The Old South Church


Garden Street
Built in 1693

Published Date:1857 

Additional Name(s):Jocelyn -- Engraver 

Notes:Printed on border: "Whitney -- Jocelyn, N.Y." "Buno, del." 


Digital ID: 801022
NYPL Call Number: PC NEW YC-Chu-(A-Z)


The Old South Church:   
Marble Collegiate Church
(Reformed Church in America)

"The Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York was 
organized in 1628 under Peter Minuit, Director General of the New Netherland, and 
has the distinction of being the oldest Protestant denomination with a continuous 
ministry, and was also the first corporation in the United States. The first church, 
officially named St. Nicholas but known as the Stone Church, was completed in 1642 
on a dusty lane (now Pearl Street) in The Fort of New Amsterdam. In 1692 it was 
taken over by the British troops, used as a military garrison, and eventually burned. 

A new church was built on Garden Street (now Exchange Place) in 1693. Known as the 
Garden Street Church, it was later called the Old South Church because of its 
geographical location in relation to the other Collegiate churches. In 1696, 
William III King of England granted a Charter to the church, thus ensuring religious 
liberty in the new colony. Along with the charter, the crown presented the church 
with nearly 500 acres of land located in what is now part of the Bronx, in New York 
City, and a section of Bronxville just north of the present city limits in Westchester 
County. In 1723, John Harpending, a pioneer tanner and shoemaker, gave an irregular 
tract of rolling farmland known as Shoemaker's Meadow. This property, which stretches 
between Maiden Lane and Ann Street and Broadway and William Street, today provides 
substantial income for the Collegiate Corporation. ....."


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