Dr. Charles Parkhurst and the Faith of Reform

Charles Parkhurst (1842-1933), the minister of New York's Madison Square Presbyterian Church, was known as a brilliant preacher and even more as an active civic crusader against the rampant urban corruption of his time. From the time of his arrival at Madison Square in 1880, he campaigned against the twenty-three brothels flourishing on one block of 27th Street across the park from the church. In his crusade against the brothels as representative of the deep and widespread rot in urban life, Parkhurst went so far as to don a disguise in order to get testimonials as to what went on there. He presented these affidavits to the courts and, eventually, with a rousing sermon on Valentine's Day 1892, he spearheaded a successful movement for reform in the city government that brought down Tammany Hall, the organization that had controlled, twisted, and milked the city for thirty years.