Schermerhorn Street at the S.W. corner of 3rd Avenue. Baptist Temple.
1910
Schermerhorn Street at the S.W. corner of 3rd Avenue. Baptist Temple.
The Baptist Temple, ca. 1910.
The Romanesque Revival Baptist Temple is home to Brooklyn’s oldest Baptist congregation, founded in 1826. After two churches in present-day DUMBO were destroyed by fire, the congregation enlisted architect George Kramer to a massive new structure at Third Avenue and Schermerhorn Streets. Kramer’s auditorium-style building was completed in 1894. A 1917 fire caused extensive damage, destroying the original rose window and elements of the interior; the subsequent reconstruction enlarged the sanctuary space and included the installation of a new pipe organ.
Today, the church is listed for sale, despite its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.