# Talk:Riverside Church

The transept towers at Laon: do they look like the real design source for Riverside church's massive single tower? --Wetman 28 June 2005 09:45 (UTC)
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The photograph accompanying the article is of a building at nearby Union Theological Seminary and not of Riverside Church.  The two institutions are across the street from one another so I suppose a visitor could make this type of mistake, but the Church's tower is many times larger than the one in the photo and is of a significantly different style.  Two photos of the actual tower may be found at http://www.theriversidechurchny.org/content.asp?id=208, though they are too small to be used for the article. There are other images at http://www.nyc-architecture.com/HAR/HAR009.htm, but most are rather old and predate a large addition on the church's southern end.  Hopefully another user will find a photo which is both large enough and recent enough to use.
(anon. user)

Good call! --Wetman 02:01, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
"...a center for the promotion of leftist and progressive causes..." I always wonder what the writer of such a phrase meant by "leftist" in addition to "progressive"— if anything much at all. Perhaps just a general sneer: not worthy of the better Wikipedia. Some closer analysis of Riverside Church's social programs over the years, touched on in the present article, would provide the reader more meat. --Wetman 12:19, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
It is situated in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. It just is. Period. Please don't "correct" the neighborhood to fit your imagination. --Wetman 02:42, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

How about a famous speakers section? Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Arundhati Roy are some notable figures whom have been here. 161.185.151.150 (talk) 19:04, 17 September 2009 (UTC)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer definitely visited Riverside, but he didn't like it.  I can't find any documentation that he ever spoke there.  I'm not sure that's correct.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lincolnmain (talk • contribs) 18:40, 24 July 2012 (UTC) 
I agree: there is no evidence Bonhoeffer ever spoke here, though it is clear he nearly despised the place. He quotes without disapproval someone who called Fosdick the Antichrist (American Diary, June 20, 1939. DBWE 15:227). On June 18 he had written, "Worship at Riverside Church. Simply unbearable....Perhaps the Anglo-Saxons really are more religious than we, but they may not be more Christian, if they tolerate such sermons" (DBWE 15:224). -- Michael Hayes  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mthayes (talk • contribs) 21:19, 28 April 2016 (UTC) 

The Architecture section says both that "the church was begun in 1927" and that the carillon atop the tower "was installed from 1925 with additional bells later."  At least one of these dates must be incorrect, but I don't know which.  Hopefully someone who does will make the appropriate correction[s].  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.144.201.12 (talk) 21:13, 20 October 2010 (UTC) 

How can this article not have a single mention of WRVR?  121a0012 (talk) 00:15, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Riverside Church/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: CaroleHenson (talk · contribs) 03:21, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello, this looks like an interesting, well-written article and I look forward to reviewing it. My MO is to read the article, list any issues or questions in sections by article sections, and then add a table of GA criteria and go through those items. I am detail-oriented, as a heads up, and if you disagree with anything I say, please let me know.–CaroleHenson (talk) 03:21, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Tower stories
Comment: I changed "used by outside entities, and as a result, some office rooms contain carpeted floors with fluorescent lighting fixtures." to "Over the years, several spaces have been used by outside entities, who carpeted floors and installed fluorescent lighting fixtures in some office rooms.[1]" - If you feel it is better the first way, feel free to change it. (underlined to make it easier to figure out what words changed.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:41, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
I suppose this is fine. And all the other changes are fine, too, unless I replied. epicgenius (talk) 21:07, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
If you think that it could be better, please change it or revert it. My hope is that you feel the article is a bit better with some minor tweaks. If you think it isn't a helpful change, I trust you.–CaroleHenson (talk) 21:30, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Tower and carillon
Comment re: "Above the tenth floor, there are five tiers of window arrangement on each floor", I made "window arrangement" plural.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:31, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Carillon
Comment: I added "of construction" to "final complement of 74 bronze bells, at the time the largest carillon of bells in the world" to clarify which time we are talking about. Feel free to edit if you think it needs to be corrected or edited.
Comment: I removed "the" from whereupon the 58 treble bells were replaced... since there were 74 bells were installed by that point, and there's no discussion of what particular 58 bells were replaced.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:53, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Cloister passageway
No comments or questions.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:57, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Martin Luther King Jr. Wing and subsections
I made one edit to combine a phrase and a statement in the first sentence of the second paragraph of the main MLK section. I have no other comments.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:07, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Stone Gym
No comments or questions.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Basement
Is the movie theater still in the basement?–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
This source indicates it is still there, but I wouldn't rely on it. I changed the tense because the sources already on the page say that there was, and still is, a movie theater. epicgenius (talk) 21:07, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
Great, thanks!  Done–CaroleHenson (talk) 22:29, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
As a side comment, you did an extraordinarily good job describing all the architectural features. It's difficult to do, but I was literally walking through the church in my mind because of your descriptions.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Organs
No comments or questions. (Probably don't need to say that, but it helps me keep track).–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:21, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Art and sculpture
I made a few minor changes here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:39, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### Rest of the article sections
I made the following minor edits and added links here. I don't have any further comments or questions.–CaroleHenson (talk) 21:24, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


#### GA criteria
Comments / questions:

I am not familiar with Untapped New York (or other cities) used for citation [135]. There are aspects that makes me think that content is provided by contributors (members). I don't see that there is an editor function here, or on other pages. There are a number of WP articles that use Untapped as a source, though. Do you know if there is an editorial function?–CaroleHenson (talk) 22:04, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
From my perspective, the Untapped source is the only issue. If there is a better source for the statistical information, that would help a lot. 
Please feel free to change the wording in the Tower stories section. And, I think that you said that you were okay with the rest of the edits I made. If that's so, we're almost done.
As I have been saying throughout, great job!–CaroleHenson (talk) 22:40, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

CaroleHenson, thanks so much for the review. I have minimized the use of the Untapped Cities reference. I generally think it is reliable for minor facts, but always try to find the original source if possible. I don't think any person off the street can edit the website, but it's good to make sure. epicgenius (talk) 23:57, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
My pleasure! Thanks so much for the changes you made with "untapped" sourcing. I am going to see if I can find other source for the largest church, etc. and then it seems we're done. If those statistics are true, they must be somewhere else with a reliable source.–CaroleHenson (talk) 03:16, 1 March 2020 (UTC)
Epicgenius, Please see these edits where:
I found some sources to replace Untapped for tallest church in the country,
I could not find a source for 24th tallest church in the world. And the List of tallest churches in the world has it listed at the 30-something tallest church -- just as a gut check, since we cannot use WP as a source, but it definitely does not appear to be the 24th now. I couldn't find a reliable source for 24th tallest... or another ranking. So, I put a parenthetical (among the tallest buildings in the world) - since I don't have a source for that, but readers can go to that article. It seems fine to have it as a parenthetical since a specific ranking is not given.
There are two new sources for the bells.
I left "Untapped" as a source and added a NYC architectural site that is the only other source that I can find for 14th largest chancel organ (or 14th largest organ).
I am not totally happy about the organ sources and the parenthetical for the world's largest, but I think it's workable and I am ready to pass the article. Thanks so much for your patience with me through all the minor edits, links, and questions.–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:13, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I'm hoping to add more to this article soon, especially about the former public radio station, WRVR, but I wanted to point out that the official name of the church is "The Riverside Church in the City of New York". The "in the City of New York" is almost always dropped, but the "The" is pretty uniformly used in the church's publications, etc. 
Vint (talk) 16:40, 9 July 2021 (UTC)