50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Christ Church and Holy Family

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The Christ Church and Holy Family  parish located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn was organized in 1835, and the church building was completed in 1841-42.

Christ Church was founded on the wave of affluence and confident urban expansion following the opening of the Erie Canal, an economic transformation wrought in both New York City and Brooklyn in the 1830s.

It was designed in the English Gothic Revival style by Richard Upjohn who designed Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York and the gates of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. He lived down the street.

The altar, altar railing, reredos, pulpit, lectern and chairs were added in 1917 and were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The parish holds an annual Saint Francis Festival in October, with Blessing of Animals. The church hosts a number of musical events throughout the year, especially as a part of the Gotham Early Music Society series, and yearly Christmas caroling through Cobble Hill.

The building was destroyed by fire in 1939, and was rebuilt. In recent years, the church has been difficult to maintain, and additionally suffered lightning strikes. The tower began to collapse in 2012, tragically killing a passer-by. The height of the tower was greatly reduced, a large amount of scaffolding was erected, all by order of the NYC Department of Buildings who also ordered that the nave be vacated.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: First Presbyterian Church

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First Presbyterian Church known as “Old First”, located at 48 Fifth Avenue between West 11th and 12th Streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. It was built in 1844–1846, and designed by Joseph C. Wells in the Gothic Revival style. based the sanctuary after the Church of St. Saviour in Bath, England, but for the tower used Magdalen Tower, Oxford, as a model.

The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York was founded in 1716, and held its first services in 1719 at its sanctuary at 10 Wall Street between Broadway and Nassau Street. This building was rebuilt twice, in 1748 and 1810, and was subsequently taken down and put up again in Jersey City, New Jersey.

First Presbyterian’s original pastor was James Anderson, who had been preaching in New York to the small-but-growing Scots population, whose influence increased with the appointment of a number of Scotsmen to be Governors of the New York colony.

During the American Revolution, the church became known as the “Church of Patriots” due to many from its congregation being involved in the effort against Great Britain. Their dissatisfaction partly arose partly because the King had consistently refused to issue the Church a charter in 1766 and afterwards, claiming a duty to uphold the exclusive rights of the Church of England, represented in New York by Trinity Church. When the British invaded the city, the church was captured, along with other churches associated with the Patriot movement, and used as barracks for British troops, stables for their horses, warehouses and prisons.

The congregation relocated to its present site in 1846 with the encouragement of James Lenox, one of the richest men in the city, and an elder of the congregation. in 1893, the church installed stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Francis Lathrop, D. Maitland Armstrong and Charles Lamb. These were restored in 1988.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: First Presbyterian Church

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The First Presbyterian congregation was founded in 1822, at a time when affluent merchants were beginning to move to Brooklyn from Manhattan. Their original church was located on Cranberry Street between Henry and Hicks Streets, and was where the celebration of Brooklyn’s official incorporation as a city was held.

First Presbyterian Church (124 Henry Street south of Clark, Brooklyn, New York) was built in 1846 and was designed by William B. Olmstead in the Gothic Revival style. The church’s memorial doorway was added in 1921 and was designed by James Gamble Rogers. The doors are constructed of Teek wood and cost more than the entire structure.

Architecturally, the church’s dominant feature is its 90-foot tower with pointed arch windows. Many of the stained glass windows in the church are by the Louis Comfort Tiffany Studios.

American Presbyterianism split over the issue of slavery, some members of the church, in reaction to the “New School” abolitionist preaching of Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox – who was the church’s pastor for 17 years – split to start a conservative “Old School” church, located at Remsen and Clinton Streets, while others left to help start the Church of the Pilgrims or joined the Plymouth Church.

First Presbyterian minister Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox,  became known as “Brooklyn’s first abolitionist.”

The church is part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, created by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on November 23, 1965.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Holy Cross Church

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Holy Cross Church is a Roman Catholic church located at 329 West 42nd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, near Times Square and across the street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The Holy Cross Parish was established in 1852 and a chapel erected, which the congregation quickly outgrew. In 1854, a new building was constructed and dedicated, but lightning struck this second structure in 1867, and the ensuing fire severely damaged it.

The current church was constructed to a design by Henry Engelbert on the site of the damaged building and completed in 1870. This church is notable as the oldest building on 42nd Street.

The exterior of Holy Cross Church shows a red brick facade with flanking twin towers in an Italianate Gothic form.

Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the mosaics below the dome and in the sanctuary. Tiffany also designed the stained glass of the clerestory windows and wheel windows of the transepts.

Mass is celebrated in both English- and Spanish-language services. Holy Cross Church operates Crossroads Food Pantry, a food kitchen serving the poor and hungry.

The church houses an Aeolian-Skinner organ, which is located in the rear gallery in the choir loft. Installed in 1933 and completed in 1941 with the addition of a set of chimes. It replaced an organ built in 1882 by J.H. & C.S. Odell. The earliest organ, which had been built by Hall and Labagh in 1854, was destroyed in the fire of 1867.

Holy Cross Church is sometimes known informally as “Father Duffy’s Church”, after the Reverend Francis P. Duffy. Duffy served as Chaplain of the “Fighting Irish” 69th New York Regiment during World War I, and was decorated for his activities. This is fascinating to me since My great grandfather John HIckey fought with the 69th New York “Fighting Irish” regiment during the Civil War many years prior. He fought at Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Petersburg.  Joseph Corr died in 1880 and his wife was denied a military pension.

After WWI, in 1921, Francis P. Duffy was appointed Rector of Holy Cross. Later elevated to Pastor, Father Duffy served the church until his death in 1932.

 

Tiffany Chapel

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The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, (445 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) Was open to the public for free on Christmas Eve. Guards in the museum seemed more relaxed. The guard in the Tiffany Chapel expressed how mush she liked seeing me work on the sketch.

In 1893 Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibited the chapel interior at the World’s
Colombian Exposition in Chicago that brought him international acclaim
few American artists enjoyed at the time. The chapel demonstrated the firm’s artistry and craftsmanship in
producing ecclesiastical goods ranging from clerical vestments and
furnishings to mosaics and leaded-glass windows. It so moved visitors at the time, that men removed their hats in
response. The woman seated in front of me kept her bonnet on for the duration.

The ornate chapel is Byzantine in design, built up from simple
classical forms, columns, and arches, which are huge in size relative to
the chapel’s intimate space (1,082 square feet). When the World’s Fair was over, the chapel was brought to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC. It was kept  is a squat basement crypt and was then ignored when the choir was completed upstairs. Unchecked water damage took it’s toll, and in 1916 Tiffany offered to remove the chapel at his own expense. It was reinstalled and restored at Tiffany’s own Lauriston Hall Estate.

Tiffany died on January 17, 1933. In 1957, Tiffany’s abandoned estate was ravaged by fire. Hugh and Jeannette McKean of Winter Park, Florida, were notified by a
Tiffany daughter that some of his most important leaded-glass windows
were still intact. They visited the devastated Laurelton Hall site, and Jeannette
decided they should buy all of the mansion’s then-unwanted windows and
architectural fragments. Two years later the McKeans purchased the
components of the chapel that remained at Laurelton Hall.

A team of architecture, art, and conservation experts were assembled to begin
the more than two-year project of reassembling the chapel. The chapel
opened to the public in April 1999, the first time since it was open at
the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago. It is a rare gem in the heart of Winter Park.

Catherine Hineman wrote: This year, because Christmas Eve falls on a Monday, we will have a
holiday weekend open house just prior to Christmas Eve. That’s two days
of free admission
to the one and there will be live music on Sunday. This only happens
every seven years or so, but it is always confusing to a few who have
made the December 24 open house a tradition.