St Mary's Episcopal Church

Mary’s Episcopal Church has been serving the Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities of Brooklyn for over 175 years, beginning as a Sunday school organized by the rector of Trinity Church and consecrated as a parish in 1836. Because of a rapidly growing congregation, the parish purchased property at Classon and Willoughby avenues. The current church building was completed in 1859, consecra

ted in 1862, and externally remains essentially unchanged from its original design. Reflecting the significant growth of the Episcopal Church on Long Island in those years, it became a parish within the newly-created Diocese of Long Island in 1868. The parish has served quite a variety of ethnic groups throughout its history as Brooklyn received new waves of immigrants from Europe and the Caribbean, and welcomed people from the then mainly agricultural southern states who were looking for work in the industrial northern states. As the Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities have transformed over the years, so too has the makeup of parish membership. This transformation continues to this very day. Mary’s continues to reach out to the community through concerts and through social events. Recent concerts include opera (Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), Jazz Café, and concerts produced by St. Mary’s Organist and Director of Music: A Potpourri of Song℠ like “Pietà Signore” “Mozart in the Middle”, “Un Peu de Tout”, "Different Hats", and "Dueling Divas". Social events include yard sales and the annual Martin Luther King Day Community Celebration in January. The parish runs a Salvage Bureau that collects used and unwanted clothing, distributing that which is in good condition to those in need. Mary’s church building was registered as a Historic Landmark in 1986, recognizing it as a significant architectural and historic structure in Brooklyn and New York, ensuring that the church building will be preserved for years to come.