Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, 1930 (acetate negative)

The church was conceived by famed but controversial industrialist/financier/philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., (1874-1960), and the emerging but controversial, famous minister and preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick, (1878-1969), as a large, inter-denominational church in a neighborhood important to the city, open to all who profess faith in Christ. Its congregation includes more than forty ethnic groups. As of 2007, the church had a million annual operating budget and a paid staff of 130. In 2012 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.