50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Friends Meeting House

Posted on by Thor

The Flushing Friends Quaker Meeting House, also known as the Old Quaker Meeting House, is a historic Quaker house of worship located at 137-16 Northern Boulevard, in Flushing, Queens, New York.

It was designed by William Tubby, a prominent Brooklyn architect, to house the Brooklyn Friends School. Tubby was himself a Quaker and an early graduate of the school. The meeting house remains in regular use as a house of worship by the Brooklyn Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Built in 1694 by John Bowne and other early Quakers, the Old Quaker Meeting House is, by all known accounts, the oldest house of worship in New York State and the second oldest Quaker meeting house in the nation. Visitors to the Meeting House have included George Washington, John Woolman and William Penn.

It is a plain rectangular building erected on a frame of forty-foot oak timbers, each hand hewn from a single tree. The architectural interest of the building is derived mainly from its unusually steep hipped roof; the roof is almost as high as the two stories below it. This feature can be traced to the high steep roofs of medieval Holland.

The Meeting House housed the first school in Flushing. For 300 years, Flushing Meeting members have made history struggling against religious intolerance, slavery, injustice and violence. And here Flushing Meeting continues to work, hope, and pray for a peaceful, just world.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967 and a New York City designated landmark in 1970.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint James Parish Hall

Posted on by Thor

Saint James Parish Hall, is also known as Saint James Church, Church of England in America, Mission Church at Newtowne, Saint James Protestant Episcopal Church  or Old Saint James Church to distinguish it from the Saint James Episcopal Church two blocks away. It is located at 86-02 Broadway in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

The Mission Church at Newtowne was founded in 1704 as a mission of a parish based in Jamaica, Queens. The parish built its Newtown structure in 1735–1736 and became separate in 1761.

The church survived through the American Revolutionary War, since the Rector, Joshua Bloomer, was allied with the Loyalists. It was also a place of worship for British officers and men during the Revolution. The building was also used by British troops to store ammunition.

Boxed pews nearest the minister were generally reserved for the most important members of the community, while indentured servants, apprentices, slaves, and Native Americans were seated in the upper level of the tower.

The congregation used the building until a new church was built nearby in 1848, whereupon the old structure became a parish building. The graveyard at the old church remained in use until 1851, when most corpses were disinterred and relocated to the new church. The city government attempted to take the church’s former cemetery in the 1930s for the construction of a playground, under the argument that it was legally a town cemetery. In 1963, the Post Office wanted to buy Old St. James to tear it down for a new post office. The church rejected their offer.

The church was extensively repaired and expanded several times in the 18th and 19th centuries, including a major expansion in 1883. The old church building was used as a parish hall and Sunday school until 1941 when a new parish hall was built behind the newer St. James Episcopal Church. Since then, it has been used by several community groups, and was restored in 2004.

Saint James Church is designed in the English Colonial style and consists of the original main section and a rear section built in 1883. The interior features extensive carving and other decorative woodwork features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church as a city landmark in 2017. The commission stated that the church was historically significant as the second-oldest church still standing in New York City, behind the Old Quaker Meeting House in Flushing, as well as the oldest surviving Anglican building and Church of England mission church.