New Lots Reformed Church and Cemetery
Historic site · New Lots, New York
A wood-frame Dutch Reformed church raised by local farming families in 1823, one of the few surviving wood-framed early Brooklyn churches, with an adjoining two-acre cemetery holding seventeenth-century graves, Revolutionary War soldiers and enslaved people. A New York City Landmark since 1966 and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983, it remains an active AME Zion congregation known as New Lots Community Church. No source consulted specified public visiting hours beyond services.
History
The builders seasoned oak felled by a hurricane for nearly two years and raised the frame in a communal building bee in May 1823 for about $35, using notched and pegged joinery rather than nails. The present cemetery section was established in 1841. Designated a New York City Landmark on July 19, 1966 and listed on the National Register on May 19, 1983. A cracked truss beam closed the building in 1990; the congregation funded repairs and resumed services in 1991.
Visit
630 New Lots Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11207
Photo "New Lots Community Church and cemetery": Jim.henderson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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