Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church records
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Abstract
Meeting minutes, trustees' minutes, correspondence, financial records, and property deeds of the Ebenezer Old School (or Primitive) Baptist Church, organized in New York City in 1806. For half a century the church met at 154 West 36th Street, Manhattan (1850–1899), and later at 1216 Intervale Avenue, in the Bronx (1909–1925). The collection includes a postcard view of the Intervale Avenue meeting house, and a four-page history of the congregation. The earliest meeting minutes include a list of members (circa 1828–1850).
Historical Note
"Old School" or "Primitive" Baptists (also known as "Hard Shell" or "Foot Washing" Baptists) are conservative Baptists who, while technically opposed to Calvinist theology, nevertheless adhere to some points of Calvinism. The adjective "primitive" is used in the sense of "original," meaning that Old School Baptists reject mission boards, and tract and temperance societies as creations of man, not of God, and so cleave to an earlier, or truer, form of worship. The New Testament contains no command to play instruments, so music in Old School Baptist churches is sung unaccompanied. Likewise, the New Testament does not sanction theological seminaries or Sunday school education, so Primitive Baptist preachers are trained informally and children expected to attend church services (at least in part) with their families. Most followers perform symbolic foot washing of fellow worshippers in recognition of their equality.
According to an anonymous history (see Box 1, Folder 26), the Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church in New York City was organized in 1806, but retained no records dated before May 8, 1825. On September 13 of that year the church voted to call Elder Leonard G. Marsh as pastor. Jonathan Greenleaf, in his History of the Churches, of All Denominations, in the City of New York, From the First Settlement to the Year 1846 (1846), agrees that Marsh was first pastor of the congregation, but states that the church organized in 1825. Rosalie Fellows Bailey, author of Guide to Genealogical and Biographical Sources for New York City (Manhattan), 1783–1898 (1954), suggests that New York had two Ebenezer Baptist churches in the early nineteenth century—one, organized in 1805 [sic] and located through 1811 on Anthony (now Worth) Street, and another, organized in 1825 and dissolved in 1849. Either Bailey mistakenly thought they were different churches, or perhaps there really was no connection between the 1806 and 1825 organizations.
In any case, the Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church represented by the present collection of records met on Broome Street between 1825 and 1829, when the meeting house was sold. The congregation next rented space at the corner of Eldridge and Walker Streets, and then, from 1830 to 1850, had meeting houses at North (now East Houston) and Suffolk Streets, and at Avenue A and East Second Street. In 1850 the church acquired property and built a meeting house at 154 West 36th Street, a location it occupied for nearly fifty years. After the 36th Street meeting house was sold in 1899, the congregation met in rented spaces at 226 West 58th Street (then home to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society) in 1901–1902, and at 8th Avenue and West 19th Street (the Stephen Merritt Building) in 1903–1907.
In 1908 the church purchased a building site at the intersection of Intervale Avenue and Home Street in the Bronx, and there constructed a new meeting house, which saw its first service on November 21, 1909 (see the postcard in Box 1, Folder 25). In 1925 this building (which still stands) was sold to a Lutheran congregation, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church once more took up temporary spaces at 106 West 59th Street in 1926, at 168 East 70th Street (auditorium of the Lawrence-Smith School) in 1927–1939, and at 221 West 57th Street (the Barnard Club) beginning on June 1, 1939.
The latest dated items in the collection—deeds to property held in Brooklyn—suggest that the Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church (by then called the Ebenezer Baptist Church and Congregation) survived into the 1960s.
Arrangement
The material is grouped chronologically within the following categories: certificate of incorporation; meeting minutes; trustees' minutes; correspondence; financial accounts; property records; postcard; church histories.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains a certified copy of the church's certificate of incorporation (1838; made 1899); meeting minutes (1825–1902); trustees' minutes (1865–1959); correspondence (1873–1957; bulk, 1873–1905); financial accounts (1948–1960); property deeds and mortgages (1899, 1934–1961); a circa 1909 postcard view of the "Ebenezer O. S. Baptist Church, Constituted 1806, 1216 Intervale Ave., N.Y."; and histories of the Ebenezer and Hopewell (New Jersey) Old School Baptist Churches. A list of members (circa 1828–1850) is recorded in the earliest meeting minutes.
Subjects
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers.
Use Restrictions
This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day.
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as: "Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church Records, MS 3131, The New-York Historical Society."
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Eric P. Winchell, March 2019 (accession no. MS-2019-011).
About this Guide
Processing Information
Archivist Joseph Ditta arranged and described this collection in December 2019
Repository
View Inventory
Certificate of incorporation (certified copy made 1899), [1838], inclusive
Meeting minutes (bound), 1825 May 8 – 1850 October 8, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes a list of members, circa 1828 through 1850.
Meeting minutes (bound), 1850 November – 1902 October 5, inclusive
Meeting minutes (loose copies / drafts), 1873, inclusive
Meeting minutes (loose copies / drafts), 1874, inclusive
Meeting minutes (loose copies / drafts), 1875, inclusive
Meeting minutes (loose copies / drafts), 1876, inclusive
Meeting minutes (loose copies / drafts), 1877, inclusive
Trustees' minutes (bound), 1865 October 27 – 1906 [April 18], inclusive
Trustees' minutes (bound), 1906 June 17 – 1959 December 20, inclusive
Correspondence (loose), 1873, inclusive
Correspondence (loose), 1874, inclusive
Correspondence (loose), 1875–1876, inclusive
Correspondence (letterpress copybook), 1884–1905, inclusive
Correspondence (loose), 1940, 1953–1957, inclusive
Correspondence (loose), undated, inclusive
Financial (check stubs), 1948 May 15 – 1953 July 3, inclusive
Financial (treasurer's accounts), 1951 January – 1960 February, inclusive
Financial (treasurer's accounts), 1955 June – 1956 June, inclusive
Property, Manhattan, 154 West 36th Street, 1899, inclusive
Property, mortgage, Westchester Title and Trust Company, 1934–1940, inclusive
Property, Brooklyn, 101 Vernon Avenue, 1951, inclusive
Property, Brooklyn, 932 Lafayette Avenue, 1956, 1959, inclusive
Property, Brooklyn, 607 Barbey Street, 1958–1961, inclusive
Property, Brooklyn, 98 Rodney Street, 1960, inclusive
Postcard, "Ebenezer O. S. Baptist Church, Constituted 1806, 1216 Intervale Ave., N.Y." [Bronx], circa 1909, inclusive
History of Ebenezer Old School Baptist Church, circa 1939, inclusive
Processing Information
Digital scans of this four-page church history were supplied by the donor, then printed on paper and added to the collection by the processing archivist.