50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Grace Church

Posted on by Thor

Grace Church was initially organized in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Street, on the current site of the Empire State Building. Under rector Thomas House Taylor, who began service at the church in 1834, the decision was made to move the church uptown with the city’s expanding population.

The church is located at 800–804 Broadway, at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the south-southeast. The church, which has been called “one of the city’s greatest treasures”, is a French Gothic Revival masterpiece designed by James Renwick, Jr., his first major commission.

The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1843 and the church was consecrated in 1846. Grace Church was designed in the French Gothic Revival style out of Sing Sing marble, and vestry minutes from January of that year break down some of the expenses for building a new church—including items ranging from the cost of the workers from Sing Sing state prison who cut the stone to the cost of the embroidery for the altar cloth.

The church originally had a wooden spire, but under the leadership of the rector at the time, Henry Codman Potter, it was replaced in 1881 with a marble spire designed by Renwick. The interior of the church is primarily constructed from lath and plaster. The marble steeple had its lean fixed in 2003.

Like Trinity and the First Presbyterian Church, Grace Church spun off new congregations by building chapels elsewhere in the city. Its first chapel was on Madison Avenue at East 28th Street, built in 1850. The congregation became the Church of the Incarnation in 1852 and built its own sanctuary, and the chapel, which is no longer extant, was renamed the Church of the Atonement.

Grace Church is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City, and the entire complex is a New York City landmark, designated in 1966 (church and rectory) and 1977 (church houses).

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

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Saint Patrick’s Cathedral‘s cornerstone was laid in 1858 and the doors opened in 1879. It is located at Fifth and Madison Avenues and Fiftieth and Fifty-First Streets in Manhattan.

In a ceremony at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Archbishop Hughes proposed “for the glory of Almighty God, for the honor of the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin, for the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, for the dignity of our ancient and glorious Catholic name, to erect a Cathedral in the City of New York that may be worthy of our increasing numbers, intelligence, and wealth as a religious community, and at all events, worthy as a public architectural monument, of the present and prospective crowns of this metropolis of the American continent.”

Ridiculed as “Hughes’ Folly,” since the proposed, site was considered too far outside the city, in what was perceived as the wilderness. Archbishop Hughes, nonetheless, persisted in his vision of building the most beautiful Gothic Cathedral in the New World in what he believed would one day be “the heart of the city.” Neither the bloodshed of the Civil War nor the resultant lack of manpower or funds could derail the ultimate fulfillment of Hughes’ dream and architect, James Renwick’s bold plan.

The Cathedral was built at a cost of approximately $850,000, not including the altars, furnishings for chapels, organs and other furniture. The stone chosen was white marble.

From October 22 to November 30, 1878 a fair was held to raise money for the opening of St. Patrick’s. It was the largest ecclesiastical fair ever held in the U.S. Forty-five parishes sponsoring tables. Receipts of $172,625 were raised to assist in purchasing furnishings for the Cathedral.

St. Patrick’s spires were completed in 1888 and The Lady Chapel in 1908. The Kilgen Organs were installed from 1928 to 1930. Major capital improvements were made in the 1940’s and the 1970’s. The Kilgen organs were restored in the mid 1990s, and the gem of the Cathedral, the Lady Chapel, was restored in 2003.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Grace Church

Posted on by Thor

Grace Church was initially organized in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Street, on the current site of the Empire State Building. Under rector Thomas House Taylor, who began service at the church in 1834, the decision was made to move the church uptown with the city’s expanding population. A site was chosen and property was purchased in what was then an apple orchard owned by Henry Brevoort, Jr. at Broadway between Tenth and Eleventh Streets.

James Renwick, Jr. who designed the new church building had no experience designing churches, instead instead he had a family background full of talent and influence, and family members on the church’s Vestry.

The rector, 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 and delivered. The new building was consecrated on March 7, 1846.

The windows were of the original building were of lightly tinted glass, not the majestic stained glass windows of today. The original steeple was made of wood, not marble; a marble steeple was eventually added in 1883. In 1879, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe donated funds for the building of the Chantry, a small chapel to be used as a Sunday School; she also provided the funds for the parish house situated between the Church and the Rectory. Her greatest gift was the Te Deum window, a soaring stained glass masterpiece that replaced the original East Window. It was her generosity that inspired other parishioners to follow; within ten years, 36 of the 46 stained glass windows were given.