The 1857 New York City Revival That History Has Forgotten.

The 1857 Manhattan Revival, also known as the Fulton Street Revival or the Great Prayer Revival, began on September 23, 1857, when businessman Jeremiah Lanphier initiated a noon prayer meeting at the North Dutch Reformed Church in lower Manhattan. Despite starting with only one other person, the gathering grew rapidly to six men by 12:30 PM, and within three weeks, forty attendees were praying for the city's spiritual awakening. Economic turmoil from the Panic of 1857, which left 30,000 New Yorkers unemployed, created a desperate atmosphere that fueled the revival's expansion. By November, prayer meetings were held in every church and even filled all floors of the North Dutch building, with 6,000 men reported praying in a single hour. The movement quickly spread to other cities like Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, and eventually reached Ireland and Scotland and beyond.