Landmarks Preservation Commission June 20, 2000; Designation List 315 LP-2062 BEDFORD PARK CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 2988 Bainbridge Avenue (aka 301 East 20!51 Street), The Bronx. Built 1891-92; Edgar K. Bourne, architect. Landmark Site: Borough of Bronx Tax Map Block 3299, Lot 1. On April 25, 2000, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Bedford Park Congregational Church and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 1). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Eight witnesses spoke in favor of the designation including the pastor, the President of the Board of Trustees, and three members of the church and representatives of the Historic Districts Council and Bronx Landmarks Task Force. There were no speakers in opposition to the designation. The Commission has received letters of support for this designation from Councilwoman June Eisland and Congressman Eliot L. Engel. Summary Erected in 1891-92 to the ~esigns of Edgar K. Bourne, the Bedford Park Congregational Church survives as a rare example in New York City of a small rustic late-nineteenth-century suburban church. Bedford Park Congregational exemplifies such churches in its asymmetrical massing accentuated by a picturesque tower and other projections and in its incorporation of architectural forms and features associated with Queen Anne and Shingle style buildings. It is constructed of rough-dressed fieldstone and features a shingled Richardsonian Romanesque style tower, squat buttresses, round-arched windows with voussoirs, and a timber-framed Queen Anne style porch. The plan ofthe building, which includes a vestibule, Sunday school meeting room, and auditorium­ plan worship space, is typical of Congregational churches from the period and is expressed in the exterior design of the building. Bedford Park was a planned suburban community for middle-class families developed in the 1880s after the model of the renowned London suburb of the same name. Founded in 1889 by the prominent Congregational minister, Shearjashub Bourne, who was the architect's father, the Bedford Park Congregational Church was the first major social institution in the neighborhood and has remained a vital part of the community. ·c.r ~··· \\ I' , •' ;')(. "' . - / . t (~ 1'- Photo: c. 1978 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Bedford Park' Park was built up with "pretty cottages" in the Queen In the 1860s, the neighborhood now known as Anne style, planned to be "convenient and Bedford Park lay entirely within the vast property comfortable" as well as "unique" in design. 5 The owned by financier Leonard Jerome's Jerome Park houses ranged in size from cottages of seven or eight Villa Site Improvement Company. A noted rooms to much bigger structures, "more like ... sportsman, Jerome helped to organize the American mansions."6 They were located on large lots that Jockey Club, which leased a 230-acre tract from the provided ample space for gardens. Near the railroad improvement company in 1866 for a racetrack, station, shops, built low and on ground apart from the Jerome Park [erected on the site of present-day residences so as not to mar "the villa effect," Lehman College]. To ensure that the racetrack would provided such "immediate domestic necessities as be easily accessible and to further development in the those from butcher and druggist."7 area, Jerome persuaded the Township of West Farms Skillful marketing and the promise of additional to finance a paved boulevard, Central A venue (now amenities, such as the opening of the New York Jerome Avenue), linking the Central (Macomb's Botanical Garden in 1891 , helped to make Bedford Dam) Bridge to Central A venue in Yonkers. Jerome Park a success. By 1890, the development had about then began selling off his other Bronx properties 560 residents, mostly families. With no church closer including the future Bedford Park tract, which he sold than the Fordham Methodist Church at l 96'h Street to George Caulfield in November 1869. and Marion A venue, the American Home Mission In 1872, Caufield sold the twenty-five acre Society sent the Reverend Shearjashub Bourne to Bedford Park tract to three partners: the dry goods Bedford Park in 1889 to see ifthe residents would be merchant Horace B. Claflin, the realtor Daniel R. interested in establishing a church. Kendall, and Charles L. Anthony. After Anthony's death in 1874, his share passed to his partners. They Congregationalism and the American Home Mission established a corporation, the Twenty-Fourth Ward Society8 Real Estate Association, to develop the property. The Pilgrims brought Congregationalism to Streets were laid out and the blocks were subdivided America in the 1620s. In 1643, a group of English