Optimism was the order of the day in the 1890s. Often called the “Gay Nineties,” it was an age of industrial advance sped by a flood of inventions. It was an age of community awareness global and local in scale. In 1896, for example, the Olympic Games were played for the first time in centuries, The New York Times began its circulation, and the Queensborough Public Library opened its doors. “Steam and electricity have tremendously increased the pace of life,” reported an observer in 1896. “Everybody is in a hurry. . . . Nervous prostration is our characteristic disease. Leisure is a word for whose meaning we consult the dictionary.”(1)

For the church, the 1890s brought a surge in overseas missionary activity. The Bible was translated into a record number of languages. As America became increasingly urbanized, however, the American church turned its attention to the needs of the cities.

Sunnyside, the Second Ward of Long Island City, was a place of wide-open space in the 1890s. Large portions of the area were swampy fields called “nuisance lands” by local residents. There was a section of high ground known as Sunnyside Hill, however, and some believed this could be the site of a new community. One person with this vision was Patrick (Paddy) Gleason, the Mayor of Long Island City, who built the Centennial Hotel, which stood at Thompson Avenue and Hulst Street (Queens Boulevard and 35th Street). Another was Claus Olandt, who began to raise money in 1892 for a mission and new church in Sunnyside. In just a few years, Claus Olandt would be the first Elder of the Sunnyside Reformed Church, and “Paddy Gleason’s” Centennial Hotel would be the first meeting place of the church as the congregation waited for the completion of its first building.

The earliest known record of the Sunnyside Reformed Church is the letter that the founding members sent to the North Classis (now the Queens Classis) of the Reformed Church in America. In it they express the hopes and concerns of the newly developing area of Sunnyside.

Long Island City

Friday, April 17, 1896

To the North Reformed Classis of Long Island, NY

We the undersigned make application to the said Classis for church organization in the Second Ward, known as Sunnyside, of Long Island City. The said Ward has a population of some three thousand inhabitants, made up of representatives of different nationalities.

There is no Protestant Evangelical Church in the Ward, the only church being the Roman Catholic at Blissville. Saloons are more than plentyful. That this is practically a mission field and that there is a crying need for a church organization with its elevating and beneficent influences no one can gainsay.

The latter part of June 1895, a Sunday School was opened with 29 scholars in a room 14 by 46 feet in an isolated building situated some distance from the dwellings and homes. The furniture used by a former missions which was abandoned has been kindly loaned by the Third (Methodist Episcopal) Church.

Notwithstanding the great disadvantages occasioned by the location and the rough paths of approach, the work has had a steady growth. There are 110 scholars and 10 teachers at present, more than there is room for in the apartments mentioned. From the beginning preaching services have been held Sunday morning and evening and during the week a prayer meeting and teacher meeting.

At the start there were only one or two who could take part in the meetings and now after ten months of growth there are at least fifteen who can lead in prayer and give testimony of Jesus’ power to save and to keep. Others are under conviction and deeply exercised about their eternal welfare. Aside from those who have found in Jesus a personal Savior the Christians have experienced a marked growth and have been led into the fullness of blessing. Subscriptions have been secured for our new building, to the amount of $1,300. Of this amount all has been paid in except $300. $700 has been paid for lots and the contract for the foundation and basement has been given out.

At first it was planned to secure the building and then organize and ask the help of the Board of Domestic Missions for aid toward the current expenses or the pastor’s salary. This plan will not be carried out as we have found that we are able to meet the current expenses.

The average attendance at morning and evening services is about thirty.

Some sixty-five of the adult residents whom we have been able to see, have signified their favor by signing a document herewith presented.

So far some thirteen of us have seen their way clear to become members of the new church organization. There is no doubt that others will follow shortly.

Respectfully submitted

Claus Olandt, Jr.

Daniel P. Doyle

The congregation faced challenges from the start. They met in a house while their church building was under construction. In 1897, however, after attending the Installation Service of their first minister, Daniel P. Doyle, the Classis suggested that this meeting place was unsatisfactory. They told the congregation to put a roof over the basement of the new building and worship there until the rest of the structure could be completed. Apparently this advice was not followed for in 1898, the church reported that “the house where services were held was not weather proof. The furniture and books have been injured by rain. The congregation was compelled to seek other quarters.” They began to worship at the Centennial Hotel.

