Old Brick Church (New York City)

The (Former) Old Brick Church
General information
Town or city	Beekman and Nassau Streets, New York, New York
Country	United States of America
Completed	1767
Demolished	c.1857
Technical details
Structural system	Brick masonry
Design and construction
Client	The Presbytery of New York
Architect	John McComb Sr.

The Old Brick Church was the predecessor church building for the congregation of Brick Presbyterian Church (New York City) now located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Old Brick Church was located on the northeast corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets. it was built 1767 by John McComb Sr., father of architect John McComb Jr. and engineer Isaac McComb. The building was demolished around 1857. The land the church stood on is now occupied by a building used by Pace College.

History

It was illustrated in 1856 for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, who reported that the land was “probably the most valuable in the city.” The city planned to put a post office on the site that year but the deal fell through and “the congregation managed to sell the property to the New York Times which put up a building on the site in 1857-1858.” ^[1]

Description

It was a five-bay double-height Federalist-styled Presbyterian church, built 1767 to designs by John McComb Sr.. It was rectangular in plan with a projecting square-in-plan four-stage tower (final stage setback) with a three-stage round colonnaded spire extension.

References

1. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.146