Liberty Street and Middle Dutch Church

South side of Liberty Street, showing the Middle Dutch Church on the corner of Nassau Street, on the right, and the old six-story Livingston's Sugar House, on the left. Illustration dated 1830, published in the D.T. Valentine's Manual for 1858, New York (N.Y.), Common Council. Lithograph by Geo. Hayward. Source: Internet Archive, Digital Library. Continue below...

The old Middle Dutch Church was founded in 1827 as the New Dutch Church. The first temple was completed in 1731. Its origins go back to the Dutch Reformed Church at the time of the Dutch rule of New Amsterdam (now New York), established in the 17th century.

Middle Dutch and the sugar house became prisons during the Independence War, after the British troops invaded the City of New York in 1776. The same happened with others sugar houses and churches in New York.

In the 18th century, part of commerce in New York City was trade with the British West Indies. Destined for refineries, sugar and molasses imported from Jamaica and Sint Eustatius (a Dutch Island in the Antilles) were stored in warehouses built by merchant families.

The Livingston's Sugar House was built in 1754 by the Livingston family at Crown (now Liberty) Street. The structure was later demolished in 1846.