House of Worship

St. Mark's in the Bowery

It is the oldest site of continuous worship in NYC and the second oldest Church in Manhattan.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a registered NYC Landmark.  Formally the place of Peter Stuyvesant's Chapel and cemetery it was donated by his Grandson to be used as a site for a House of Worship.  It was built in 1795 as an Episcopal Church.  Although Peter Stuyvesant was a  member of the Dutch Reformed Church, St. Mark's was for the money and propertied classes, the plutocrats of NYC.  Almost all of it's members in it's first 25 years were slave owners.

The area around the church remained in the control of the Stuyvesant family for a number of years.  By the 1840's  Second Ave. was the most desirable address in NYC with houses costing as much as $40,000.  As the city grew and immigrants increased the government was pressured to find space for industrial storage and housing.  Speculators moved in and the area became NYC's first industrialized ghetto.
Many of the immigrants were German and had been inspired by the revolution of 1848.  Fifty Countries were involved both in Europe and Latin America.  It was over by 1851 and the only real achievement was the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary. Karl Marx published his "Communist Manifesto" in 1848.

When there was an economic slump in 1874 the Cabinetmakers Union, Cigarmakers Union, the German Free Trade Association and Socialists demonstrated in Tompkins Square Park to petition the government for more public works projects.  They were jailed.  There have been many protests in the area since and many people jailed.  Revolutionary ideas and activism have been a part of the East Village and St. Mark's for over a century.