New Dorp Moravian Church, 1256 Todt Hill Road Staten Island New York, was founded in 1762 and this structure was built in 1885. New Dorp is the second oldest church on Staten Island, second only to Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in Richmondtown.
The first church building in a Dutch Colonial style was erected in 1763 and still stands at the rear of the present church, which was built in 1837. Local architect Jasper Cropsey, who later became well-known as a Hudson River School painter, designed the new church. The 1837 building was modified. In the 1950s the bell tower was replaced with the present steeple.
In the 1730s, Moravian settlers in New York and Pennsylvania commissioned a new sailing ship to be built by John Van Deventer at his shipyard at Van Deventer Point, located near today’s Verrazano Bridge. The “Irene” made 14 round trips to Europe, bringing mostly Moravian missionaries and church members to New York. Nicholas Garrison, a Staten Islander, was the first captain of the Irene; Cornelius Jacobsen, also a Staten Islander, served as captain on its last voyage in 1758. One of the oldest Protestant denominations, the Moravian Church has served Christ since 1457. Known then as the “Unity of the Brethren” early Moravians came from the area of what is now the Czech Republic known as Moravia – hence came the name Moravian.
On the grounds of the church is the largest and most beautifully landscaped cemetery on Staten Island. Covering 113 acres, the cemetery has graves dating from 1740 and is the burial place of many famous Staten Islanders, especially the Vanderbilts. The Vanderbilt Mausoleum and family graveyard are a private cemetery, not open to the public. The mausoleum, designed in 1886 by Richard Morris Hunt, architect of several Vanderbilt residences, is a copy of a Romanesque church in Arles, France. It is placed into the hillside and only its stone facade and dome are visible. The extensive grounds around the mausoleum were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in NYC .
