Wunsch Hall: A building steeped in history | NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Wunsch Hall: A building steeped in history

students sitting on steps of brick building with columns

Curious about the Greek Revival Building at 311 Bridge St. that now houses Wunsch Hall, home to the NYU Tandon admissions offices and the Wasserman Center for Career Development? You’re far from the only one. Many MetroTech visitors remark on its distinctive pediment and Doric columns — not exactly common features on an urban campus otherwise filled with more modern buildings.

Even more impressive than its design elements (and its spot on the National Register of Historic Places), however, is the building’s storied history.
 

Origins of Brooklyn’s African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal congregation

In 1817 the Black members of Brooklyn’s First Methodist Episcopal Church split off after white elders demanded that they each pay an astronomical annual fee of $40 to worship in segregated galleries. They initially met in each other’s homes and later purchased a property on High Street to build the first African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. Within a few decades the congregation had increased to almost 200 members, and in 1854, the church council purchased the building on Bridge Street for $12,000.

A center for abolitionist activity

Before and during the Civil War, the Church building became a station on the Underground Railroad, with escapees sheltering in the basement; historians believe that the basement was connected by a series of tunnels leading to and from the home of prominent abolitionists Thomas and Harriet Truesdell at 227 Duffield St. While some of those who escaped settled among the freemen in New York (a situation that left them vulnerable to recapture because of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), most continued to Canada.

On January 1, 1863, when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the Church remained open around the clock as word spread and people arrived to celebrate.

old black and white photo next to present day photo of Wunsch building
Left: Bridge Street Methodist Church circa 1950  (Source: Library of Congress) Right: NYU Tandon Wunsch Building

Famous speakers

In 1863 Frederick Douglas launched his “Men of Color, To Arms” campaign, which recruited 200,000 African-American soldiers to the Union, and in 1865 Harriet Tubman addressed a packed congregation gathered to honor her for her work.

Other interesting facts: The Church also served as a safe haven during the bloody Draft Riots of 1863. 

Susan Smith McKinney, the church organist during the Civil War era, became the first Black woman physician in New York State.