Judson Memorial Church, Tower, and Hall

51-55 Washington Square South

McKim, Mead & White, Church, 1888-93, Tower and Hall, 1895-96.  Built as a memorial to Adoniram Judson, the first American Baptist missionary in Asia, and funded in part by John D. Rockefeller, Judson Memorial is one of Stanford White’s most elegant works.   Standing on the south side of Washington Square Park, the Church’s campanile has long stood as a counterpoint to the Arch (its contemporary), the elegant Greek Revival houses on the north side of the park (its predecessors) and the later towers behind them.  Built by the wealthy gentry on the north side of the park at a time when the area south of the park was becoming a ghetto for Italian immigrants, the church’s progressive, social-service oriented ministry geared toward those in need  long served as a bridge between the Brahmins on the north side of the Square and the poor and working class of the South Village.

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