Restoration of Slope Church Begins
OTBKB had an interesting post on Wednesday about the restoration of the Old First Reformed Church at 7th Avenue and Carroll Street. The restoration crew—30 teenagers and nine adults—came all the way from Ohio and have been camping out in the church. And this isn’t the first time out-of-towners have chipped in to work on…
OTBKB had an interesting post on Wednesday about the restoration of the Old First Reformed Church at 7th Avenue and Carroll Street. The restoration crew—30 teenagers and nine adults—came all the way from Ohio and have been camping out in the church. And this isn’t the first time out-of-towners have chipped in to work on the church. Groups from Minnesota, Illinois and Ontario have come in recent years.
Volunteers from Ohio Begin Restoration of Historic Church [OTBKB]
Joe, the Midwest’s original settlers were mostly Scandinavians, Northern Europeans, Slavs. If you’re looking for the WASP region of the USA, you grew up in it. The Northeast. But Brooklyn isn’t WASPy it’s true.
I have only attended a service at one church here, at St. Bart’s. Lovely.
Another story about this church: someone emailed me about it saying as an adolescent she had lived near the corner of 7th and Carroll in 1960, when the(TWA?) plane crashed into the middle of 7th Ave. and Sterling Place. (See Google photo of airplane tail in the intersection.) She said before that crash there was a cross on top of the steeple. She said that when the plane swooped over before crashing, it knocked the cross off the top of that church steeple.
Amazing this church appears in Brownstoner today, because I thought of it just last week in context of the old *Green Church* being torn down.
I used to pass this Park Slope church at least every other day, shopping and stuff — without entering or being aware of the two Tiffany Company windows inside.
Oh, boy, a church question! I bet we get 100+ posts in no time 😉
The only church I’ve tried in Brooklyn is Saint Johns Episcopal at Saint John’s Place and 7th Avenue. It was nice, but didn’t really click for me. I, too, sneak across the river to Trinity on Wall Street. Before that, Incarnation on 35th and Madison.
BTW, how did that random WASP dig get into this thread?
My family treks into Manhattan to attend Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village (Middlechurch.org), which oddly enough is of the same denomination as the church featured here. But every congregation is different, and a neighbor told me that he stopped attending the Park Slope Church because it had a very conservative outlook (perhaps that has changed). Another church I have heard good things about is Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian. Also the Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and 8th Street gets good reports.
Hope that is some help.
It’s funny how as a kid growing up in Brooklyn I had no idea that WASPS even existed for the longest time. I thought they all lived in the Midwest or something.
My parents did not go to Church much. I was baptized in the C of E as a baby and went to a C of E Sunday School up to about age 14. Then I did not attend Church much for several years, although I did used to go to chapel from time to time when at college.
I started attending my local C of E Church in London a couple of years after I left college, and was confirmed then. I joined an Episcopal Church in NYC, which I still attend, when I moved here 10 years ago.
I’m sure that was way more than you wanted to know!
Thanks etson. Assume you grew up going to the C of E.
I go to an Episcopal Church in Manhattan. I’m afraid I don’t have any input on Churches in the Slope. Hope you find a great one, though.
Quick poll: how many brownstoner regulars attend church? Without offering any view as to my personal religious convictions, the Mrs and I have been discussing whether we might join a church in the slope at some point. Starting point would be Episcopalian but any reasonably middle of the road protestant denomination would be considered. If so, I would be interested in any observations you can offer about congregation and leadership.
I’m not asking about temple (just not what I’m looking at), but by all means chime in if you have something to offer the audience along those lines.