This article by Barbara Davis was originally published in her “Soundings” column for Gannett Sound Shore Newspapers on Sept. 29, 1994 and is printed her with permission.
New Rochelle’s ecclesiastic structures reflect a broad spectrum of architecture as diverse as the spiritual communities they shelter. Each has its own story. The stories frequently illustrate the history of the city itself.
Union Baptist Church, the house of worship located on the corner of Main Street and Locust Avenue, marked a great chapter in its lofty history in October 1994, when it was listed on the Westchester Inventory of Historic Places – the first New Rochelle site to achieve the recognition. The church was chosen for its cultural and historical characteristics and for the exemplary architecture of its 90-year old Neo-Romanesque edifice.
Two different congregations compose the cultural heritage of this church. It was built by a predominately white congregation, Salem Baptist, which no longer exists. Its current congregation, Union Baptist, is one of the city’s earliest black religious organizations.
Organized as the First Baptist Church of New Rochelle in 1849, the Salem congregation first met in a wooden house they had constructed on Rose Street (now North Avenue,) where they adopted the name Salem, a derivative of shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Within two decades they purchased the property at Locust Avenue and Main Street from Alexander B. Hudson, (for whom Hudson Park is named.) The stone structure they built on this land would serve them from 1870 to 1903, when they began construction on a larger building on the site.
Officially dedicated in 1904, the present edifice was designed by architect Arthur Bates Jennings and built by the firm of V.J. Hedden and Sons at a cost of $54,825. Jennings configured the church’s interior using the Akron Plan, an open spatial arrangement that, although popular at the turn of the century, is seen in only a few Westchester churches today. His use of ceiling stenciling was also unique – this church is the only in the county to possess such detailing. From Tuckahoe quarries, Waverly Marble Co. supplied the marble for the church – the same firm and marble used in the construction of the Metropolitan Life Building and Washington Square Arch in Manhattan.
The Salem Baptist congregation was instrumental in helping black New Rochelleans establish Bethesda Baptist Church in 1888, and Union Baptist soon after. Union Baptist was first established in 1913 with 50 members who had been granted letters of dismissal from Bethesda Baptist Church the year before. In 1915, the Union Baptist congregation held its first baptismal service in the Salem Baptist church at Locust Avenue and Main Street. After having met in four different Union Avenue locations, they purchased St. Paul’s German Methodist Episcopal Church, at Union and Webster Avenues, in 1922.
The membership of Salem Baptist peaked in the 1930s with over 600 members. In addition to the various religious activities of the church, the congregation bustled with social events such as clambakes and annual strawberry festivals that had first been held at the nearby Lambden estate –
now the site of 60-70 Locust Avenue apartments.
By the 1970s Salem Baptist’s numbers had dwindled tremendously. After lengthy study, a church committee concluded that “overchurched” New Rochelle could no longer support their congregation. It recommended that Salem Baptist dissolve, liquidating all assets and selling its church to another Baptist congregation. The building was sold to Union Baptist Church, whose congregation had outgrown its home on the West Side of the city.
Two years later, on July 2, 1972, the transaction was completed. Rev. Clarence Carson and his Union Baptist congregation made an historic walk from their Union Avenue church to their new house of worship at Main Street and Locust Avenue. The 123-year story of Salem Baptist Church had come to a close. Union Baptist Church was beginning a new chapter. History had come a full circle.