nd for many it holds very sacred memories.
There were no pictures in the building, but later a few mottoes with
Bible texts were hung about.
In early days a part of the building was rented for use as a school. The
rental was only nominal. At the time of the erection of the consistory
building the sidewalks around the whole property were flagged and the
iron fence erected.
In 1848 the upper floor was arranged for the Sunday school at a cost of
$500. About 1871 doors were cut thru to the galleries of the church from
the upper floor. For more than twenty years this had been urged.
John Crosby is recorded as "paying off the church debt of $10,542" in
June, 1852.
Dr. Ferris left in 1853 to become chancellor of the University of
New York, succeeding his friend, Theodore Frelinghuysen. The first
chancellor had been Dr. Matthews, a trustee of the church, and the
successors of Dr. Ferris were Howard Crosby, John Hall and Henry M.
McCracken. So of six chancellors of the university, four were vitally
interested in the Market Street church.
II
With the coming of Theodore Cuyler a new era opened up for the old
Market Street church. Two years before Dr. Cuyler had spoken at a large
temperance meeting in Tripler Hall, together with General Houston, Henry
Ward Beecher, Horace Mann and other celebrities. It was his first public
address in a city that was to know much of him.
In 1853 Mr. Cuyler was called and installed by the South Classis of New
York, November 13, 1853. He says that while walking along Henry Street
Judge Hoxie said to Mr. Lyles: "If our young brother will come and work
in the Market Street church we might do something yet."
Cuyler lived at Pike and Madison Streets and later in Rutgers Street.
His salary was $1,500, advanced later to $2,500. The church building was
painted, and in 1855 a new roof was put on at the expense of the
pewholders.
Opposite the church on the northeast corner was a large and select
private school. At 11 Market Street later was a smaller one, headed by
a German patriot, whose son-in-law was one of the great generals during
the Rebellion.
In his address in the church at the Eightieth Anniversary, Dr. Cuyler
called it "fighting the adversary of souls and geography," for even in
Dr. Ferris's time there were indications of waning strength because of
"the continued emigration of the more substantial class of church
members from the down-town districts of the city uptown
|