The 25th Precinct’s monthly Community Council Meeting is tonight –  April 20th at 6 PM. 

There is a location change – instead of meeting at the Precinct, the meeting will be held at Bethel Gospel Assembly – located at 120th Street between Madison and 5th Avenues.  Please be prepared to stop at the security area to sign in. 

This meeting will NOT be a meeting focused on the removal of the workout equipment from Marcus Garvey.  We will allow space to discuss just as we do with other topics.  The park has two separate alliances that are working on this and CB11 has a Parks and Recreation Committee as well who I am sure will tackle the subject.  Our point of having this as a topic is to ensure that we are discussing ways to bridge the gap and work better together. 

There will be special guests there to answer questions and give some feedback about the topic.  But as you all know there are a ton of things happening in our community around public safety and we want to be mindful that we are giving adequate time to get through those topics.

Please remember to fill out the form and I will be sending out the zoom link this evening to all those who have requested it.    https://forms.gle/zvSjQd8CCsf7KYkA9

Lost Church

Looking at the N/W corner of 125th Street and Madison, you immediately see the Geoffrey Canada Building – the flagship of Harlem Children’s Zone.

For those of you who remember the 80’s, you may also remember that this part of 125th Street was where celebrities wanting the some of Dapper Dan’s mystique, came by to his showroom (often after hours for private fitting/shopping). Think Run DMC, Mike Tyson, Salt and Pepa, LL Cool J, Bobby Brown, and more.

Dapper Dan’s boutique – 43 East 125th Street, was precisely where a former brownstone church anchored the block between Madison and 5th in the 19th century:

Note the round arched windows on the 2nd floor of the apartment building at the N/W corner of Madison/125th Street:

And then look at a photo of Dapper Dan’s Boutique:

and the detail in the top right:

The church that was torn down, was the Harlem Presbyterian Church and was organized in the 1840s. In 1872 the church moved to East 125th Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues into a modest two-story structure contained a lecture room on the first floor, and the second story was for the Sunday-school room.

On April 29, 1873, the cornerstone was laid for the church edifice you see in the post card below:

In 1915, the congregation merged and moved to New York Presbyterian Church, located at 15 Mount Morris Park West, and was renamed Harlem–New York Presbyterian Church. The old building on 125th Street was purchased in 1905 by the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, who remained there until “rapidly changing demographics in the area” caused the white church to abandon the location in 1919 and make plans to move to their present location on Park Avenue. In June 1921, the property was sold to “a group of negroes” that planned to open it as a “Colored Baptist Tabernacle” on July 3. 

The New York TImes (June 24, 1921) reported:

“The purchase of the property for $185,000 was of profound interest to Harlem business men when it was announced yesterday. The deal is the largest real estate transaction in which negroes have figured as buyers south of 128th Street and was regarded as marking a decided southern trend in the ownership and activities of negroes in Harlem.”

In 1942, Harlem Presbyterian merged with Rutgers Presbyterian Church, located at 236 West 73rd Street near Broadway. The old church on Mount Morris Park West became Mount Morris–Ascension Presbyterian Church.