The first worship service at Grace Church was held on Sunday, December 21, 1808 in a modest building at the corner of Broadway and Rector Street, some two miles south of where the church sits today. That humble site is where the Empire State building stands today.
New York City was expanding northward, and in 1843 a site was chosen and property purchased in what was then an apple orchard owned by Henry Brevoort, Jr. at Broadway between Tenth and Eleventh Streets. The commission to design the church was given to , James Renwick, Jr., a civil engineer who had never built anything so grand. His largest previous work had been a part of the Croton Reservoir at 42nd Street.
The rector, Thomas House Taylor, toured Europe extensively looking at church designs around the continent. He returned energized and adamant that the new church would be in the Gothic style. Renwick poured himself into the project, sketching a Gothic design mainly from books and collected anecdotes. The building was completed in 1846, and consecrated on March 7th of the same year
Due to significant financial strain, the new church was far less ornate than what stands today. The windows were of lightly tinted glass and the steeple was built of wood rather than marble. The marble steeple was eventually added in 1883.