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First Reformed Episcopal Church

{{Short description|Historic Anglican congregation in Manhattan}}

{{Infobox church

| name = First Reformed Episcopal Church

| fullname = Saint Alban's Anglican Church: The First Reformed Episcopal Church

| image = (King1893NYC) pg397 FIRST REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH, MADISON AVENUE AND EAST 55TH STREET.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = The first permanent location of the First Reformed Episcopal Church at Madison Avenue and East 55th Street, built in 1877 and demolished in 1919.

| coordinates = {{coord|40.74969|-73.96995|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| country = United States

| denomination = Reformed Episcopal Church
Anglican Church in North America

| address = 45 Tudor City Place, New York

| website = {{URL|saintalbansnyc.org/}}

| founded date = 1874

| founder = George David Cummins

| dedication =

| dedicated date = 1877

| consecrated date =

| architect = James Stroud

| architectural type =

| style = Victorian Gothic

| years built = 1876–1877

| groundbreaking =

| completed date = 1877

| construction cost = $107,000

| closed date =

| demolished date = 1920

| capacity = 1,100

| length = {{convert|96|ft}}

| length nave =

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| width = {{convert|66|ft}}

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| height nave = {{convert|63|ft}}

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| materials = Stone

| diocese = Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

| priestincharge =

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}}

The First Reformed Episcopal Church (formally Saint Alban's Anglican Church: The First Reformed Episcopal Church{{cite journal |title=REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE DIOCESE OF THE NORTHEAST & MID-ATLANTIC AND CENTRAL & EASTERN CANADA |journal=Journal of the Fifty-Fifth General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church |date=2017 |page=108 |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC55.pdf |access-date=3 February 2025}}) is a congregation of the Reformed Episcopal Church in New York City. Incorporated by REC founder George David Cummins in March 1874, it was among the first newly established REC congregations after the REC's 1873 schism from the Episcopal Church in a dispute over Tractarianism. During First REC's history, it has held services at several locations throughout Midtown Manhattan, first at Madison Avenue and East 55th Street, then in multiple facilities on East 50th Street, and most recently at Tudor City.

History of the congregation

File:1st-REC-NY-1887.jpgAmid a long-running dispute within the Episcopal Church about high church tendencies associated with the Oxford Movement versus low church evangelicalism, Kentucky bishop Cummins participated in an ecumenical service of Holy Communion at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Rebuked by church leadership, Cummins and several other clergy and laity unilaterally withdrew from the Episcopal Church to form the Reformed Episcopal Church.{{cite book |last1=Guelzo |first1=Allen C. |author1-link=Allen C. Guelzo |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Kenneth T. |editor1-link=Kenneth T. Jackson |title=Encyclopedia of New York City |date=2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-11465-2 |pages=1091-92 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/theencyclopediaofnewyorkcitysecondedition/page/n1111 |access-date=4 February 2025 |chapter=Reformed Episcopal Church}}{{cite book |last1=Guelzo |first1=Allen C. |author1-link=Allen C. Guelzo |title=For the Union of Evangelical Christendom: The Irony of the Reformed Episcopalians |date=1994 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park, Pennsylvania |isbn=0-271-01002-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/forunionofevange0000guel/ |access-date=4 February 2025}} They began holding church meetings in Lyric Hall in late 1873 and organized the congregation as the First Reformed Episcopal Church in March 1874.{{cite news |title=THE FIRST REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH.; ORGANIZATION OF BISHOP CUMMINS' CONGREGATION THE CHURCH-WARDENSAND VESTRYMEN. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/03/10/archives/the-first-reformed-episcopal-church-organization-of-bishop-cummins.html?searchResultPosition=16 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=New York Times |date=March 10, 1874}} Not long after, Cummins became seriously ill, dying in 1876. He was succeeded as rector of First REC by former Episcopal priest and future REC bishop William T. Sabine.{{cite web |title=St. Albans Church (First Reformed Episcopal Church) |url=https://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StAlbansEpis.html |website=New York City Organ Project |publisher=New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists |access-date=3 February 2025}}

Under Sabine's leadership, in 1876, the congregation began construction on a new church building at 551 Madison Avenue, on the northwest corner of East 55th Street. The Gothic Revival building was dedicated in 1877.{{cite news |title=A CHURCH DEBT PAID.; CONGRATULATORY SERVICES IN THE FIRST REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1880/02/16/archives/a-church-debt-paid-congratulatory-services-in-the-first-reformed.html?searchResultPosition=11 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=New York Times |date=February 16, 1880}} The congregation remained at this site until 1919, when it sold the building to a developer that demolished the church and built a hotel on the site.{{cite news |title=CHURCH TO BE RAZED.; First Reformed Episcopal Home Sold for Apartment Site. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/06/29/archives/church-to-be-razed-first-reformed-episcopal-home-sold-for-apartment.html?searchResultPosition=10 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=New York Times |date=June 29, 1919}} From 1919 to 1921, the church met in rented space until purchasing the former Beekman Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1873 and located at 317 East 50th Street.

File:Former First REC and Beekman Hill Coop 05.jpgThe late 1920s saw the 50th Street building falling into poor condition. Without sufficient funds to restore it, First REC leased the site to the Labor Holding Corporation. This company then built a 12-story, income-generating apartment building that included spaces on its lower floors for the church's nave and other activities. The new apartment building was erected in 1931 and the church space on the ground floor was dedicated in September of that year.

