THE HOLLAND SOCIETY
OF NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER, 1890.
First Sunday School
In 1785 half a dozen persons in the First Bouwerie Village, then scattering to the school east from the site of Cooper Union, met at the "Two Mile Stone"—so called from being two miles from Federal Hall—in the upper room of John Coutant's house, on the site where Cooper Institute stands now. The room was used as a shoe store during the week. Here, on Sundays, ministers from the John Street Church instructed converts. Peter Cooper, who was a member of the church, a few years later conceived the idea of connecting the school with the church. The organization was perfected, and he was chosen Superintendent of this, the first Sunday School of New York.
Bowery Village Church
The quarters becoming cramped, in 1795 the congregation moved to a two-story building a block away, on Nicholas William Street. This street, long since blotted out, extended from what is now Fourth Avenue and Seventh Street, across the Cooper Institute site and part of the adjoining block, to Eighth (now St. Mark's Place), midway of the block between Third and Second Avenues. The street was named after Nicholas William Stuyvesant. When the old John Street Church was taken down, in 1817, the timber from it was used to erect a church next to the Sunday School (called the Academy). This church was called the Bowery Village Church. In 1830, the Bowery Village Church having been wiped out by the advancing streets of the City Plan, Nicholas William Street went with it, and a church was then established a short distance to the east, on the line of what is now Seventh Street, north side, and this became the Seventh Street Church. In 1837 persons living near by who objected to the church revivals presented the trustees with two lots, nearer Third Avenue. There a new church was built, which still stands.
Second Vauxhall Garden