1800s construction • '''
St. John's Chapel''' (1803) – A chapel in the Episcopal parish of Trinity Church (New York City). It was built in 1803 to a design by
John McComb Jr. and his brother Isaac McComb on
Varick Street with a sandstone tetra-style prostyle portico supporting a tower (with spire) rising to 214.25 feet. The chancel was added in 1857 to designs by
Richard M. Upjohn. The congregation had left in the 1890s and the structure was torn down in 1918. It was cleared during a road-widening scheme for New York City's Varick Street, with city officials fighting to allow the portico to protrude into the widened street and vault the flanking pedestrian sidewalk. •
Second Reformed Dutch Church of Richmondtown (1808), located on Arthur Kill Road on the site of the first church (burned during the
American Revolution) and near the second county courthouse (burned in the 1930s) in
Historic Richmondtown, Staten Island. The church was moved in 1888 and demolished in 1903. • The (First)
Free African Church of St. Philip (1819), Centre Street, Manhattan, New York – Foundation stone laid 1819 of a wood-framed structure damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1822.
1820s construction • The (Second)
Free African Church of St. Philip (1822), Centre Street, Manhattan, New York – Rebuilt 1822 in brick after fire damaged earlier wooden church. Here, the church had its first rector from 1826 to 1840, the
Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., a leading abolitionist. Twice reconstructed, "In 1834, irate whites vandalized the church and in 1863, New York City police used the church as a barracks for militia and police handling draft riots. By 1886 the church was located on 25th Street." The Chatham Street Chapel was abandoned for the purpose-built
Broadway Tabernacle (1836), and demolished shortly thereafter. •
Friends Meeting House (1828), 38 Henry Street—Located on Manhattan's
Lower East Side. The structure was converted for use as a synagogue by congregation
Ansche Chesed in 1840. The building was purchased in 1850 by the Polish Jewish congregation
Shaare Zedek (founded in 1837). Shaare Zedek replaced this building with a new building on the same property in 1891 and in 1900 opened a branch synagogue at 25 West
118th Street in the newly-fashionable neighborhood of
Harlem. The building is now a church. The Henry Street building was sold to
Congregation Mishkan Israel Anshei Suwalk in 1911.
1830s construction •
Jones Chapel (c.1830), E. 64th Street, New York City – a timber Greek Doric temple-style church with a prostyle tetra-style pedimented portico. •
West Presbyterian Church (1831–1832), also known as
Carmine Street Church, Carmine Street near Varick Street in
Greenwich Village—Designed by
Town &
Davis. It has since been demolished. •
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (1832, converted into a church in 1922), Liberty Street—Destroyed 2001. • The
Second Middle Collegiate Church (1839), Lafayette Place, near La Grange Terrace – “a single-mindedly classic Greek Revival church by Isaiah Rogers, perhaps his best work. Unfortunately for posterity, the Dutch Reformed (Collegiate) denomination was wealthy enough to move as frequently as the neighborhood ran down. The church’s forerunner was built in 1729 at Nassau Street, later became the Post Office, and was demolished in 1882. After the Lafayette Place church was evacuated in 1887 prior to its destruction, a third church was erected at Second Avenue and 7th Street, “thoroughly equipped” as one guide said, “with reading-rooms, gymnasium, and all appliances for aggressive modern church work.” • The
Church of the Messiah (1839), Broadway near Waverly Place, Lower East Side, Manhattan—A former Unitarian church sold as a theater and burned down in 1884.
1840s construction • '''
St. George's Church''' (c.1840), East 7th Street, between Hall Place and Second Ave—A
Ukrainian Catholic in the East Village, it was later termed the Old Building by the new Ukrainian Catholic owners before being demolished in 1977: The
AIA Guide to NYC described it as “A Greek Revival temple in stucco, with a mini-onion dome.” The new similarly named building on (E. 7th Street southeast corner of Hall Place) was built 1977 to designs by
Apollinaire Osadca. The AIA regretted the “domed symbol of the parish’s wealth and burgeoning membership: Miami Beach on 7th Street replaces the real Greek Revival thing.” • '''
St. Ann's Church''' (c.1840) -- Sold to the Roman Catholics as the new parish of the same dedication, established in 1852. That parish left 1871 and the church was demolished around 1880. •
Mount Washington Church (1844, enlarged 1856), Broadway and Dyckman Street, a timber Carpentry Gothic church with crenelated tower and spire. •
Church of the Divine Unity (c.1845) -- located in SoHo, built for the
Unitarians and transferred to the
Universalists before it was used as an art gallery, then an office, and finally was demolished sometime before 1866. •
Hanson Place Central Methodist Church (1847), northwest corner of Hanson Place and Saint Felix Street — A
Methodist Episcopal church demolished in 1927 and rebuilt c.1930 as a Gothic church “restyled in modern dress, an exercise in massing brick and limestone. The street level contains retail stores, a surprising but intelligent adjunct to churchly economics.”
1850s construction •
Madison Square Presbyterian Church, built 1853–1854 to designs by Richard Upjohn in the
Gothic Revival architectural style, demolished for Stanford White's
Madison Square Presbyterian Church. •
German Evangelical Church, (c.1857) 89-93 Rivington Street—Also known as the
First German Presbyterian Church, built circa 1857, later purchased by an Orthodox German Jewish congregation in 1864, later the
Allen Street Memorial Church in 1890, and finally the
First Roumanian-American Congregation (Jewish) in 1902. The building collapsed in January 2006. •
Church of St. Gabriel is a former Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 310 West 37th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The parish was established in 1859. The parish closed in 1939. The Gothic Revival-styled church building was demolished May 1939.
