Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights was incorporated in 1847. Before the Church's founding, many Brooklyn Episcopalians crossed the East River into lower Manhattan every Sunday to attend services at Grace Church, New York. However, when this latter church moved further north to Broadway and 10th Street, Brooklyn parishioners found the weekly journey across the river to be too impractical, and consequently merged with the Episcopal congregation at Brooklyn's Emmanuel Church on Sidney Street, led by Reverend Francis Vinton. However, Emmanuel Church was not large enough to accommodate the sudden influx of new parishioners, and Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights was founded to house the newly-combined congregation, with Vinton being selected as the Church's first rector. In 1848 a new building, commissioned by Church wardens Henry E. Pierrepont and Colonel Tunis Craven and designed by architect Richard Upjohn (who had also designed Trinity Church in Manhattan), was completed at the corner of Hicks Street and Grace Court. As of 2010, Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights continues to serve Brooklyn's Episcopal community from its now-landmarked building on Hicks Street.
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Sources:
- Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights.
Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, New York, 1847-1937: Ninetieth Anniversary, Book of Commemoration and Year Book. Brooklyn, N.Y.: the church, 1937.
From the guide to the Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights collection, 1848-1970, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