into house lots, but buildings were not erected until settlers from New England and Virginia formed the the early 1880s. 2 The boundaries of the subdivision first Congregational church in New York City. A were Webster Avenue (aka Berrian Avenue) on the few more churches were established during the east, Brook Street (now East Mosholu Parkway eighteenth century but the number of South) on the north, Bainbridge A venue (aka Congregationalists remained small in New York. Williamsbridge Avenue) on the west, and Southern The Evangelical movement in the 1820s, known as Boulevard on the south. Southern Boulevard, opened the Second Great A wakening, led to the in 1882, was a wide boulevard extending from establishment of new congregations and to the Jerome A venue near Jerome Park to East l 33'd Street formation of the General Association ofNew York in and Third Avenue in the South Bronx, where it 1824. Congregationalism finally attained prominence opened on to the Harlem River (now Third Avenue) in New York in the mid-nineteenth century, largely Bridge to Manhattan. With this transportation link in due to Henry Ward Beecher, probably the most place, the developers erected about a dozen houses. famous minister of his day, who promoted a The developers then persuaded the New York & progressive, liberal Christianity in his sermons at Harlem River Railroad Company to run a few Plymouth Church in Brooklyn between 1847 and commuter trains each day to the Jerome Park railroad 1887.9 station which was located just to the west of the Congregationalism experienced its greatest subdivision.3 growth in the period between 1870 and 1920. In 1884, newspaper accounts extolled the virtues Contributing to this was the Congregationalists' of the new development which had been named continued emphasis on both foreign and domestic Bedford Park after the renowned London suburb. missionary work and their establishment of regional The Bronx development was intended fo r "New associations and the National Council of Yorkers of moderate means" who would be given "a Congregational Churches that enabled individual chance to become owners of comfortable homes on churches to coordinate efforts and pool resources. easy terms."4 Like its English counterpart, Bedford The Congregationalists' theological liberalism 2 emphasizing the human capacity for self­ as pastor at the Congregational churches in Ellington, improvement and social progress appealed greatly to Connecticut (1872-75), Paterson, New Jersey (1875- the growing middle class. The church's domestic 83), and Barrington, Rhode Island ( 1883-89). missionary activities centered around two national Rev. Bourne first visited Bedford Park in organizations, the American Home Missionary September 1889. That day he "walked about the Society, founded in 1826, 10 which provided financial town" and paid calls and "put up notice in the R.R. assistance to congregations that were unable to station."13 The following Sunday, September 29, support a minister, and the American Missionary 1889, he held a worship service in the parlor of Mrs. Association, formed in 1846, which was primarily Daniel Gugisperg that was attended by seven people. concerned with setting up schools and churches for Almost immediately the congregation began meeting African Americans, Native Americans, and Chinese­ in a store near Webster A venue and Southern Americans. Headquartered in New York City, the Boulevard. In December, a Sunday School was American Home Missionary Society raised money opened with seven adults and twenty-one children in through contributions from churches, individuals, and attendance. In January 1890, the Ladies Aid Society statewide missionary organizations, known as was organized, and in February a Young People's auxiliaries. Working through the state societies or Society for Christian Endeavor was formed. In 1890, through experienced clergymen that it employed as the congregation began meeting in a hall on Rockfield agents, the Society hired and paid the salaries of (203'd) Street. Within a few months, Rev. Bourne had missionaries who were expected to live in the convinced the congregation of the need for a church communities they served. By 1892, there were building. In June, four lots were purchased from the approximately 2,000 ministers employed by the Twenty-Fourth Ward Real Estate Company. The Society. Most were assigned to the Western states company, which would have regarded the church as and territories, however, missionaries were also an attractive amenity for the development, "donated assigned to city neighborhoods to work with recent about 1/3 of the cost" and offered the lots at "a very immigrants and to suburban areas such as Bedford reasonable price."14 Groundbreaking ceremonies