The congregation was founded in 1643 by Dutch Lutherans in
New Amsterdam but the church was not chartered until December 6, 1664, when the new governor,
Richard Nicolls, issued a charter after the British had taken control of the colony in April 1664. •
St Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded in 1847 as a branch church of St. Matthew's. It was subsidized by Trinity, the Old Church. In 1906, St. Matthew erected a mission chapel at 145th Street and Convent Avenue. The Broome Street church closed in 1913 and the congregation moved to the 145th Street and Convent Avenue mission chapel. Nearby at
145th Street and Convent Avenue, the church built a four-story brick and stone parish house in 1908 at a cost of $50,000 to designs by architect John Boese. St. Matthew's merged in 1945 with
Messiah Mission Church in the
Inwood, Manhattan, neighborhood and moved into that church building. In 1956, construction of a new church building was begun at 202 Sherman Avenue in Inwood, and completed in 1957. That building was sold in 2006 and demolished along with its elementary school, being replaced by an apartment building. The congregation moved south to the Cornerstone Center on 178 Bennett Avenue. == References ==