page_title: Bay Ridge United Church
section_title: South Reformed Church
hierarchical_section_title: Bay Ridge United Church / South Reformed Church
caption_attribution_description: English: South Reformed Church Communion Table
context_page_description: Bay Ridge United Church was located on Bay Ridge Parkway in the Bay Ridge Section of Brooklyn, New York. The congregation was a blend of two churches from two similar but different denominations and was a member of both the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church.
context_section_description: The South Reformed Church, an offshoot of the Old First Reformed Church (Brooklyn, New York) was organized in 1838. Its first building was a plain wooden structure measuring 40 by 55 feet which stood on the corner of 43rd Street and Third Avenue.  Mr. George King was the architect, the Messrs. Rhoades, the carpenters, and the Messrs. Buchanan and Van Nostrand the masons, having completed it at a contract price of $1660 on June 23, 1840. 
  
  Its first pastor was Rev. Cornelius Cullan Ardsdale.  He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Merrill Woodbridge who was installed on Dec. 12 in 1841. In 1890 he was Dean of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey. 
    During his pastorate the consistory bought the building then owned by the Fourth Presbyterian Church (New School) of the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn Fourth) located on 3rd Avenue between 20th and 21st Street, Brooklyn, which was organized by the Third Presbytery of New York in the Village of Gowanus, in February, 1838.  A house of worship was erected soon after, and the Rev. Robert R. Kellogg was installed June 4, 1839, by the Presbytery of Brooklyn. He was dismissed on the 7th of December following, and the congregation being few, and oppressed with debt, the church was dissolved by the presbytery, May 9, 1842.  Subsequently, the building was purchased by the Third Dutch church, and for several years services were held alternately in the morning and evening in the two churches.  About 1850, the congregation divided into two portions; those worshipping in the 22nd Street church known as the North Gowanus Church moved to Twelfth Street, where they were then known as the Twelfth Street Reformed Church.  At the South Reformed Church the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge's pastorate ended on April 29, 1850.  He was succeeded by the Rev. Jonathan M. Rowland, who was called from the Presbyterian Church on May 18, 1852 but who died suddenly on Sunday Oct. 2, 1853. 
  There was an interval of a few years when the church was without a pastor.  On July 17, 1854 the Rev. John H. Manning became pastor and continued until June 30, 1873.  During his pastorate the church went through a crisis with the yellow fever in July and August 1856.  Three of the four members of the church consistory died of the disease and the church membership was decimated.  The neighborhood was panic-stricken, but the church bravely kept at its post.
  In March 1863, the church building was destroyed by fire.  The fire was said to have been caused by a heating stove.  After meeting in P.S. 2 at 47th Street and 3rd Avenue, in 1875 the new church edifice at 52nd Street and 3rd Avenue, which had been begun a few years before, was dedicated.  It cost about $35,000.  The church started with seventeen members and grew to 200 members, with a Sunday school of 325 in 1890. 
  Rev. Dr. Henry.V.S. Myers was pastor from Oct. 15, 1874 to May 1,1882. 
   
  The Rev. Alfred DeWitt Mason was pastor from November, 1882 until October 12, 1891.  On December 7, 1890 the evening service was occupied in the formal receiving of a baptismal font, communion table, kneeling stool and collection plates given to the church by the members of the Bergen family.
  When the church was formed fifty years earlier the territory of Bay Ridge was very sparsely settled and would have discouraged a less hardy class of people.  The several branches of Bergens were the real reason for the permanent establishment.  While many of the Bergens had left the neighborhood, fifty-one joined in the tribute to the church.  Mr. deHart Bergen read the deed of the gift and the list of fifty donors and handed it over to the pastor.  Teunis G. Bergen, grandson of Teunis G. Bergen, followed in a very brief address, speaking on behalf of the family.  The communion table and chair were massive and made of black walnut.
  Rev. John Tallmadge Bergen was pastor from April 26, 1892 to September 2, 1895, and the Rev. Benjamin E. Dickhaut from 1896 to 1903. 
  As the congregation grew, the church needed to expand to a new location, so they moved to 55th Street and Four
caption: South Reformed Church communion table
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