There are over 800 churches in Manhattan and the Bronx, ranging in
seating capacity from 200 to 2,000. 

The Dutch Reformed Church (32 societies) has the oldest church 
organization in New York. The finest of its churches
is the Third Collegiate, at Fifth Avenue and Forty-eighth Street, which owes
its ample endowment to fortunate real estate investments. 
Other handsome buildings of this denomination are the 
Bloomingdale Church, at Broadway and Sixty-eighth Street, 
the Marble Church, at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street. 

Next in antiquity is the Protestant Episcopal Church (94 parishes). 
Something has already been said of the parent church, Trinity, 
of the new cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and of Grace Church.
This denomination possesses a number of notable buildings, several of which
are chapels of Trinity, built and supported out of its endowment. 
Saint George's, the Transfiguration (in Twenty-ninth St near Madison Ave).
Saint Thomas's, and Saint Bartholomew's are all fine examples of
ecclesiastical architecture.
 
The most noted Presbyterian church (71 churches) is that known as the 
Fifth Avenue, at Fifty-fifth Street. 
The Madison Square Church and the Brick Church, 
at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, are among  the strongest 
organizations of the denomination. 

The John Street Methodist Episcopal Church (62 Methodist Episcopal churches) 
occupies the site of the first of this denomination in America, and is 
known as the cradle of American Methodism. 

The most noted Baptist Church (49 churches) is that at Fifth Ave & Forty-sixth St.

Among the Congregational churches  is the Tabernacle, whose trustees, having
sold the old church building at Broadway and Thirty-fourth Street, are now
building at Broadway and Fifty-sixth Street . 

All Souls', at Fourth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, is the oldest of the 
Unitarian churches, 

Divine Paternity, at Central Park West and Seventy-sixth Street, holds a
similar position among the Universalist churches. 

There are 114 parishes of the Roman Catholic faith, the 
Cathedral of Saint Patrick, at Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, 
being one of the finest church buildings of the city.

The oldest of its churches is Saint Peter's, in Barclay Street, which stands
upon the site of a chapel built in 1786. 

The first Jewish synagogue of the city (136 societies) was the Shearith Israel , 
founded about 1675, and now possessing a beautiful temple at 
Central Park West and Seventieth Street.

The Temple Emanu-El, at Fifth Avenue and Forty-third Street, 
the Beth-El, at Fifth Avenue and Seventy-sixth Street, and 
the Temple Israel, in Harlem, are all fine buildings. 

Also noteworthy are the temples of the 
First Church of Christ (Scientist), Central Park West and Ninety-sixth Street, 
and of the Second Church, Central Park West and Sixty-eighth Street. 

The Young Men's Christian Association, which for 30 years had its 
headquarters at Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street, has now finished a 
new house on the same street, west of Seventh Avenue. 
The association has fifteen branch buildings. 
That at Madison Avenue and Forty-fifth Street, for railroad employees, was 
erected by the late Cornelius Vanderbilt. 

The Young Women's Christian Association has a beautiful home 
at 7 East Fifteenth Street.

Source:  The New International Encyclopaedia
Publisher:   Dodd, Mead and Company-New York
Copyright:  1902-1905         Total of 21 volumes
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                     Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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