VERY EARLY RELIGIOUS TRACT BY FAMED N.Y. BAPTIST EDWARD Judson built his church for.)H!

Tract by EDWARD JUDSON, D.D. Baptist Minister, who founded and built a fabled church in NY with the help of J.D. Rockerfeller and Stanford White who was the architect. Judson planned this church to be built in the heart of the NC City at a junction of where the richest met the poorest. His dream came to pass in the 1880s If you Google his name you can read all about him and see the intent of his chuch. AND VIEW THE CHURCH!! Before this he's had a church in NJ. as well.

NOTE! The tract is NOT"a Bible thump" like you may think--It is the story of a bitter, poor handicapped old woman" ( The kind Rev. Judson built his church for.) It reads like a story...not a religious tract!

Judson Memorial Church and Judson Hall and Tower were built in 1892 on the designs of McKim, Mead & White. John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was the chief benefactor in the 1880s and 1890s, who made its construction possible.

The story begins with Edward Judson (1844-1913), a Baptist minister who gave up a prosperous parish in Orange, New Jersey, to minister to the new Americans who then filled the area south of here between the two rivers. In 1875 he became the pastor of the Berea Baptist Church at 117 West 15th Street. He lived at 35 Washington Square West.

One of the objects of his mission was to have a splendid church. "If I had my way," he said, "I would put the most beautiful churches among the homes of the poor, so that it would be only a step from the squalor of the tenement house . . ." This was his vision. It would not be just an ordinary church but an institutional church, with all the facilities and activities of a settlement house.

This tract was printed at about this time before the church became a reality! Tract c. 1870s. SEE pictures of the tract. The message was a fiction story of Old Nancy--Who was poor and ill who is visited by an angel who didn't seem such.

Poverty was the reason for Rev. Judson to get involved in his many Christion endeavors. AND THE BUILDING OF HIS CHURCH This old tract may be the only one THIS OLD extant, and therefore is rather precious. Back bottom says... Compiled by Edward Judson D.D.--Judson Memorial Tract Repository, Washington Sq, NY.

The elder Rockefeller, a Baptist communicant all his life who even taught Sun-day school, had the Baptist Church as his first charity. He would visit Baptist churches and meet their pastors; in this way he came to know of Judson and his work. In 1887, when the pastor took up a campaign to build a new church building, he naturally turned to the philanthropist who was, by then, among his largest contributors.

It should be pointed out that the church was not named for him but for his father, Adinoram Judson (1788-1850), graduate of Brown University. The elder Judson was one of those Protestant missionaries who fanned out around the globe from the eastern United States. In 1813 he and his wife sailed to Burma. Very much part of his mission was to translate the Bible into Burmese. Having accomplished that, he produced a Burmese-English, English-Burmese diction-ary with the help of his wife. His son, instead of following his father abroad, turned to the home mission. to plans by Saint-Gaudens).

Judson Memorial Church - Historical Background
At the time of its construction from 1888-93, Judson Memorial Church’s location on Washing-ton Square South served to cement the church’s artistic vision with its purpose. In the middle of a wealthy patrician neighborhood, Judson Memorial intended to UNITE the immigrants of the tenement communities near the square with the wealthy upper classes. Dr. Edward Judson, rector of the Berean Baptist Church of Christ,(870s) sought to move his congregation to a new location. He resolved to build an ecclesiastical structure that would bring beauty to the lives of the low-income immigrants and also memorialize his father Adoniram Judson, the first American missionary in Asia.

Located on the corner of Washington Square South and Thompson Street, Judson Memorial’s brick and terra cotta surface has overlooked Washington Square Park for over one hundred years. The church’s most significant identifying factor remains its dedication to egalitarian membership and social concerns of the urban area.

The Building Stages
In 1886, Edward Judson studied Manhattan to determine the best position for the relocated Berean Baptist from its original place on Bedford and Downing Streets. He acquired the 130 by 100 foot lot on Washington Square in 1888 for $132,500. John D. Rockefeller was a major donor, and Judson hired the well-known architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to design the complex. When officially completed in 1893, primary architect Stanford White had constructed the 102 foot long church, a 165 foot high campanile tower that housed orphans and the adjoining Judson Hotel which intended to net income for the church. The entire cost of the Judson complex totaled $240, 578 (Sloan 300-309 ).

NOTE___This tract, part a series of beautiful lithograph "booklets" were distributed free, with color litho pictures meant to go along with the stories within--Flowers here were delivered to Old Nancy in the freeze of winter by a "stranger".In the end, Nancy of course passes away--but to a New Life says th ending message in the tract..

I believe the tracts were written by Rev. Judson and were very pretty and inspirational, and probably were applicable best to offer hope for the poor and helpless. An admirable life's work!!

AND YOU CAN ENLARGE AND READ "OLD NANCY'S" STORY STILL!