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St. Philip’s Episcopal Church is a historically black congregation with a riveting history in New York City. Founded in 1818, the church had various homes downtown before moving to Harlem in 1910. The current building, pictured above, was designed by the architectural firm of Tandy and Foster. (Tandy was the first black architect licensed to work in New York State.) The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated the neo-Gothic structure a New York City Landmark.
Although St. Philip’s history is long, I would like to return to one (extended) moment in the church’s story, the time during which M. Moran Weston served as rector (1957-1982). In the 1950s, St. Philip’s had the single largest Episcopal congregation in the country, with about 4000 members, including Thurgood Marshall. Weston, who held the Ph.D. and the B.A. from Columbia University, had already made a name for himself in Harlem by founding Carver Federal Savings and Loan Association, a black-owned bank. Declaring that “civil rights without an economic base was half-a-loaf of the bread of freedom,” Weston sought to use St. Philip’s resources to improve the economic situation of black residents of Harlem.[1]
Beginning in 1960, St. Philip’s started building housing and community centers to promote economic development in Harlem. The church had already become a prominent property owner shortly after moving to Harlem, when it bought several apartment buildings, then the biggest real estate transaction ever conducted by blacks in New York City. Under Weston’s leadership, however, the church undertook construction projects, employing several black architects, sub-contractors, and laborers in the process.
By 1978, St. Philip’s had used both public money and private donations to fund multi-million dollar investments in Harlem. The different projects included The New Community Apartments on W. 135th St. ($7.9 million), the St. Philip’s Senior House on W. 133rd St. ($6.4 million), and St. Philip’s On-the-Park on St. Nicholas Ave ($10.4 million). The community center and Parish House complex at 204 W. 134th St. cost an additional $2.5 million. Weston himself also founded a nursing home at 138th St., at the time the only nursing home in Harlem.[2] The various institutions housed 2,000 people and provided various services to 1,500 more.[3] In 1981, St. Philip’s carried out a “Procession of Witness for a Better City,” in which 400 members marched around Harlem to the different buildings that St. Philip’s had built. This physical demonstration promoted the idea that creating a “better city” was not only a possibility, but also a responsibility of Christian witness.
On St. Philip’s 170th Anniversary in May 1980, Weston presented six key words for the church: Worship, Service, Independence, Achievement, Excellence, and Pioneering. Asserting that worship and service go “hand in hand,” Weston pointed to the construction of the Parish House Community Center and housing for 2,000 people as “current visible evidence of achievement.”[4] However, he said that the buildings were “only tools for a wider patoral [sic] ministry,” with the real achievement being “our impact for good on the lives of people.”[5] The church was not building just to build, but to change the conditions of people’s lives.
Upon retirement, Weston said, “We made sure that blacks had a stake in the ownership of this place,” meaning Harlem. [6] Calling his church a “stable, unmoving part of the community,” he stated, “We believe that we are trustees of the resources we inherited from the past, and we cannot abandon that legacy when things get rough. ”[7] Weston saw economic development and more broadly, social justice, as his responsibility as a Christian leader. He used St. Philip’s as a base from which to promote various social justice programs.
[1]Stephan Patrick McKinney, “Secularization Theory and Black Protestantism: Patterns of Differentiation in a Contemporary Black Church” (Ph.D. diss., Drew University, 2010), 213.
[2]Orde Coombs, “The New Battle for Harlem,” New York, Jaunary 25, 1982, 28.
[3] Ibid., 27.
[4] “St. Philip’s Weston recipient of award,” New York Amsterdam News, May 6, 1978, B10.
[5] J. Zamgba Browne, “St. Philip’s housing program, a big success,” New York Amsterdam News, October 3, 1981, 3.
[6] “St. Philip’s Marking 170th Anniversary,” New York Amsterdam News, May 10, 1980, 16.
[7] Ibid.
Tags: economic development, historic preservation, housing, M. Moran Weston, St. Philip's Episcopal Church