The ARCHWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST was established in 1819 as a Presbyterian church by the "Plan of Union" (a joint Congregational-Presbyterian church-founding effort) and later augmented by the merger with Fourth Evangelical & Reformed Church. Circuit preachers served the church until a permanent minister was hired in 1834. A town meetinghouse and members' homes were used for services until a building reportedly was built near the corner of W. 25th St. and Willowdale Ave., in use by 1830. The BROOKLYN congregation finally chose between the denominations and in 1831 incorporated as the First Congregational Society of Brooklyn. In 1851 the frame building was moved to the corner of Liberty (W. 33rd) and Newburgh (Denison Ave.) streets. In 1879 a new brick building of Late Gothic style was built on the north side of Greenwood (Archwood) Ave. Outgrown and in disrepair by the 1920s, a new building, designed by Daniel Farnham in the Colonial Revival style, was dedicated on the site in 1929.
In 1967, a decade after the merger of the Congregational and Evangelical & Reformed denominations into the United Church of Christ, Archwood and the Fourth Evangelical & Reformed Church merged into the Archwood United Church of Christ. Fourth Evangelical had been formed out of a German-speaking Sunday school begun in 1869 as a mission of the First Evangelical & Reformed Church at Penn (W. 32nd St.) and Carroll avenues. The Sunday school served GERMANS living south of the area known as Walworth Run. In 1872 these families met in a home on Walton Ave. and chartered the Fourth Evangelical & Reformed Church. A lot was purchased on Louis (W. 32nd) St. south of Clark Ave., and a small frame church dedicated in 1873. A Sunday school annex was added in 1884. A second building was dedicated on Woodbridge Ave. in 1910. Following the merger, the Evangelical & Reformed building was sold. The 1970s saw a decline in community involvement for the Archwood Church, but in the next decade it joined the neighborhood revitalization, participating in such projects as the Crossroads Development Corp. and Archwood Denison Concerned Citizens, the Brooklyn Centre Historical Society, and a hunger center. Membership was approx. 250 in the 1980s.
See also RELIGION; CONGREGATIONALISTS; PRESBYTERIANS.