Westminster Presbyterian Church (Messiah Baptist Church)

Located downtown on Yonkers’ West Side in southern Westchester County, the historic Westminster Presbyterian Church was built in 1881 according to plans designed by New York City-based architect Lawrence B. Valk. Having suffered a fire that destroyed a great portion of the original stone structure in 1886, the church building was reconstructed that same year. Consisting of two stories, three bays, and a bell tower, the church was designed to accommodate seven to eight hundred people. The building was sold to the Messiah Baptist Church in 1963 due to declining membership. In 1965 when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke here, the crowd reached close to 900. The Messiah Baptist Church has served as a place for Black advocacy, especially in the 1980s during the push to desegregate Yonkers. The historic Westminster Presbyterian Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church in Yonkers was founded in 1858. From 1855 until that year, it had served the local Presbyterian community in downtown Yonkers as the Union Mission Sabbath School, which held gatherings at the Getty Lyceum at Getty Square. In 1859 the first permanent home of the Westminster Presbyterian Church was constructed as a simple brick Lecture Room on the west side of Warburton Avenue. In 1878, the Lecture Room was sold and a larger plot of land on the same block across the street was purchased. 

The new Westminster Presbyterian Church building was designed in the "Akron Plan" layout, which was popular in American Protestant churches of the era. The architect was New York City-based Lawrence B. Valk, an architect associated with many churches in New York City and the surrounding area. Finished in 1881, the new church housed the Sunday school in the rear of the building rather than in the basement as had been common in prior years. It was constructed of dark, gray stone rather than brick in a conservative “High Victorian Gothic” architectural style. Its two stories, which included a second-floor gallery, could seat six hundred people. Less than four years later, in February of 1886, this new church was destroyed by a fire, that had started in the basement while the church sexton was out getting a haircut. Only the masonry walls survived.

While planning for the rebuild, the congregation of the Westminster Presbyterian Church temporarily met in the First Presbyterian Church nearby. Meanwhile, a new iron corrugated ceiling was added, the mezzanine was replaced, and the sanctuary was enlarged to accommodate up to two hundred more people than the original 1881 church. Disaster would strike again in 1902 when the building suffered damage from a landslide and was rebuilt right after. Two of the main changes were that the orientation of the lecture room was swapped from west towards the east and the removal of the spire atop the steeple. In 1932 the steeple was totally removed.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church lost a significant percentage of its congregation in the following decades. There was a precipitous drop in the early 1960s when many of the downtown Yonkers residents were relocating farther out into the suburbs. With no parking lot, church attendance suffered. By 1963, the church was forced to close. Its surviving buildings were sold to the Messiah Baptist Church in 1963.

The Messiah Baptist Church was formed in 1875. Its first church building was constructed at 10 Ashburton Place in Yonkers in 1888. In the 1930s and 1940s, Messiah Baptist Church was home to the largest Black congregation in Yonkers and became a place for Black advocacy. On May 28, 1965, the Messiah Baptist Church hosted Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sleeping Car Porters Union President, A. Philip Randolph, and Congress of Racial Equality Director, James Farmer. In the 1980s, under Rev. Darryl George, it again became a hub of civil rights activity related to the discriminatory housing practices in Yonkers that had essentially segregated the city into a white East side and Black West side. In 1993 the church was renovated again with modern amenities.

The historic Westminster Presbyterian Church/Messiah Baptist Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

1. Garcia, Ernie. “Yonkers' Messiah Baptist Church Seeks Landmark Status. Journal News. March 7, 2018. https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/yonkers/2018/03/07/yonkers-messiah-baptist-church/399197002/
2. News 12 Staff. “'Mother Church of Yonkers in Need of Renovations.” Feb. 19, 2020. https://bronx.news12.com/mother-church-of-yonkers-in-need-of-renovations-41732765
3. “Westminster Presbyterian Church.” National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. March 2023.