditions then were from those with which we are now familiar. "I walked generally to school and back. If I rode, it was by stage. They were white stages, filled with straw for your feet, and with cornucopias containing flowers painted on the sides. After a heavy fall of snow there would be stage-sleighs, and there was enough snow then to give us fine sleigh-rides. The traffic was nothing, compared to to-day. I remember that we knew generally to whom the private carriages be- longed, usually from the coachman, who stopped long enough on the box in those days to impress his feat- ures on the rising generation." Street railways were, in certain parts of the city, beginning to make their appearance, but they were as yet very far from being the typical mode of conveyance. In 1856, as another writer tells us, "the slow stage still travelled its weary way along Wall Street and Broadway."
The fashionable quarters of the city were then Broad Street, Washington Square, East Broadway, St. John's Park and Second Avenue, while Chelsea
* "Memorial Hist. of N. Y.," Vol. III, p. 447.
THE BRICK CHURCH ON MURRAY HILL Taken in March, 1908
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was regarded as a very select neighborhood. * Some "splendid ranges of private residences" } had been built on lower Fifth Avenue, and a very few, like out- posts of the advancing city, had even reached as far north as Murray Hill. "The wealthy Dr. Town- send," for instance, had erected at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street a mansion of "almost royal splendor," as contemporary observ- ers described it. The curious public were admitted by ticket, we are told, the proceeds being devoted to the Five Points Mission .¿ A new fashion in domes- tic architecture, by the way, had just invaded New York at this time. Houses of red brick and built in the London style, such as were then to be seen on Broadway and may still be seen on the north side of Washington Square, were being replaced by the brownstone, high-stoop structures, § which for many years became almost universal throughout the city, and which went far toward making New York, in the day of their ascendancy, one of the homeliest cities on the face of the globe.
This sketch of the conditions which existed, when the trustees of the Brick Church began to look for their new site, will help us to appreciate what it really meant for the church to "move uptown." We soon discover that in order to build for the future rather than for the fleeting present, the church proposed to move practically out into the country. This was cer- tainly a bold plan, but no less certainly it was a pro- foundly wise one.
* The region about Ninth Avenue and Twentieth Street.
t "Putnam's Magazine," March, 1854.
# "Leslie's Hist. of Greater N. Y.," by Daniel Van Pelt, Vol. I, p. 344. § "Memorial Hist. of N. Y.," Vol. III, p. 447.
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The trustees took their first definite step toward securing new land at the time when the sale of the old site to the United States Government still seemed a possibility. And, indeed, they almost bought, in April, 1855, a plot of ground on the south-east corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirtieth Street .* It was only the discovery of a possible defect in the title that prevented the purchase from being made.
No further steps were taken in this matter until April, 1856, when the old property had finally been sold. Then preparations were made to proceed at once. To a committee of two, consisting of Paul Spofford and Shepherd Knapp, the task was en- trusted, and for their guidance it was formally voted that the site selected should be somewhere between Twenty-third and Forty-second streets, and between Sixth and Madison avenues. A week later the com- mittee made its first recommendation. Of all the sites examined by them within the prescribed area they favored one on the north-east corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street .; They also men- tioned verbally that a piece of land on Twenty-third Street, belonging to Mr. Amos R. Eno, and held at $72,000, was available, but they did not recommend it.
The trustees, however, "after mature deliberation and discussion," decided upon Mr. Eno's land,¿ and the committee, although they were unconvinced, and although Mr. Knapp requested that "his decided
* It measured 96 feet on the avenue, by 175 on the side street. The price was $58,000.
t It contained eight city lots and was held at $60,000.
# It consisted of 100 feet "east of Mr. Arnold's house" on Twenty- third Street, and extending through to Twenty-fourth.
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choice" of the Thirty-sixth Street site be noted in the minutes, consented to make the vote unanimous. A month later an irreconcilable difference as to cer- tain conditions of the sale arose between Mr. Eno and the trustees, with the result that they ceased to negotiate. The majority of the board, however, still favored Twenty-third Street as the most suitable location for the church.
. It is interesting that in spite of this expressed pref- erence of the board, the committee on the new site, had so far the courage of their convictions as to report at the next meeting Murray Hill sites only; and what was more, they succeeded in bringing the majority to their views. Before they rose from this meeting the trustees had voted unanimously that the committee " be directed to purchase one of three plots of ground reported by the committee, and that the north-west corner of Thirty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue have the preference, and the corner of Thirty- sixth Street and Fifth Avenue have the second pref- erence, and the corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue, west side, have the third preference." Six days later, on September 15th, 1856, the com- mittee reported that the first choice had been actually bought * for $58,000. This, it will be observed, was $14,000, less than had been asked for the Twenty- third Street property.
The newly acquired land, upon which the present Brick Church was to be erected, measures ninety- eight feet, nine inches on Fifth Avenue and one hun- dred and forty-five feet on Thirty-seventh Street, and the purchase included "all the stone, brick, lime,
* From Mr. U. Hendricks.
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and cement that are now on and in front of said lots."
The property, as this added clause suggests, had been previously occupied. In about 1845, Mr. Cov- entry Waddell, who, we are told, had held for a long time a confidential position in the State Department at Washington, had here built himself a residence of "yellowish gray" stucco with brownstone trimmings. It was in the Gothic style and was regarded as a handsome specimen of domestic architecture. The following account of it is taken from Lamb's "History of the City of New York." * Mr. Waddell's man- sion "was a famous social centre, although at the pe- riod of its erection Fifth Avenue above Madison Square was little more than a common road, and the old farm fences were visible on all sides. . . . The place, when improved, was called a suburban villa; its grounds, beautified with taste, covered the whole square between Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth streets. . . . When Fifth Avenue was graded, the edifice was rendered still more imposing and pictur- esque by its elevated position." A writer in "Putnam's Monthly," March, 1854, gives a contemporary descrip- tion: "It is remarkable for being enclosed in its own garden ground, as high as the original level of the island, and descends by sloping grass banks to the street. There is also a Gothic cottage-lodge on the north side of the garden, of which and of the whole ground, a fine view is obtained from the terrace of the Croton Reservoir." The house, we are also told, "was finished in a style of costly elegance, and a large conservatory and picture-gallery were among its
* Vol. II, pp. 756f.
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attractions. From its broad marble hall a winding staircase led to the tower, from which a charming view was obtained of both the East and Hudson rivers, the intervening semi-rural landscape, and the approaching city. It was the scene of many notable entertainments, Mrs. Waddell being a leader of society." *
There is probably no district in New York to-day whose character exactly corresponds with that of Murray Hill in the years while the Brick Church was building, 1856 to 1858. To-day one must travel out into the more distant suburban towns in order to see an entire community of the better sort coming into existence all at one time, the homes and churches of the well-to-do, with schools for their children, all go- ing up together. Where, on the "frontier" of the city itself, new regions are now suddenly developing amid open fields, the buildings are usually of an in- ferior sort. The wealthy residents of New York in our day have ceased to be pioneers. But in the middle of the nineteenth century Murray Hill was suddenly seized upon and developed by people of posi- tion and means, who there set about the transforma- tion of a region of almost open country with scattered suburban residences, into a district of city streets, with costly houses built in solid blocks. Dr. Town- send's somewhat pretentious house, which had been erected in 1855, and which stood two blocks below the site of the church, has already been mentioned. In 1857 and 1858 houses were going up to the west of the church site on Thirty-seventh Street and imme- diately north of it on the avenue. The building of
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