The church’s building, at 310 Buckley Street (36th Street south of Skillman Avenue), was completed finally in 1899, and the congregation announced, “The outlook for the church is bright.” The congregation’s optimism of 1899 was short-lived. By the turn of the century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was buying land and houses for the switching yards it was building in Long Island City. Sunnyside Hill was leveled to fill in the swamp land. Some houses were moved to new locations by the company, but in most cases families simply moved away. In addition to this, the Steinway Piano Company located in Astoria petitioned the city to develop subway service from Manhattan to Queens. As a result the city began work on the “Steinway Tunnel” through which the #7 train now runs. This further disrupted the neighborhood as more families moved away. These developments plus the departure of Pastor Doyle to another church in Long Island City brought the church to a very low point only eight years after it was organized. The Annual Reports from these years are telling:

April 19, 1904 Sunny Side L.I. City. The church is still without a pastor and has had hard struggles this past year. Many of the families have moved away on account of the purchase of land by the RR Company. Services are still held every Sunday, and notwithstanding many discouragements, the church is hopeful that it is doing some good for the Master.

April 18, 1905 Sunnyside: Owing to the change brought about by the construction of the tunnel this church has suffered severe losses. A removal to a neighboring locality may be advisable.

The church struggled to remain open. A succession of supply pastors served in the congregation, but the pulpit was essentially vacant from 1903 until 1916.

It was in 1916 that the Sunnyside Church took the remarkable step of asking the Rev. Anne J. Allebach to serve as their pastor. Women clergy were unheard of in the Reformed Church until 1979. Did they call her because the First World War had taken many male clergy into uniform? Anne Allebach herself, in an article in the newspaper “New York World,” said that she thought she was offered the job because the church was so small that no man would take it.(6) Indeed, according to the same article there were only four members in the church when she arrived.

Anne Allebach was born in 1875 in Green Lane, Pennsylvania. She was raised in the Mennonite Church, and attended Ursinus College. She was ordained by the First Mennonite Church in Philadelphia. During her tenure at Sunnyside, the church made enormous progress. According to the “World” Article, church attendance jumped to 600, and Pastor Allebach was well known for her compassionate care of the poor and unemployed.

She was recognized at the meetings of the North Classis, commended by the Classis of 1918 for the “earnest work and goodly measure of success which during the past year has attended the work of the Sunnyside Church,”(7) and invited to address the Classis whenever she attended.

There is no record of how Sunnyside Reformed Church and Anne Allebach found each other. The most likely connection seems to be Christian Endeavor. The Sunnyside Church was involved in “C.E.” and Anne Allebach wrote articles for the Christian Endeavor papers in Philadelphia. Perhaps their paths crossed at a convention or meeting.

Unfortunately Anne Allebach died in 1918. She was forty-four years old. Following her death, the pulpit at Sunnyside was vacant for several years, and the church once again considered moving to a new location.

In the postwar years, Long Island City became increasingly industrialized. The opening of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909, Long Island train service from Penn Station through the East River Tunnels in 1910, and the Queensborough subway in 1915 encouraged rapid growth in the area. Factories began to crowd the blocks around Queensborough Plaza. The church decided to look for a building lot in one of the newly developing residential areas.

The 1920s brought a housing boom to Sunnyside. The Metropolitan Houses and Matthews Flats were built as low-cost modern housing. In 1924–25, Sunnyside Gardens, a planned garden community of two-story homes, was built by the City Housing Corporation. It was from the City Housing Corporation that the church eventually bought the lot on the corner of Gosman (48th Street) and Skillman Avenues for $8,000 in June of 1926. Plans for a new building moved forward.

The Rev. William Norris had been called as a pastor in 1925. It was he who negotiated the purchase of the land. While waiting for the new building to be constructed, the congregation worshipped at the “36th Street Church” as the original building was now called. Pastor Norris also held services at the Community House in Sunnyside Gardens. The response there was positive, and groundwork was laid for new members.

Services in the new building were held for the first time on June 24, 1928. For some reason the church was constructed without a basement. When the basement level was added in 1933, a steel beam was placed under the sanctuary. Two stories about the source of this steel beam circulate. One is that it was a gift from the IRT. The other is that it was a gift from a merchant ship. In either case, the beam reportedly sat in Skillman Avenue for several days, tying up traffic.

Rev. Norris resigned his pastorate in 1930 stating, among other things, that his doctor recommended a complete change.

Following the resignation of Rev. William Norris, the church faced new challenges. They had two buildings to maintain since they could find no one to purchase the old church on 36th Street. They were without a pastor. They, along with many in the immediate neighborhood, were feeling the effects of the Great Depression. Consistory Minutes make references to providing for “needy families” and offering fund to “several families in need.” It was during this period that almost 60% of the homeowners in the Sunnyside Gardens community could not make their mortgage payments and lost their homes.

In 1933, the Rev. Stanley Verhey was called to serve as Pastor of Sunnyside Church. Early changes in his pastorate indicate the church’s desire to be identified as a neighborhood church rather than a “Reformed” church. At the first Consistory meeting over which Pastor Verhey presided, the name of the church was changed from Sunnyside Reformed Church to Sunnyside Community Church. At his second Consistory meeting, it was decided that Holy Communion would be observed only once each quarter. In the words of a booklet printed during his tenure, the church is described as “inter-denominational and non-sectarian. It’s only creed is this: ‘In the love of truth and in the spirit of love we unite our efforts in the worship of God and in the service of men.’”

The church became a hub of neighborhood activity. Girl Scout troops, WPA Classes, the Board of Elections, the Sunnyside Community Association all found meeting places in the building.

The Second World War generated hardship, and the anxiety of the war years is reflected in the Minutes of Consistory. The church enrolled in a War Damage Insurance Plan and bought supplies for Air Raid Protection. The practice of holding Communion Services once a month was resumed. When the men were called into the Armed Services, the Boy Scouts assumed responsibility for the janitorial services at the church. Pastor Verhey worked with the Chaplain at the 46th Street Barracks. During this period, it seemed to be the responsibility of the Ladies Aid Society to raise money for utility bills and major repairs.

After the war, the first benevolent giving in the history of the church was recorded. The consistory voted in 1945 to give $20 to the Gideons and $20 to the New Brunswick Seminary. This was a significant step for a church that had been considered a “mission church” for most of its life and had been often dependent upon help from the Church Extension Fund and the Board of Domestic Missions.

In September of 1945, Pastor Verhey announced his resignation to answer a call to serve the Harlem Collegiate Church on 89th Street in Manhattan.

In booklet printed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the congregation, pastor Verhey’s ministry was summarized as follows:

Under his direction and during the recent World War, the church reached new heights. The membership, which was about thirty when he came soon grew to over two hundred. . . . Extensive renovations were made. An oil burner was installed. The present vestibule with its ornate cupola was constructed. . . . Throughout many of its years a portion of the salary of the minister was paid by the Board of Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church In America. But soon this too is to become simply a matter of record as the church has become self supporting.

The Rev. Walter B. Pinckney began his pastorate at the Sunnyside Church in February 1946. He and his family moved into the newly purchased parsonage at 39-64 48th Street.

One of Pastor Pinckney’s first projects was the Sunnyside Church Herald, a magazine of six to twelve pages printed monthly (except for July and August). It contained information, devotional articles, and religious news. It was supported by advertising from local businesses.

In the postwar years, the Sunnyside Church, along with other churches across America, began to grow quickly. In 1948, there were 160 children enrolled in the Sunday School.

As the congregation grew, space was a challenge. Rooms for Sunday School classes were rented from stores across Skillman Avenue. There was talk of excavating a new basement and covering it to make extra space. There was thought of purchasing a Quonset hut. Finally in December of 1951, a Building Committee was appointed, and plans for a new sanctuary and social hall were developed. In the meantime the old sanctuary was improved by the installation of stained glass windows and the purchase of a baptismal font.

The life of the church took some new directions in this period. Two young people of the congregation, Ernest Herr and Robert Fehse, expressed interest in entering the ordained ministry. They would be followed eventually by Dudley Savfaty, Frederick Hummel, William Perry, Robert Byrnes, Michael Moran, William Lance, and William Havlena. The church also took a share in the support of Mr. and Mrs. Don McNeill, missionaries to Arabia.

The annual reports to the Congregation, which appear to have begun officially in 1950, covered the activities of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Women’s Missionary Society, Women’s Club, Student Scholarship Fund, Cub Pack, Christian Endeavor, Department of Music, Sunday School. Attendance at worship burgeoned. There were 391 at Palm Sunday Services in 1954, necessitating three services in the little sanctuary. The congregation later reaped the benefits of the 1957 Billy Graham Crusade, which was held in New York City.

Fund-raising, canvassing, and planning for the new building began in earnest in 1956. It was estimated that the new structure would cost $120,000. Faith on 48th Street, a ten-page booklet, outlining the whole building project, was distributed. Ground was broken in 1958. The first service in the new sanctuary, still without pews and carpeting, was held on Confirmation Sunday, March 22, 1959. The building was dedicated on June 21, 1959.

The Church continued to prosper. More new groups included a Women’s Missionary Circle, Women’s Prayer and Bible Study Circle, and the Men’s Brotherhood.

At the end of 1961 Pastor Pinckney left quietly to pastor the New Hyde Park Reformed Church.

When the church began its search for a new pastor, the Consistory Minutes of February 12, 1962, included the following: “Brother Hall reports a very satisfactory visit to Highbridge, New Jersey where the Reverend Young was a forceful, intelligent, ardent speaker auguring well for his visit to our church this coming Sunday.” The Rev. John Ralph Young was called to be the Pastor of Sunnyside in April 1962. Early in his tenure, the congregation returned to its roots in the way it worshipped. In later years, the church would return the title “Reformed” to its name.”

During the 1960s the church gave added attention to its ministry with youth and children. Student ministers were called to help with the Christian Endeavor and the Reformed Church Youth Groups. Those who served as students at Sunnyside during this period were Neal Busker, Carl Lazzarro, Paul Van Elk, Paul Tanis, Roy Hendershoot, Michael Moran, Paul Ruder, John Mongin, and Marvin Meeter.

Children and young people, enough to be organized into three different youth groups, participated in the Sunday School Anniversary Parades, went on picnics at the Warwick Estates and at Melody Park. Vacation Bible School was held for the first time. At one point, there were seven Scout Troops meeting at the church.

Although the church was generally strong, Pastor Young noted that the congregation was becoming “too casual about its attendance at Sunday Worship. The student ministers were given the task of canvassing the neighborhood to determine good places for evangelism.

Changes in the building reflected the changes in the ministry. Great movable partitions were hung in the Social Hall to make classrooms for Sunday School. In 1962 the interior of the Sanctuary was finished with wood paneling. The choir pews, which originally faced our toward the congregation, were turned to face the Communion Table.

Funds were raised through Every Member Canvasses, and the mortgage on the Sanctuary was paid off in September of 1966. The Consistory feared that the people might become lax in their giving with the completion of mortgage payments, but this did not happen. The church purchased a new parsonage at 39-70 48th Street. In 1969 a new organ was installed.

Events at the church reflected the times. In 1963, the church was asked to provide volunteers to work in the Reformed Church’s booth at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow. In 1964, the church experienced its first burglary. In 1968, the church offered space for classes to be held during the lengthy strike of public school teachers. In 1970, the church started a Coffee House ministry, and both Pastor Young and Student Assistant Ruder were working as chaplains at a Narcotics Center.

The 1970s saw some significant milestones for the church. On one hand, several people had been serving for a very long time in the same capacity. Elder Yeran Sarounie had served on consistory for 40 years, and John Rice Browne had been organist for fifteen years. On the other hand, brand new names appeared on the Consistory roster when women began to serve as deacons in 1971.

Pastor Young noted with concern the decline in church enrollment and pledging units. In 1974 there was no Children’s Day and no Christmas Pageant. Other activities and groups remained strong, however. The Youth Group was large. The Women’s Guild for Christian Service was big enough to be divided into three circles: the Fund Raising Circle, the Goodwill Circle, and the Guild Study Circle. Adult Education Classes were offered on the social issues of the day: “Black Power,” “Civil Disobedience,” and “Drugs and Narcotics.”

By the middle of the decade, however, it was acknowledged that the church had to make “maximum use of the building for adequate revenue.” The basement was leased to the Sunnyside Senior Center, called “Self Help Senior Citizen Center,” and a succession of Korean Churches began to use the church for worship services.

The decade ended on a sad note as eleven break-ins were reported in 1979. During one burglary, the brass Altar Service was stolen.

Pastor Young in his Annual Report for 1981 again expressed concern about the future of the church. “All around us are religious institutions which are in a terrible struggle to stay alive. We too may find ourselves in exactly that kind of struggle. If we concentrate our efforts on those things we can do and if we do them well, I am sure our mission will continue.” The downward spiral eased in the next year, church attendance stabilized, and Pastor Young noted that 19 new members had been taken into the congregation, the largest group in 25 years.

In 1983 Pastor Young was called to serve in the Office of Human Support for the Reformed Church in America. At his final meeting with the Consistory he closed with a reading from II Corinthians 13:11–14. The Rev. Herman D. DeJong, Pastor of Steinway Reformed Church, was appointed by Classis to supervise the congregation.

In September of 1984, the Rev. Edward Hart Schreur was installed as Pastor. Richard and Pamela Smith also worked at the church in exchange for housing in the parsonage.

The first order of business was fund raising. The church, still dependent upon rental income, struggled with lease arrangements for the major groups that used the building: the Senior Center and the Korean Churches.

New church programs again reflected the needs of the times. The church started a young adult group, a chapter of Bread for the World, and considered opening a shelter for the homeless. Vacation Bible School was reorganized, church school classes resumed, and a pictorial history of the congregation was published. In 1986, the church purchased a new hymnal, Rejoice in the Lord, and new worship practices included a children’s sermon and the “Passing of the Peace.”

In an effort to reach new people, the church enrolled in a database program that provided them with names of people moving into the neighborhood.

In 1987 the Senior Center moved to new quarters on 39th Street. Still trying to maintain the church by renting its space, other groups were solicited including the Home Care Center, Botanical Society, Sunnyside Foundation, Rosewood Chamber Orchestra, Play-O-Rena, Jazzercize, and Alcoholics Anonymous.

In August of 1987, Pastor Schreur announced that he had accepted a call to serve as associate pastor of Fort Washington Collegiate Church. The Rev. Herman D. DeJong was again appointed by Classis to supervise the congregation. A Search Committee was formed to look for a new pastor.

The Rev. Byron “Bud” White was called to serve as Interim Pastor in October 1987. Under the Interim Pastor’s leadership, the congregation reorganized itself with new committees. Carol Faber, an AIM (Adventures in Ministry) worker, was called to help with the Christian Education programs. The church mounted a major fund-raising campaign to install a new boiler and a new roof.

In May of 1989, the Reverend Judith Gorsuch was installed as Pastor of the Church. She seemed to be called in the footsteps of the Rev. Anne J. Allebach. Pastor Allebach and Pastor Gorsuch both attended Ursinus College, both did social service work in Philadelphia before coming to New York, both attended Union Theological Seminary, and both lived in the city, commuting by public transportation to work at the Church. The close parallel of these two ministries was unknown until recent work on the church’s history.

During the 1990s the church has focused on the basics: worship, prayer, and Christian Education. Three weekday services have been added to the worship schedule and Healing Vespers are offered each month. Twenty-four-hour prayer vigils for missions and church growth are held during Lent. The congregation has been blessed with excellent organists and choir directors, JoAnn Kulesza, Brett Roelofs, and Vince Anderson, who have worked the choirs and congregation to enhance the music program and improve congregational singing. Joint worship services are held each year with the Korean congregation that shares the building.

New programs in the 1990s have been educational in nature. The Sunnyside Family Network is a weekday program of spiritual nurture for toddlers and their parents. Sunnynobs, the Sunnyside Network of Biblical Storytellers, does intensive Bible Study and works at maintaining the oral tradition of the scriptures.

Although the church shares its building with a Korean Congregation and hosts Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups six nights a week, the congregation has gradually weaned itself from dependence upon rental income. By 1994, the church had raised its benevolent giving to more than a tithe of its total budget. As the Centennial Year approached, the congregation began raising a Centennial Thank Offering of $10,000, one hundred dollars for each of its one hundred years. This offering is scheduled to be given to various institutions and funds that do the Lord’s work in the world, the largest gift going to the Reformed Church’s Extension and Building Fund, which supported our church so generously in its early years.

The challenges facing this congregation in 1996 are similar to those of 1896. “Everybody is in a hurry . . . leisure is a word for whose meaning we consult the dictionary.” We live in an exciting, diverse city. Sunday mornings find families in the country, children involved in sporting events, adults going to college and marching in fund-raising walks. The Sunnyside Community is increasingly mobile. Families move in, stay for a few years, and then move to the suburbs. People from different Christian traditions come to the Sunnyside Church looking for a home church. How to do ministry, how to share the love of Jesus in this place at this time under these circumstances is the work that our Lord has given us to do.

From our history we have learned that this church has been willing in the past to take risks, to try things that no one else would try, to hang on, to ask for help, to build, and to give. This church has been sustained by many who have prayed for it and supported it, but it is only by trusting finally in Jesus that this church has been able to witness to the Gospel for one hundred years. Jesus has fed us at his table and feeds us still. Let us endeavor to draw close and listen to our Lord. Let us learn what he will have us do as we move forward into our second century.

Pastors who have served the Sunnyside Church:

Daniel P. Doyle: 1897–1903

Pulpit Vacant: 1903–1907

A. P. Lyon: 1907–1908

Pulpit Vacant: 1909–1916

Anne J. Allebach: 1916–1918

Claude M. Severence: 1919–1922

Henry Uffelin: 1922–1925

William M. Norris: 1928–1930

Stanley J. Verhey: 1933–1945

Walter B. Pinckney: 1946–1962

John R. Young: 1962–1983

Edward H. Schreur: 1984–1987

Byron E. White: 1988–1989

Judith Gorsuch: 1989–2000

I. Douglas Estella: 2000–2006

Neil Margetson: 2009–2021

Brandan Robertson: 2023–