West End Presbyterian Church

This historic church once served the largest Presbyterian congregation in New York City and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. The congregation began as a Sunday school in 1887 and became an organized church in 1888. Construction of the West End Presbyterian Church began in 1891 using the design of architect Henry F. Kilburn. By the early 1900s, the church was the largest Presbyterian church in New York State and the fifth largest in the United States. It became home to the "radio pastor" who began broadcasting sermons in the 1920s.

The West End Presbyterian congregation was formally organized in February 1888 with the Reverend John Balcom Shaw serving as their first pastor by May. The congregation leased a lot and built a makeshift building out of prefabricated metal parts to serve as the temporary location of the Sunday school. In May 1887, the Sunday School opened with 61 members and 10 teachers. One teacher, a seminary student named Mr. Ferrando, taught in Spanish to practice the language for his upcoming missionary service.

Funds were saved up to build a church in the rapidly-growing Bloomingdale/ Manhattan Valley area of Manhattan. The coming of the elevated railway above Ninth Avenue (later "Columbus Avenue") in 1879 made the West End a viable place to live for those who worked in Midtown or Lower Manhattan. There was a local building boom in the West End in the 1880s and 1890s with rowhouses springing up rapidly. By the end of the nineteenth century, the congregation was the third largest Presbyterian church in the state. By 1904, the congregation grew from an original 69 members to 1,864; the Sunday School served 1,366.

Architect Henry F. Kilburn also designed a nearby historic church with a similar name, West-Park Presbyterian Church at W. 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The cornerstone of West End Presbyterian Church was laid in June 1891 and the church was officially dedicated in April 1892. The building, with its square corner bell tower and arched, Romanesque windows and doorways, is made of light yellow brick accented by terra cotta banding detailed with the fret and honeysuckle and other motifs.

The original baptismal font remains in the church and was dedicated to the late Stanley Lawson, a pupil in the original Sunday school. The church property was worth $300,000 by 1904 and was free of debt. The pastor by 1906 was the Reverend Albert Edwin Keigwin, D. D., an Iowa-born Princeton University graduate who would spend over 40 years at West End. After World War I, the removal of many rowhouses to build high-rise apartment buildings changed the composition of the neighborhood and church membership declined. One service provided by the church was 10-cent lunches to children of working mothers. The church began to broadcast sermons by radio in 1922, with the Rev. Dr. Keigwin earning the nickname "the radio pastor." The broadcasts began on the radio station WJZ and later were heard on WABC and WOR until 1931. Keigwin officiated at what may have been the first televised wedding ceremony over the radio in 1931; he died in 1951.

A crystal and bronze chandelier over the choir loft was added in 1966 during refurbishing; it was purchased from the Fifth Avenue mansion of Thomas Fortune Ryan. The heavy, dark wood of the church interior was modified to a lighter color in 1966. The church began offering some masses in Spanish in 1966. West End Presbyterian Church celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2013. They currently have a small congregation of about 100 individuals.

Anonymous. Christian Activities in New York: Manhattan, Watch Night Services. The New York Observer, vol. 8427 - 27. Published January 4th 1906.

Mackin, Jim. Notable New Yorkers of Manhattan's Upper West Side: Bloomingdale - Morningside Heights. New York, NY. Fordham University Press, 2020.

New York Landmarks Conservancy. Nomination of West End Presbyterian Church, New York, N.Y.. New York, NY. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2010.

Welcke, Robert A. West End Presbyterian Church, Amsterdam Ave. & 105th St. Still image, New York Public Library Digital Collections. May 7th 1892. Accessed September 29th 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-1062-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.

West End Presbyterian Church. Our History, West End Presbyterian Church. Accessed October 2nd 2021. https://westendchurchnyc.org/our-history/.