195 Worth
True Light Lutheran Church
Architect: Missouri Synod, Ralph S. Meyers, and Bernard W. Guenther (head of the Board of Church Architecture of the Lutheran church)
Built in 1949
2024
195 Worth
True Light Lutheran Church
Building was purchased by the church on December 23, 1946
Architect: Missouri Synod, Ralph S. Meyers, and Bernard W. Guenther (head of the Board of Church Architecture of the Lutheran church)
1949
195 Worth
1940s
Interview
WITH LEON MOY (ELDER, ADMINISTRATOR AND BUILDING MANAGER OF THE TRUE LIGHT LUTHERAN CHURCH)
Interview conducted in August 2022.
+ Please give me a brief introduction of yourself and your connection to Chinatown.
I was born in 1951 at the New York Infirmary Hospital. My hospital was in the projects in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and I lived the first five years there. We moved to Chinatown after my father’s death, when I was five.
My father was born in China, came as a young child and grew up in New York City. He enlisted during World War II and worked as a mechanic in the South Pacific. Near the end of the war, he returned to China to look for a bride and was matched with my mom. He brought my mom here in 1946, first to Providence, Rhode Island, where my two older sisters were born. My younger sister and I were born in New York City after we moved here.
My father was helping his father, who owned a laundromat in Yonkers, and also working at restaurants in Chinatown.
He tried to reenlist in the army and he got a penicillin shot — and ended up having an allergic reaction.
Leon Moy inside the church’s chapel, photographed at our interview session in August 2022.
[I remember] I was standing in the crib, five years old, watching my mother try to help my dad who was stiff as a board. There were all these people coming into the house. We watched him leave. They couldn’t resuscitate him and he died.
My great grandfather (on my mother’s side) helped to establish the Chin Family Association here. My grandmother’s sister’s husband was the president of the association at the time and they helped us to get our first apartment in Chinatown on 79 Mulberry Street. We grew up in Chinatown from 1956 onward. I went to school at PS23. I quit school early to help support my mother.
When I got married, I moved to Queens.
Leon in the True Light office, with a older church publication in the foreground. The couples to be wed, including Leon and his wife, were celebrated in a dedicated page in the publication. Photograph taken during our interview session, August 2022.
+ What was your childhood in Chinatown like and what do you remember about Chinatown in the 1950s and 1960s?
Since we were a Chinese family in an all-Italian neighborhood – one of the first families to move into a building with all Italian ladies – the first thing they thought was: “how cute we were!” The elderly ladies yelled out of the window to their nieces and nephews: “they’re a nice Chinese family… don’t bother them!!” There was some slight prejudice, but they mostly left us alone. I grew up knowing a lot of the Italian boys — they called me “Little Spark Plug”. At 6 or 7 years old, whenever they started to bother my sister, I would run downstairs and confront them.
I knew all of the buildings in the neighborhood at the time. My favorite spot was Carmine’s — he owned the candy store that was directly across the street from the apartment I lived in. It was either 80 or 82 Mulberry; now there’s a Chinese store that sells knick knacks.
I was always the first one home. I made the coffee for my mom, woke up my sister and then went to school. I got to know a lot of the Italian and Chinese kids.
I started working in this church in 2019, but I grew up in this church. In the 1950s and 1960s, I came here. After school, they had a “Release Time” program, so I grew up going to a True Light after-school program for a half hour. They taught us religion with mostly other Chinese kids, sitting in the pews, which haven’t changed since I remember them at that age.
During high school, I got more involved with True Light. In 1964-65, Juana Yee and Pastor Kunsch came to my house while doing visitations and asked my mom, “Can we take them to join the church?” My mom said: “OK. Besides, their father is Roman-Catholic.” We all turned to her and said, “WHAT?! You never told us that.” “You never asked,” she replied. So we all went to True Light, to the confirmation class. We were confirmed in 1966. They tried to bring my mom in, but my mom didn’t want to join.
+ How long has the church been in this building? When did the church purchase the building and what is the story behind this acquisition?
The church bought the lot in 1946 — They thought it was an ideal location on the corner. People thought it was strange that there was a funeral home on the block and some Chinese considered our church unlucky, but we didn’t care.
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod helped finance the purchase. They tore down the two buildings but left the retaining walls, so there are three solid retaining walls holding up the building. They declared this as building a bomb shelter at the time. We grew up seeing big barrels in the basement. I know this building is strong, fireproof and will last for years.
They started [True Light Church] as a small congregation in 1936 in Chinatown along Canal Street at several different locations and considered it a mission. It grew and grew and they finally decided to build a church.
The construction finished in 1948. You can see this date in the cornerstone.
Instead of a mission, we became an official church, self-supporting, in 1960.
We are coming up to our 95th anniversary soon.
+ Can you share any information about the building’s history, or its past lives?
What was here before the church took over?
As far as I was told, during the 1930s-1940s, the building on the corner was a factory building that made leather goods, mostly shoes. People referred to it as a shoe factory. The building next door was considered an old housing development or brothel, but also referred to as the redlight district.
+ Can you tell me a little bit about the building’s design development or construction? Do you know of any major renovations or changes to the building since it was first constructed?
The exterior has not changed since they completed it; we have done minor concrete repair work, but it’s still the same existing building. We added lights, but overall it’s still the same. The only addition is the awning sign in front of both doors installed in the 1980s.
