Phone +1 212-975-0170 | ||
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Address 123 W 57th St # 3, New York, NY 10019, USA Similar First Baptist Church in the City of, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Church of the Blessed, St Francis Xavier Church, Apostolic Faith Mission Profiles | ||
Calvary Baptist Church is located at 123 West 57th Street between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue, near Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is an independent, non-affiliated church. The senior pastor is Rev. David Paul Epstein, the brother of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton have worshipped at Calvary, and Billy Sunday and Billy Graham have preached there.
The church was founded in 1847, and its first sanctuary was at 50 West 23rd Street, completed in 1854. It then moved to a red sandstone Gothic church designed by John Rochester Thomas at its current location, which was built in 1883-1884. It also had a chapel at 223 West 67th Street, which was later used by St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church.
The current building is an early example of an urban high-rise, or "skyscraper" church, a 16-story building which also includes the Hotel Salisbury, an apartment hotel. Planning for the new edifice began in 1929, with the design credited to the firm of Jardine, Hall & Murdock, and the building was dedicated in 1931. The church's two Steinway grand pianos were donated to the church by pianist Van Cliburn, who attended periodically while living in the hotel.
Calvary was one of the earliest churches to operate its own radio station, in 1923, and has a long tradition of widely followed religious broadcasts.