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St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery records

Call Number

MS 443.9

Date

1796-2019, inclusive

Creator

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (New York, N.Y.)

Extent

50 Linear feet in 57 boxes of various sizes.

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The collection includes records of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery from its earliest days at the end of the 18th century and into the early 21st century. The collection is particularly rich in two respects: with administrative and financial records for the 19th century and early 20th century, and with records related to the renovation and restoration of the church building and grounds and of the rectory in the last decades of the 20th century.

Biographical / Historical

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is an Episcopalian church located on East 10th Street on the Lower East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The church is recognized as the oldest site of continuous religious worship in Manhattan, with the location dating back to the site of a chapel built in 1660 by colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant (1612-1672), who is buried in a vault at the church. In 1793, the original chapel was sold to Trinity Church, which initiated construction of a new church building. This fieldstone building was consecrated in 1799 and, with subsequent expansions, still exists today. Also in 1799, St. Mark's Parish was formed, spinning off from Trinity Parish.

Various changes were made to the church building through the 19th century, including the addition of the spire in 1828. Burial vaults were constructed in the yards on either side of the church. The church was designated a New York City landmark in 1966. Rectories were also built, with the third and final one on East 11th Street designed by Ernest O. Flagg and completed in 1900. The reach of the parish also expanded in the 19th century as mission chapels were established at other points in the city, including uptown on 44th Street (later to move to 48th Street and become the center of its own parish) and on East 10th Street and Avenue A (now the St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church).

When the church was founded in 1799, its location was still a rural area on the fringe of the most populous part of New York City. But as the city expanded north, St. Mark's found itself located in what came to be known as the Lower East Side, a dense urban area that underwent many cultural and demographic shifts over the course of a century and more. By the late 1960s, as part of its effort to navigate these changes, St. Mark's established the Preservation Youth Project (PYP), a program aimed at engaging with youth from the community, specifically in terms of construction jobs training as applied to restoration work in the churchyards and then the church building itself. Devastating fires of the church in 1978 and of the rectory in 1988 set these restoration efforts back, though they were ultimately successful. (See the historical note at Series IV of this collection for elaboration on the restoration projects.) Celebrating its rich history and Dutch connections through Peter Stuyvesant, as well as its re-emergence from the 1978 fire, the church welcomed Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands as a visitor in 1982. Reflecting the church's intent to more broadly serve the surrounding community, the restored rectory was repurposed as the Neighborhood Preservation Center available, in part, for community workshops, meetings, and workspaces.

(The above note was based on various on-line sources, including the websites of St. Marks' Church and the New York Preservation Archive, as well as documents in the collection.)

Arrangement

The collection is organized in 4 series:

Series I. Minute Books, 1799-1937

Series II. Treasurer Records and Related Financial Matters, 1796-1938

Series III. Other Administration Records, 1800-1944

Series IV. Buildings Renovation and Restoration, 1966-2019

Scope and Contents

The collection includes records of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery from its earliest days at the end of the 18th century and into the early 21st century. The collection is particularly rich in two respects: with administrative and financial records for the 19th century and early 20th century, and with records related to the renovation and restoration of the church building and grounds and of the rectory in the last decades of the 20th century.

The collection holds a complete run of the vestry minute books from 1799 to 1937; extensive financial records through the 19th century and into the 1910s, including the treasurer account books for 1860-1907; and other 19th century records, including pew rentals, property leases, some correspondence, and other matters.

The collection holds relatively few records from the mid-20th century, especially so for the late-1940s and into the late 1960s. The largest part of the collection, however, ranges from the late 1960s and to 2019, and centers on the church and rectory restoration projects, both those preceding and subsequent to the devastating fires of 1978 (the church) and 1988 (the rectory). These records concern the Preservation Youth Project (PYP), which performed much of the restoration work; the fundraising for the PYP and the restoration projects; management of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund, which was formed in 1979 in part as a vehicle for managing the restoration funds; and the repurposing and management of the restored rectory, opening as the Neighborhood Preservation Center (NPC) in 1999. These records include financial information (budgets, grant proposals, progress reports, account statements, etc.); project concept and planning documents; supplier/contractor estimates and proposals; Landmark Fund and NPC management records (Fund trustee minutes, NPC advisory committee minutes); photographs (of the PYP at work, the fire-damaged buildings, events, etc.); publicity, solicitation materials, and historical surveys; and more.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers, with the exception of certain personnel-related records noted in the container list that are restricted pending further curatorial review.
Much of the material is stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery records, MS 443.9, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Much of the material is stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The bulk of the collection was donated over time by St. Mark's Church:

* Most of the treasurer records found in Series II were donated on April 15, 1940.

* An addition to the treasurer records was donated on August 2, 1967.

* That 1967 donation also included most of the various other documents in the collection that range from the 19th century into the mid-20th century.

* There is some indication that the draft minutes of 1839-44 found in Series I were donated in December 1963.

* One box of 19th century documents apparently was purchased by N-YHS in 1972 from Gilman's rare book store.

* The records ranging from the late 20th century to 2019 that are related to the preservation and renovation of the church and rectory (Series IV) were donated on May 7, 2021.

Related Materials

N-YHS holds several other documents related to St. Mark's Church, including the legal opinion signed by Alexander Hamilton and others regarding the proposed transfer of land from Trinity Church to St. Mark's. A search of Bobcat with the church name will identify these items.

N-YHS also holds various images in various formats of St. Mark's, especially in its Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections (PPAC). These can be identified through a search in the library's finding aid full text search site.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:53 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

The records acquired by N-YHS from 1940 to the 1970s, and which comprise the first three series, were processed over time, with bound volumes cataloged separately from boxed papers. In 2021, with the donation of the records related to the buildings restorations (Series IV), archivist Larry Weimer integrated all the St. Mark's records into one catalog entry and prepared this detailed finding aid for the whole.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024