First located in the notorious Five Points neighborhood,[2] it is the oldest black Episcopal parish in New York City.

[3] Historically, it was extremely influential both while located in lower Manhattan and as an institution in Harlem, and many of its members have been leaders in the black community.

[4] In the 1820s other men in the church were also upwardly mobile, beginning to gain financial success primarily in the service industry and joining abolitionist and other reform groups.

With this money it bought the site of the current church, as well as 10 apartment buildings on West 135th Street in Harlem.

[8] The church was designated as a New York City Landmark in 1993,[9] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

[11] In the 20th century, members of the church included political and cultural leaders such as professor and public intellectual W. E. B.

Du Bois; Thurgood Marshall, NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney and Supreme Court Justice; and poet and playwright Langston Hughes.