Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Church on the Heights, Brooklyn

Part of the Dutch Reformed Church, this building was located on the northwest corner of Pierrepont Street and Monroe Place. Salviati made a mosaic portrait of minister and hymn-writer George W. Bethune to be affixed to a Carrara marble memorial tablet to be installed in the church, which Bethune had been associated with.


The church was dedicated in 1851 and it was demolished sometime after 1922. Today, the location is home to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York and its adjacent parking lot.


Although Salviati's records from 1865 indicate the memorial was for a church in New York, Bethune's biography from 1867 lists the Third Reformed Dutch Church in Philadelphia as containing the mosaic tablet.

This church - located on the northeast corner of Tenth and Filbert Streets - was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter and built 1836-40.


In either case, the portrait now hangs in the New Brunswick Theological Seminary's Gardner A. Sage library.


 

Sources:
Salviati, Antonio. On Mosaics (generally). 1865. 50-51.
Mast, Gregg. In Remembrance and Hope: The Ministry and Vision of Howard G. Hageman. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998. 4.
Van Nest, Rev. A.R. Memoir of Rev. Geo. W. Bethune. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1867. 421.
New York Historical Society Museum & Library
Google Maps
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

2 comments:

  1. Hello,
    I am a librarian for the Seminary. The artwork does indeed reside at the Gardner A. Sage Library at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, but we are not affiliated with Rutgers University. That citation is not accurate. We are entirely a separate entity. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the confirmation. I've made the correction!

      Delete