File:St. Alban’s Church, Tudor City Place, New York 02.jpgFile:St. Alban’s Church, Tudor City Place, New York 03.jpg

File:Former First REC and Beekman Hill Coop 02.jpg

In 2003, Matthew P. Harrington began a two-decade rectorate.{{cite web |title=REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE DIOCESE OF THE NORTHEAST & MID-ATLANTIC |url=http://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC51.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025}} After his arrival, an audit of the congregation's books revealed "widespread misappropriation."{{cite web |title=REPORT of the STANDING COMMITTEE of the DIOCESE OF THE NORTHEAST & MID-ATLANTIC |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC52.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025}} A lawsuit was filed against the former vestry members, and as a result of the investigation, in 2007, the church's volunteer treasurer was convicted of theft after stealing more than $400,000 from the church's collections over a five-year period.{{cite news |last1=Hartocollis |first1=Anemona |title=Manhattan: Church Treasurer Indicted |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/nyregion/07mbrfs-church.html |access-date=3 February 2025 |work=New York Times |date=March 7, 2007}}{{cite news |last1=Italiano |first1=Laura |title=2 1/2 YRS. FOR THIEVING CHURCH LADY |url=https://nypost.com/2007/09/27/2-12-yrs-for-thieving-church-lady/ |access-date=3 February 2025 |work=New York Post |date=September 27, 2007}} In 2019, the congregation vacated its space at 317 East 50th Street, leasing it to a school, putting the space up for sale and relocating to rented space at Tudor City.{{cite news |last1=McKinley |first1=Miles |last2=June |first2=Sophia |title=Recent Commercial Real Estate Transactions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/business/new-york-commercial-real-estate.html |access-date=3 February 2025 |work=New York Times |date=November 17, 2020}} It donated its pipe organ—a Schantz instrument with three manuals, 37 registers, 26 stops and 31 ranks—to the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior.{{cite web |title=Preserving the Structure |url=https://www.saintalbansnyc.org/move.html |publisher=Saint Albans Church |access-date=3 February 2025}}{{cite web |title=MINUTES of the PROCEEDINGS of the ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THIRD COUNCIL |url=https://www.rec-nema.org/_files/ugd/83b80e_18ee666a87a347bfb0039329b4cf60fc.pdf |publisher=Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic |access-date=4 February 2025 |pages=22-25 |date=2023}}

Architecture

=Madison Avenue=

The Madison Avenue church was built in a Victorian Gothic Revival style, 66 feet wide and 96 feet long. It was faced with Newark stone and dressed with Berlin stone. The southeast corner of the church featured a square bell tower topped with a pyramidal steeple.

The interior of the church was characterized by an open-timbered roof with carved ribs resting on corbels against the walls. The interior woodwork was made of ash. The main floor of the nave offered seating for 900 worshipers, with an additional 200 seats in the gallery. The Sunday school in the basement could accommodate 600.

=East 50th Street=

The apartment building was built in the Tudor Revival style popular at the time. The two lower levels, where the church premises were located, were faced with stone. The façade is inscribed with "To Testify the Gospel of the Grace of God."

Rectors

Since 1874, the rectors of First REC have included four current or future presiding bishops of the REC:

  1. George David Cummins (1874)
  2. William Tufnell Sabine (1874–1908)
  3. Charles Hamilton Coon (1908–1909){{cite web |title=REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEMORIALS |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC19.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025 |date=1909}}
  4. William DuBose Stevens (1909–1918)
  5. Percy T. Edrop (1919–1923){{cite web |title=REPORT OF BISHOP RUDOLPH |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC23.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025 |date=1921}}
  6. Charles Pittman (1923–1927)
  7. Howard David Higgins (1927–1954)
  8. S. Thomas Percival (1954–1961){{cite web |title=REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEMORIALS |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC37.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=3 February 2025 |date=1963}}
  9. Leonard W. Riches (1967–1977) {{cite web |title=Report of Bishop Howard D. Higgins |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC38.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025}}
  10. Thomas R. May (1977–1985){{cite web |title=NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA SYNOD |url=https://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC44-Combined.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025 |date=1984}}
  11. William J. Holiman Jr. (1985–1997){{cite news |last1=Roethel |first1=Brendan |title=Chaplain Cmdr. Holiman follows calling, family tradition |url=https://www.beaufort.marines.mil/CommStrat/News/News-View/Article/524616/chaplain-cmdr-holiman-follows-calling-family-tradition/ |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=Marines.mil |date=May 1, 2014}}
  12. Gregory McComas (1999–2002){{cite web |title=THE REPORT OF BISHOP GREGORY K. HOTCHKISS |url=http://rechurch.org/documents/GCJournals/GCREC49.pdf |publisher=Reformed Episcopal Church |access-date=4 February 2025 |date=1999}}
  13. Matthew P. Harrington (2003–2023)

References

{{reflist}}

{{Commons Category|St. Alban’s Church (New York City)}}

Category:Reformed Episcopal church buildings

Category:Anglican Church in North America church buildings in the United States

Category:Churches in Manhattan

Category:Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City

Category:1874 establishments in New York City