Where in Tribeca?

The eagle eye of Sonia Stock produced this guest post. Where is it?

….And James got it: now the site of 56 Leonard on Church.

A quick search brought me to this entry from the New York Cemetery Project, by Mary French. The church is now on 137th Street in Harlem, having left this location in 1864. And PS: check out Anthony Street!! James?

New York City’s oldest black congregation, Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was founded in 1796 by a group of about 100 worshippers who had been part of the mostly white John Street Methodist Church. In 1800, they built their first church building at the corner of Leonard and Church Streets in present-day Tribeca, where they remained until 1864. Here the congregation thrived, growing to over 750 members by 1821 when they separated from the white Methodist Episcopal Church denomination and formed a separate conference of AME Zion churches that spread throughout the United States and Canada and became known for religious and social activism. Today there are more than 1.2 million members of the AME Zion denomination that began with the Mother Zion congregation.

 

4 Comments

  1. I am going to guess Duane Park, as that was about the time it was purchased by NYC.

  2. Marker about “Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church” embedded in the sidewalk at the corner of Leonard and Church Streets

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