North Presbyterian Church (New York City)
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North Presbyterian Church
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| Location | 525 West 155th Street, New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°49′57″N 73°56′39″W / 40.83250°N 73.94417°WCoordinates: 40°49′57″N 73°56′39″W / 40.83250°N 73.94417°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Architect | Church and parish house: Bannister & Schell, 1905. Memorial House: Eli Benedict, 1923. |
| Architectural style | English Gothic (Gothic Revival) |
| NRHP reference # | 13001153 |
| Added to NRHP | February 5, 2014 |
The congregation of North Presbyterian Church, at 525 West 155th Street in Manhattan, New York City, is a combination of three former congregations: North Presbyterian Church (founded in 1847), Washington Heights Presbyterian Church (founded in 1859 and merged with North Church in 1905), and St. Nicholas Avenue Presbyterian Church (founded in 1891 as Lenox Presbyterian Church and merged with North Church in 1927).
North Presbyterian Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places February 5, 2014.
In the 1850s, Washington Heights, like the rest of upper Manhattan, was still rural. Many thoroughfares in the neighborhood, though shown on maps, were unbuilt or unopened.
In March 1851, two months after the death of naturalist John James Audubon, his widow sold an entire city block out of her 24-acre farm to neighbor Dennis Harris; it was bounded by 155th and 156th Street and Tenth and Eleventh Avenue (today called Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, respectively). Harris divided the property into lots for resale.
The Washington Heights Congregational Church was established in 1855 with Harris as one of the founders.. He built a modest wooden chapel for the new congregation on a Tenth Avenue lot between 155th and 156th Street and the same year sold the congregation a lot at the northwest corner of Tenth Avenue and 155th Street for a permanent church.
Construction began in 1857. John Kellum was the architect and the contractor was the local firm of Harden & Hopper. The Panic of 1857 caused economic uncertainty (which lasted until 1859), and by the end of the year, with the foundation in and the walls going up, work had to be halted for lack of money. The Rev. O. H. White, the congregation's first pastor, asked to be released, and was.
On January 29, 1858, the congregation voted to join the Presbyterian denomination. It was admitted into the Second Presbytery of New York on May 23, 1859. The same year, Charles Augustus Stoddard (May 28, 1833 – June 3, 1920) graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was assigned by the presbytery as a supply preacher for the Washington Heights Church. The congregation asked him to remain, and he was ordained pastor of the church in September 1859, beginning a tenure of 24 years.
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