Judson Church and Washigton Square Park

Jusdon Memorial Church is located at: 55 Washington Square SouthNew York, NY 10012 and it represents one of the main buildings, one of the symbols that we find in Washington Square Park. Our last visit was to Judson Church, a very interesting visit where i found out impressing information. First off all a little about the church.

History
The church was founded by Edward Judson, a distinguished preacher, with the backing of John D. Rockefeller and other prominent Baptists, in 1890, as a memorial to his father Adoniram Judson, one of the first Protestant missionaries to Burma. Edward Judson chose as the new location of his church the south side of Washington Square Park, because he wanted to reach out to the neighboring Italian community. He envisioned the church as an institution to serve the burgeoning immigrant population of Lower Manhattan through health, nutrition, education, and recreational programs.

The Church and the Park are very closed and interconnected. In the first place, the homeless people that live in the park find all the time a "home", a place where they can go, to Judson Church which is allways welcoming them. The present renovation of the Park is going to change things a lot. Washigton Square Park it's becoming a centralized park, like Bryant Park. Bryant Park is a very beautiful park, but Washigton Square Park is unique for the diversity of people, and culture and events that takes place there. But now they want to transform it, to change its "personality", its "identity". Especially the old generations who grew up in this park and in this unique environment, don't agree with this change.