Marcy Avenue Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)

The Marcy Avenue Baptist Church came about as an expansion of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church. Its original location at Marcy Avenue and Monroe Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn formerly belonged to the Central Congregational Church, which was purchased in June of 1872 by the Trustees of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church, after which it functioned as a Sunday school. In September of 1872, preaching services were begun at the Marcy Avenue building. These services were conducted by several pastors from various Baptist churches in the area. With the addition of worship services, it was determined that steps should be taken to organize a new church. The full development of the Marcy Avenue Baptist Church began on November 10, 1873. The chapel and adjoining lots were donated by the Washington Avenue Baptist Church, and the Reverend Reuben Jeffery, D.D. assumed the charge as first pastor of the congregation.

As the congregation grew, additional lots were purchased (125 feet on Marcy Avenue and 100 feet on Monroe Street) for an expansion of the Church, which was completed in October of 1874. The Church grew at such a rate that additional expansion projects were completed in 1876 and again in 1878.

With growth continuing, by 1887 plans were under way to construct a new church building, which was to be built at the corner of Putnam and Marcy Avenues at an estimated cost of $140,000. The plot of ground on which the church was built belonged to Mr. Theodore Banta, who exchanged it for the lots on which the church presently stood. By 1900, the Marcy Avenue Baptist Church, housed in its new Romanesque building, was the largest Baptist church in Brooklyn.

In March of 1939, the Marcy Avenue Baptist Church was taken over by the Concord Baptist congregation to meet the rapidly increasing need for a large church for African American worshipers in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area. Concord Baptist was established in 1847 and occupied other sites before moving to Marcy and Putnam Avenues in 1939.

From the guide to the Marcy Avenue Baptist Church records, 1872-1958, (Brooklyn Historical Society)