The Little Church Around the Corner

The Little Church Around the Corner is an Episcopal church at 1 East 29th Street. Erected around 1849 in the English Neo-Gothic style, its actual name is the Church of the Transfiguration.

For the first 49 years, the church was under the leadership of Reverend George Hendric Houghton, who in his capacity helped shelter escaped slaves, maintained a bread line for the unemployed, and helped in the founding of the Older of the Holy Cross, the oldest continuous monastic Order in the Episcopal church in the United States.

The Little Church Around the Corner, New York City
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Church_Around_the_Corner_from_east.jpg
Author: Beyond My Ken


The name "Little Church Around the Corner" came one fateful day in 1870 when actor Joseph Jefferson tried to arrange for the funeral of his friend. The pastor of that church refused to bury someone of such lowly profession. He sent Jefferson off to "the little church around the corner" where "they do that sort of thing". Without trying to point fingers, a big church around the corner from this little church appears to be the Marble Collegiate Church.

The welcome that Jefferson received brought about a lasting relationship between the church and people of the theater.

The Little Church Around the Corner was designated a New York City landmark in 1967, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Getting there

The nearest subway stations are the 28 St (N,R) station and the 33st St (6) station. The nearest bus stop is the Madison Av/E 29 St, served by the X10, X10B, X12, X27, X28, X37, X38 and X42.

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Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. While I try my best to provide you information that is as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors. Also, as I might not be able to update some information on time, some of these pages may contain outdated information.