Community Church of New York
church building in Manhattan, United States of America
The Second Congregational Church in New York, organized in 1825, was a Unitarian congregation that had three permanent homes in Manhattan, New York City, the second of which became a theater after it left it. In 1919, the congregation joined the Community Church movement and changed its name to Community Church of New York. The same year, its church building on 34th Street was damaged by fire. From 1948 until 2022, the congregation was housed at 40 East 35th Street. As of 2024, the church offices are located on East 35th Street, and services are held at the neighboring Church of the Incarnation. The Community Church of New York is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Origins
The first Unitarian Society in New York was founded May 24, 1819, and incorporated on November 15 under the name "First Congregational Church in the City of New York" (later "Unitarian Church of All Souls"), although there had been between three and five congregational churches in the city before that. On January 20, 1821, the congregation dedicated a newly built church on Chambers Street, west of Church Street.
By 1825, the church had become crowded, and many of the pew holders lived above Canal Street. On March 19, a meeting was held to unite locals in building a church there for Unitarian worship, and the Second Congregational Unitarian Society was formed.
“Community Church of New York” enters the record as church building in Manhattan, United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Community, Church and York can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Community Church of New York” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Community, Church and York provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5117991. VIAF identifies the subject as 147835799. The Library of Congress control number is n86812723. Authority coordinates are 40.729, -73.993. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1825, 1919, 1948 and 2022.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Community Church of New York”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Community Church of New York primary sources, Community Church of New York archive and Community research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Community Church of New York”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Community Church of New York” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.