Bay Ridge United Church

Its first building was a plain wooden structure measuring 40 by 55 feet which stood on the corner of 43rd Street and Third Avenue.

Mr. George King was the architect, the Messrs. Rhoades, the carpenters, and the Messrs. Buchanan and Van Nostrand the masons, having completed it at a contract price of $1660 on June 23, 1840.

On December 7, 1890, the evening service was occupied in the formal receiving of a baptismal font, communion table, kneeling stool and collection plates given to the church by the members of the Bergen family.

When the church was formed fifty years earlier the territory of Bay Ridge was very sparsely settled and would have discouraged a less hardy class of people.

Mr. deHart Bergen read the deed of the gift and the list of fifty donors and handed it over to the pastor.

As the congregation grew, the church needed to expand to a new location, so they moved to 55th Street and Fourth Avenue.

The pastor presided and a large children's chorus sung under his leadership "Praise Ye the Father" and "The Psalms."

The noise of both elevated and trolley along Third Avenue proved too much and the old church was sold to Spence Brothers who razed it and erected flat houses on the site.

In an M. P. Moller ledger book is a handwritten copy of the Letter of Agreement of March 26, 1910, between Möller and the South Reformed Church.

"[21] This early group met each Sunday under the leadership of the Reverend William J Pinkerton, in a house in Bay Ridge, located on 76th Street near Fifth Avenue.

[22] (476 76th Street[23]) They remained at this location until May, 1912, when "preaching services" were begun in a store at 6811 Fort Hamilton Parkway which the pastor had rented for $12 a month.

[24] After eight months, the church headquarters were again transferred to the 76th Street house due to the difficulty heating the store.

The work progressed so that by July 8, 1915, the building was ready for the first Sunday morning worship service.

McCreight, however, was a trained educator, and within a year he was called to a professorship in a Western Seminary college.

While Egner was pastor, the church developed from an organization partially supported by the Board of Home Missions of the United Presbyterian Church to a completely self-supporting organization, ably operating on a sound financial basis.

There also was an active Young People's Organization and a women's society which has loyally supported the pastor in his work in behalf of the church.

The church, which in its early days had a hard struggle to exist, became self-supporting for many years and was cleared of debt in 1927.

Under the leadership of Reverend Egner, the congregation changed its name in 1925 to the Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church.

Pastor Egner resigned on April 5, 1944, to accept a call to the Presbyterian Church in Delancy, New York.

[32] In February 1941, the church began Wednesday "released time" classes which were allowed by the Coudert-McLaughlin Law passed in Albany.

[35] During his time there was great spiritual growth with three young men entering the ministry: Edwin (Scotty) Prophet, John Geldmacher and Neil M.

On Thursday evening, February 15, 1951, Robert I. Scott was installed as minister by the New York Presbytery.

The Reverend Calvin Spann was ordained on November 10, 1996, and became the contract pastor on December 1, 1996, and left in April 1998.

The Jim Gillies Scholarship Fund is managed by the Sunday School and gives awards to deserving students.

Jim Gillies, who had been battling multiple myeloma, died on the morning of September 25, 2011, at Lutheran Medical Center where he succumbed to an infection.

He was a dedicated elder, providing hospitality in the narthex every Sunday with his buddy Frank McCarthy, counting the offering, and participating in worship and all church functions.

On October 30, 2011, the church held a memorial service honoring Jim's Scottish heritage.

Due to dwindling membership, similar to all the churches in the neighborhood, in 2001 the Manse was sold to establish an endowment fund.

To assist the congregation the Classis of Brooklyn superseded the Board and appointed a Supersession Committee.

In accordance with the wishes of the congregation, the board granted permission to sell the building to Iglesia Cristiana Fuente de Luz.