The
Gothic Revival church building was constructed in 1844–1845 according to a design by
Richard Upjohn, and was
consecrated in 1846. In 1853 Upjohn completed the Parish House and
Rectory on West 20th Street, and in 1854 he built the Sister's House, which would house the
Sisterhood of the Holy Communion. In 1975 the declining parish merged with those of
Calvary Church, on
Park Avenue South at
East 21st Street, and
St. George's Church, at
Stuyvesant Square, and the combined parish of
Calvary-St. George's the Church of the Holy Communion granted a ninety-nine year lease to the
Lindisfarne Association. The building became the Lindisfarne Association's headquarters from 1976 to 1979. Through the work of its founder
William Irwin Thompson and start-up grants from the
Lilly Endowment and the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the church became a cultural center in which
Gary Snyder,
Robert Bly,
Wendell Berry, Samuel Menash, and
Kathleen Raine gave poetry readings,
Paul Winter and
David Hykes gave concerts, Jerzy Grotowksi and
Andre Gregory lectured on theatre, and philosophers such as
Gregory Bateson,
Francisco Varela, and Thompson himself gave the lectures that became their subsequent books.
Keith Critchlow and
John Michel taught courses on sacred architecture, and representatives of world religions such as Nechung Rinpoche, Seyed Hosein Nasr, and
Pir Vilayat Khan gave public presentations. The
Lindisfarne Association, however, was unable to raise the funds to restore this historical landmark, consequently, Lindisfarne moved to
Crestone, Colorado, and returned the church to the Episcopal parish. The parish subsequently sold the building to
Odyssey House, a
drug rehabilitation program, in order to meet its fiscal obligations. Odyssey House, in turn, sold the buildings to
nightclub entrepreneur
Peter Gatien, who opened the New York
Limelight club there in 1983.
Later uses From 1983 until 2007, the church was utilized as a
nightclub,
The Limelight. After frequent problems with the police and charges of rampant drug abuse in the club, it was closed, but reopened in 2003 under the name "Avalon". It closed permanently in 2007. The church building during its time as the Limelight was the subject of the 1985 song "This Disco (Used to be a Cute Cathedral)" by singer
Steve Taylor. The song's lyrics mentions the club's name and history. It is included in his album
On The Fritz. A live version appears on his album,
Limelight. On May 7, 2010, the building was reopened as a retail mall called the Limelight Marketplace. It was promoted with a campaign which utilized advertisements on local buses, taxicabs, and billboards. In the fall of 2014, the church was converted to a David Barton Gym. On December 21, 2016, this location as well as all four other David Barton Gym locations in NYC abruptly closed their door for business. In June 2017, it reopened as Limelight Fitness. By 2025, the Limelight location had been closed, and the church was available for sale or lease. ==See also==