Church of Zion and St. Timothy at Madison Avenue

This Gothic temple was erected in 1854 by the Zion Church. It was located on southeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 38th Street. The temple was bought by the South Reformed Dutch Church in 1890, which occupied it until about 1911. Then it housed the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist.

Zion Lutheran Church was founded in 1797. The congregation was converted to Episcopalianism in 1801 and became the Zion Protestant Episcopal Church. In 1802, the society built a church at 25 Mott Street and Cross Street (later Park Street). The Zion Church built this Gothic church on Madison Avenue from 1853 to 1854, the year the Zion Church merged with the Episcopal Church of the Atonement.

In 1890, the Zion Church united with and moved to the St. Timothy Protestant Episcopal Church, a society organized in 1853, located at 310 West 54th Street near Eighth Avenue. The St. Timothy's Mission Chapel, established in 1867, was located nearby on West 56th Street at Eighth Avenue. The combined congregations built a new church on the 57th Street side of this chapel, constructed from 1891 to 1892.

The South Reformed Dutch Church was originally organized in 1628, during the Dutch rule. The church was housed in a few temples until in came to this old Zion Church at 245 Madison Avenue, in 1890, from its former temple on Fifth Avenue. From 1909 to 1911, the South Dutch Church constructed a new temple on Park Avenue and 85th Street. The congregation moved to Park Avenue about 1911, the temple was dedicated on February 4, 1912, and the Church was formally dissolved in 1914.

About 1911, the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, organized in 1901, moved from West 45th Street, to this old temple at 245 Madison Avenue. About 1914, they moved again to the Aeolian Hall in West 42nd Street.

Climbing plants began to grow on the outer walls of the temple around the early 1890s. This old temple on Madison Avenue and East 38th Street lost the upper part of its spire by the late 19th century or early 20th century. The temple was demolished in 1917 and replaced by the 16-story Fraternity Clubs Building, completed in 1924.

Right, the South Dutch Church, former Zion Church, on Madison Avenue & 38th Street. Photo published in the History of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy of New York, 1797-1894, by David Clarkson (1894).