In 1844, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle printed the following prediction “THE CITY OF CHURCHES — such, in time, will be the distinctive appellation of Brooklyn.” In the ensuing decades, the incorporation of new houses of worship matched the pace of residential development and reflected the diverse ancestry of the immigrant communities who settled there. The buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries express the evolution of American church architecture, as dictated by the pride and prosperity of worshippers from Bushwick to Bay Ridge.

Orthodox Friends Meeting House, 1927. The Rundbogenstil Romanesque Revival Meeting House was completed in 1868, following a design credited to architect Stephen Carpenter Earle (himself a Quaker). (The architectural style is sometimes credited as Lombardian Romanesque, proving that architectural styles are a slippery slope that not even architectural historians can always agree on.) The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called the building “new, neat and tasteful.” The red brick church remained a Quaker Meeting House until the 1950s and was sold to the Apostolic Faith Mission in 1965, who painted it white.

A collection of churches across New York City from the New York Public Library.