1860s construction •
Incarnation Episcopal Church (1864–1865), Thirty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue—Built 1865 to design by
Element T. Littell, the church as "distinguished for both its architecture and refined interior decoration and artwork." It was destroyed by fire in 1882, except for its tower and walls and rebuilt and enlarged by
David Jardine, with a spire added 1896 to Jardine's designs by
Heins & LaFarge. •
West Presbyterian Church (1865), West 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue -- "In 1860, following the northward movement of Manhattan’s population, [the congregation] was relocated [from
Greenwich Village]...and soon built a Victorian Gothic-style edifice.... West Presbyterian counted a number of distinguished citizens among its membership, including
Russell Sage,
Jay Gould, and
Alfred H. Smith, and by 1890 had become known as the "millionaires’ gate to heaven." By the early 20th century, commercialization of its midtown location led to the displacement of the area’s residential population and the loss of many of West Presbyterian’s members, including the prominent men mentioned above after an internal dispute. As a consequence, [West and Park Presbyterian] began competing for members and decided to merge their memberships, forming the
West-Park Presbyterian Church." "The deal between the two organizations included the construction of a new church in Washington Heights at 175th Street and Wadsworth Avenue, called the
Fort Washington Presbyterian Church (New York City), which remained affiliated with West Park until 1923." Demolished in 2007. •
Holy Trinity Episcopal (1874), northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street, just a block from
Grand Central Station. -- Also known as
Dr. Tyng's Church after the hardworking churchman, the younger
Stephen H. Tyng, who organized it in 1874. Built to designs by
Leopold Eidlitz in a High Victorian hybrid of the German Romanesque design.
1880s construction • The
Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary / St. Charles Chapel (1885), President Street off of Van Brunt Street—Established 1882 by Fr. Joseph Fransioli in St. Peter’s Church (corner of Warren and Hicks Streets) as the
Catholic Mission of the Italian Colony of the City of Brooklyn, which was the first parish established specifically for Italian immigrants on Long Island. The church was opened in May 1885 but by 1900 a new structure was needed. "During the time on President Street Mother Cabrini came to work at the parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Recognizing a need to educate the Italian immigrant children, Mother Cabrini and her sisters established a school in the parish in 1892, which was placed under the direction of her order. After the 1906 completion of the new church, Father Vogel felt it necessary to keep the prior church building at President Street open to serve the community as a chapel for the parish under the title of Saint Charles Chapel.
1890s construction • '''
All Angel's Church''' (1890), southeast corner of West End Avenue and West Eighty-first Street—Built as an Episcopalian church to designs by
Samuel B. Snook of
J.B. Snook & Sons. It was altered 1896 by
Karl Bitter Studio: “Turning the axis of this church diagonally to the street grid was a brilliant if subtle design decision which gave character to the intersection (at least until a less-subtle design decision gave it a superhuman television set [the
Calhoun School] as competitor across the way). There is an intimate garden adjacent, created by the church’s geometry, reached from West 81st Street.” It was hastily demolished c.1977 and replaced by a large apartment building to the shock of the community. •
Carroll Park Methodist Episcopal Church (c.1890), 295 Carroll Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn — A Victorian Gothic edifice located within the Carroll Gardens historic district. It was reused as the
Bethelship Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church. Both this church and its neighbor above reflect the large Scandinavian population in these parts between the 1890s and 1949. "Sold in 1949 and reused as the
South Brooklyn Christian Assembly Church but as of 1977, it was largely demolished and redeveloped into three townhouses with no evidence of the church remaining." •
St. Agnes Chapel (1892), 121-147 West 91st Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues — St. Agnes Chapel was an Upper West Side Episcopal "plant chapel" of
Trinity Church, one of many. It was at first reused by its parish school and then demolished for a gymnasium in the 1940s. The church was built between 1890 and 1892 by
William Appleton Potter and widely hailed as one of the greatest churches constructed in the city at that time. A parish school was located adjacent, sharing its midblock location. Downtown Trinity Parish reexamined the small congregation in 1934, already split from nearby Episcopal churches and decided to close it. Eager to expand, the parish school, also named Trinity, bought it as a gymnasium space and demolished it for a more permanent structure in 1943. • '''
Randall Memorial Church, Sailors' Snug Harbor''' (1893), -- Named after
Robert Richard Randall and built 1893 to designs by English-born New York City architect
Robert W. Gibson in the
Renaissance Revival architectural style /
Baroque Revival architectural style Enrollment at Sailor' Snug Harbor halved between 1935 and 1945 and the diminished population no longer needed two chapels. In 1952, the chapel was demolished after plans to use it as a community and retreat center and/or museum fell through. •
St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church (1896) -- A
Catholic church in
Woodside,
Queens,
New York. The parish was founded May 1894 by
Charles McDonnell, Bishop of Brooklyn, and the first building was dedicatedJune 14, 1896. a year after the demise of its architect,
Franz J. Berlenbach, Jr. (also known as
F.J. Berlenbach, Jr.); while its builder/carpenter was E.J. Coles. A new church was built / remodeled from the '''
Loew's Woodside Theatre''' that was built 1926 to designs by noted theater architect
Herbert J. Krapp. The old church was presumed demolished. ==20th century==