ICYMI: Downtown Brooklyn's Greek Revival Temple
If you have wandered through the plazas and past the tall towers of MetroTech, you probably have walked right past an austere Greek Revival temple at 311 Bridge Street.
Bridge Street Church. Photo by Susan De Vries
If you have wandered through the plazas and past the tall towers of MetroTech, you probably have walked right past an austere Greek Revival temple at 311 Bridge Street. Now known as Wunsch Hall of NYU-Poly, the Doric-columned church was originally built in 1846-47 as the First Free Congregational Church.
By 1854 it became known as the Bridge Street Church and was the worship space of the African Weslyan Methodist Episcopal (AWME) Church.
The AWME Church was founded in 1818 as the first African-American church in Brooklyn. Active in the anti-slavery moment, the congregation used this brick structure to host lectures by noted abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.
Look out for the building during your next stroll through the plaza and find the historic marker placed in front of the building.
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