The original cross on the corner are glass “lead” blocks that are original to the 1948 construction. We have not replaced any of those since, but we used to have spotlights angled at it to light up the cross. We recently put in color-changing LEDs in each of the glass blocks that we could reach. We added neon lights at the front door too.
Leon at the church’s Worth Street entrance, 2022.
The interior of the building has not changed. The chapel has not changed; we may have added piping and new electric, but the fixtures are all original. We’ve only done minor work in the basement, put up some drywall in place of bricks, etc.
There are a lot of connections in Chinatown to True Light. We have old floor plans of the building, but the pastors moved stuff around and I haven’t figured out where they moved these things.
+ How long has the Chinese language program been running at the church? What was your experience with the Chinese School?
Our Chinese School has been nonexistent for the last 30 years. When the church opened, there was a Chinese school.
I’ve been to all of the Chinese schools — the original CCBA (Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association) school at P.S. 23, True Light, etc.
Here, Chinese School was always located on the 2nd floor balcony and the 3rd floor classrooms. We would go into the chapel and sit in the pews and have the session there for 30-45 minutes. We would learn writing and reading Cantonese. I was left-handed and back then, they asked me to write right-handed and I refused, as my writing was already really sloppy. I went through six Chinese schools and stayed in kindergarten until my mother said — “you really don’t want to learn?!”
Images of the True Light church’s commemorative anniversary publications. The publications include historic photographs and history of the building.
Photograph of the publications taken in August, 2022.
+ Walk me through the building. What is on each floor?
There are two entrances, the main entrance to the offices on 195 Worth Street and if you step around the corner, you see two doors. That is the Mulberry Street entrance to the chapel.
If you go down to the basement, the first room you come to is a library and choir room. It’s been that for as long as I remember. That’s where we used to hang out as kids. You continue down the hall, make a right turn and go through the connection between the two buildings and there’s a little hallway. One side is a gated area called the shop and the other is the boiler room. On the left side (before we became an oil building, we used coal) there is a former coal room where the oil tank was placed. When we went to gas, we removed the oil tank and converted it into a storage room. Then we come into a main meeting room that is extended the entire length of the chapel.
On the first floor, there used to be the secretary’s office and down the hall there are two entrances to the chapel and the entrance to the sacristy, which is the pastor’s office. You take three steps up and enter the altar section. If you take a left and go two steps down, it becomes the chapel with the pews. There’s a restroom on the floor.
On the second floor, on the Worth Street side, there’s a boys’ bathroom and small office that used to be a bedroom with a kitchen – for the janitor in the 1940s; and where the vicars used to live when they came to visit. It remains residential today. Going down the balcony, you hit a choir area, called the organ room,, which overlooks the chapel from the back.
We used to seat 400-500 people in the balconies and chapel. Our Sunday school in the early 1940s, there were about 200 kids, so they used to have their own ceremony in the side chapel, but not anymore, as it’s changed a lot.
On the third floor, continuing up the stairs, are the classrooms. This was pre-elevator times!
On the fourth floor is a gym.
There’s another level, a 5th floor, that has a Scout Room.
+ What do you think this building means for the Chinatown community?
As far as I know, due to the influence of the former longtime Pastor Yang, the community had a positive attitude for True Light. Pastor Yang was very active, and retired in 1990-something, I believe. I don’t remember the exact date. A lot of people had a positive attitude, but the only thing they held against us is that we were next door to a funeral home… but they’ve said we’re a very helpful church.
A lot of people in Chinatown, one way or another, are associated with True Light. We have many members who are very active in Chinatown history.
The podium of the church, alongside dragon-adorned candelabras.
Photograph taken in 2022.
When Ms. Banta first started her mission in Chinatown, she was actually a Methodist mission worker. Then she got involved and started to ask the Lutheran Church to help start a mission here… Before that, she actually took Chinese women out of the brothels and adopted them as goddaughters. She raised them herself. Many older Chinese ladies considered Ms. Banta their godmother. That influence spread all throughout Chinatown. Long history and a long connection in Chinatown.
For a little lady, she actually faced the tong members — they were afraid of her.
Leon points to a photograph of himself in the church in 1996 (left) and then in 2002/2003 (right). Photographs taken during our interview session, August 2022.
+ Who comes to the church now? How has the church been affected by the pandemic?
I drive back to Chinatown because it’s my church here. I come every Sunday.
Now, it’s a commuter church. Most of our congregation members don’t live in Chinatown, though there are several families who still live in Chinatown. It started happening in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Our congregation has dwindled down. Many older folks were taken out of Chinatown by their children during the pandemic, so they can only join services via Zoom. Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of other folks into the church — students or visitors. We are considered the first Chinese Lutheran church on the east coast.
+ What are your fondest memories of this building?
Growing up here, my fondest memory was coming here, hanging out with my friends and meeting my wife here. My wife joined the choir at True Light. I met her, thought about it for a while, and then finally worked up the courage and asked her if she wanted to go out with me. We started dating, I met her folks, and went for a lot of walks. We got married in 1982 here at True Light Church.
195 WORTH STREET - TRUE LIGHT LUTHERAN CHURCH - HISTORIC IMAGES
Photographs of photographs, taken at the church in August 2022. Images of the church’s congregations and building process are exhibited throughout the spaces.
195 WORTH STREET - TRUE LIGHT LUTHERAN CHURCH - BUILDING PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographs taken between 2022 – 2024.