The last we anyone heard of Mount Moriah Baptist at 2050 Fifth Avenue (between 126th and 127th) was back in last November when the church property was seized and put up for sale. A reader in the neighborhood took a few photos of workers on site yesterday, so what is going on with this historic structure? Check out the new signage out front of the church after the jump.
The substantial Watkins Funeral Home awning (since 1921) had been set up by a crew but apparently this will part of a new film called
The Dictator which stars Sasha Baron Cohen of
Borat fame. The Daily News had a brief mention of the new comedy inspired by a book by Saddam Hussein which is now filming in Harlem for some reason:
LINK. As for the church itself, there had been talks of a condo conversion in the past but nothing seems to have happened to the property since it was placed on the market. Check out the full history in our past post:
LINK
Very interesting! Very interesting indeed! Does anyone know what became of the congregation that attended Mt. Moriah? Did it dissolve entirely?
ReplyDeleteAnd can someone please tell me what does "after the jump" mean? I've seen it in other blogs and really would like to know!
Thank You
@Greg - The Jump is the hypelink that expands the article further. As far as the congregation goes, our previous story revealed a sign up that said they had moved to another building.
ReplyDeleteI would love for that building to become a condo! What a boot for the neighborhood!
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the feasibility of a condo conversion.....should it be razed?
ReplyDeleteThis building should not be razed unless as part of a fully-funded, guaranteed construction of something new. A vacant lot here would devastate the block.
ReplyDeletevalgb - very good point!
ReplyDeleteI would love the structure to remain, though please, not as a church. More than enough of those around.
ReplyDeleteGreg, et al. Let this old print girl say about ‘jumps’. In a magazine when you are reading an article and it says, ‘continued on page. . . ’ the page it continues on is called the jump page. This from when you are laying out a magazine and one would say, ‘where does this jump to?’ Hence the term.
ReplyDeleteThank You All!
ReplyDeleteShould this area ("High Five" as some would say) be land marked?
ReplyDeleteI went by this morning--it's being spiffed up for either a movie or tv shoot. Production trucks and all the usual suspects were standing by.
ReplyDeleteMy roots in Mt Moriah extend back to the 1940's when my grandmother lived in what is now called the Mt. Morris historic distict. (I have photos of my mom up in the bell tower when the bell was there, but that is for another day) I was born in 1949 and recall as a child beautiful black women resplendent in Sunday finery, accompanied by dapper men tailored in suits fitted no doubt by Capital Suits on 125th Street well into the early '60s. The Pastor, Rev. J.S.Givens (grandfather to David Givens formerly of Comm Bd 11)was well known throughout the country for his fiery sermons and his good works within the community. My family left Harlem in 1962 for Queens, but I often returned to visit and rejoined the church as a teenager; leaving I thought for good, after college and a stint in the Marine Corp. I returned to Harlem and to Mt Moriah, now pastored by Rev. Johnson, in the 1980's not only because of fond memories but I felt many in the community had lost sight of what actually constitues community and felt I could contribute to the economic development of the Church. That was not to be and I left the Church as did many others of my generation after purchasing a home in Hamilton Heights (which I've kept, though I'm back in Queens taking care of my mom). The last few years have been difficult for the remaining, especially older members, of the congregation who are now meeting, I'm told, at the Harlem Black Theater. Rev. Johnson died in early March of this year. To many of you I'm sure Mt. Moriah is just an interesting crumbling architectual relic of bygone years; but to the few of us who are left and recall the building and most importantly the people who helped form the basic core of who we are collectively and individually, we are truly saddened.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that and writing it so beautifully.
ReplyDeleteA deeply moving reminiscence (sp?). thank you so much.
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