1899; 1927

Manhattan: 57th Street (West) - 8th Avenue

West 57th Street, north side, east from a point (No. 319, left) to the west of Eighth Avenue, across same to Broadway (extreme right). Silhouetted against the new General Motors Bldg. is the Church of the Strangers (P.E.) at No. 309 W. 57th Street. This structure, built as a memorial to Dr. Charles F. Deems in 1870 by the Universalist Church of Our Saviour, was sold to the present occupants about 1899 and will shortly be demolished. View No. 2 shows the Church mainly, as observed northward across a excavation on the south side of the Street. Moses King's hand book of New York (1892), on page 351, states that Church of the Strangers at No. 299 Mercer Street was purchased by Commodore Vanderbilt in 1870 and presented to Dr. Deems, a former M.E. clergyman from North Carolina. His preaching attracted great attention and he organized this church in 1868 with out organic connections with any other denomination. July 11, 1927. Views 1 and 2 P. L. Sperr

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection