Don't Come in This Church With No Messy Boots

The Immanuel and First Spanish United Methodist Church at 424 Dean Street in kinda-sorta-northy Park Slope is an old, old church. So old that it still has its old cast-iron boot scrapers outside the front entrance. Nobody, but nobody, has any good excuse for coming into the house of worship with muddy shoes.

The pile of bricks was built as the Swedish Methodist Church and dedicated May 19, 1872. No cars then. Or paved roads. But horses and dirt street and plenty of muddy boots. The Rev. Nels Eagle preached here in 1901 that President William McKinley should be expelled from the Methodist Church because he drinks Champagne.