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The Significant Men and Women of Broadway UCC's History

In late 1831, the Broadway Congregational Church was organized in New York City under the leadership of Dr. Charles G. Finney. The church’s membership was constituted primarily from transplanted New Englanders and British immigrants who were attracted to Finney’s espousal of the New School Theology. The New School was a distinct departure from the rigidly structured beliefs prevalent at the time in the dominant Protestant churches in New York City — Presbyterian and Episcopalian.

For nearly two years, Finney’s congregation met in various halls. When his diminishing flock decided to join with another group, the Second Free Church under the jurisdiction of the Third Presbytery was established. Other Free Churches expressed the desire to join this group, which led to the need for a permanent site. Arrangements were made to purchase a lot on Worth Street just off Broadway, and a building designed to seat 2,500 persons with an additional standing capacity of 1,500 was constructed.

This new building — the Broadway Tabernacle — opened in April 1836 and Dr. Finney was installed as its first pastor. The congregation opted to function as a Congregational church. In the panic of 1837 many New York City families were financially devastated and the Tabernacle lost many of its supporters. Meanwhile, Dr. Finney was forced to resign due to ill health. In an effort to preserve the church, a merger with the First Free Church was effected and the polity of the Tabernacle shifted to Presbyterianism. Fiscal woes continued to plague the Tabernacle until early in 1840, when the church was unable to fulfill its mortgage obligations and the building was tendered for sale. In July 1840 David Hale, nephew of the American Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, purchased the Tabernacle and invited its members to join him in reestablishing it as a Congregational church, as which it has operated until today.

Advocacy of the anti-slavery movement was a major concern of many influential members of the Tabernacle during that era even though it was not the prevailing public opinion. Pro-slavery sentiments ran so strongly that during the construction of the Tabernacle, angry crowds rioted at the site and set fire to the structure. In 1839 Lewis Tappan, an active supporter of the Tabernacle, was named to serve on a committee to facilitate the securing of freedom of a group of slaves who had been captured off the coast of Long Island. The slaves had mutinied while in route to the United States and seized the ship. After a long series of trials and appeals — ultimately to the US Supreme Court — the men were freed. The Amistad Incident, as it was referred to, was considered a landmark decision of the era. The committee who had secured the release eventually became the Union Missionary Society, which was later enlarged to become the American Missionary Association at meetings held in the Broadway Tabernacle.

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