244 East 14th Street | Block : 469 | Lot #30

Description & Building Alterations

244 East 14th Street was designed by Emery Roth, architect of many of the legendary New York City apartment buildings, in 1924 as a Labor Temple run by the Presbyterian Church. The Temple, founded in 1910 by Reverend Charles Stelzle, had operated out of the old church building (the congregation of which had dwindled and subsequently merged with the church on East 13th Street) for 15 years. At that time it was an innovative concept to adaptively reuse the no longer needed church building while also trying a new way to spread a Christian message. When the old building was declared unsafe in 1923, the church found supporters to help build a new building for the Labor Temple. It paid for the construction by renting out stores on the first floor and offices on the second. Additionally, the building housed an auditorium for 600, a chapel for 150, recreation space on the roof, a gymnasium inside, as well as classrooms, studios, offices, and meeting rooms. It was open to any and all unions, and to unemployed laborers who could use it as a homeless shelter.

In 1921, philosopher and writer Will Durant founded the adult education program called the Temple School at this site, which included a settlement house and church services. He ran the school until 1927 and developed the material he later used to write Story of Philosophy, published by Simon and Schuster in 1926, as well as Story of Civilization, published in 1935. In 1959, the Presbytery of New York donated the building to the New York City Mission Society, a Spanish and Italian language mission church known as Church of the Crossroads. The Labor Temple’s records were given to the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia…