Judson Memorial Church

Judson Memorial Church stands as a deliberate geographic bridge between two worlds that existed in the late nineteenth century. Reverend Edward Judson chose this specific site on the south side of Washington Square Park to occupy the precise boundary where the wealthy homes of the north met the crowded immigrant tenements of the south. He envisioned his ministry as a place where the affluent could cross the park to provide direct, hands-on aid to their less fortunate neighbors. The cornerstone, laid in eighteen-ninety, famously holds a copy of the Bible translated into Burmese, placed there to honor the founder's father, Adoniram Judson, who served as the first American Protestant missionary to Burma.