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List of demolished churches in New York City

From Wikipedia - Reading time: 16 min

17th century

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1630s construction

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1640s construction

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1690s construction

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18th century

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1710s construction

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  • St. Andrew's Church (c.1712), Arthur Kill Road—Built around 1712–1713, the church was damaged in fires in 1867 and 1872, when the structure was rebuilt.[4]

1720s construction

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  • Middle Collegiate Church (1729), Nassau Street near Cedar—Built in 1729, "a North Church was added in 1769, to serve a growing congregation."[1] The church "later became the Post Office, and was demolished in 1882."[5]

1740s construction

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  • The Old Brick Church (1767), predecessor congregation of Brick Presbyterian Church, located on the northeast corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets – A five-bay double-height Federalist-styled Presbyterian church, built 1767 to designs by John McComb Sr. It was rectangular in plan with a projecting square-in-plan four-stage tower (final stage setback) with a three-stage round colonnaded spire extension. It was illustrated in 1856 for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, who reported that the land was “probably the most valuable in the city.” The city planned to put a post office on the site that year but the deal fell through and “the congregation managed to sell the property to the New York Times which put up a building on the site in 1857-1858.” [6]

1760s construction

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1780s construction

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  • Trinity Church (1788–1790), Wall Street—Building began in 1788, it was consecrated in 1790, and torn down after being weakened by severe snows during the winter of 1838–39. The present (third) Trinity Church, completed in 1846 to designs by Richard Upjohn, with its 281-foot (86 m) spire and cross was the highest point in New York until being surpassed in 1890 by the New York World Building.

19th century

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1800s construction

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St. John's Episcopal c. 1867
  • 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.[7] 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.[8][9]
  • 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.[4]

1810s construction

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  • The Quaker Meeting-house (1818), Hester and Elizabeth Streets, Manhattan, New York – Built 1818 and recorded in 1876 by the New York Express that it “has for a long time been the office of the New York Gas Light Company.” It was presumed demolished.[10][11]
  • 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.[12]

1820s construction

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  • 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."[12]
  • Second Free Presbyterian Church (Theatre constructed 1824, converted into a church in 1832), Chatham Street—Organized 1832 by Lewis Tappan for the revivalist preacher Charles Grandison Finney and founded in the former Chatham Theatre, which became known as the Chatham Street Chapel[13][14] The Chatham Street Chapel was abandoned for the purpose-built Broadway Tabernacle (1836), and demolished shortly thereafter.[15][16]
  • 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).[17] 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.[18] The building is now a church. The Henry Street building was sold to Congregation Mishkan Israel Anshei Suwalk in 1911.

1830s construction

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  • Jones Chapel (c.1830), E. 64th Street, New York City – a timber Greek Doric temple-style church with a prostyle tetra-style pedimented portico.[19]
  • 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.[20]
  • 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.” [5]
  • Broadway Tabernacle (1836), 340-344 Broadway, between Worth and Catherine Lane—Built 1836 to designed by Leopold Eidlitz. This was considered one of the most influential churches constructed in America. It was built for the Second Free Presbyterian Church for revivalist preacher Charles Grandison Finney moving from the smaller Chatham Street Chapel. Finney left the church to join the Oberlin College’s Theology Department in April 1837 and the church building was demolished in 1856.[21][22][23]
  • 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

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  • 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.”[24]
  • 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.[25]
  • 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.[26]
  • 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.”[27]

1850s construction

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Demolition of the Rivington Street building of the First Roumanian-American Congregation, formerly the First German Presbyterian Church (c.1857). The building was surrounded on the first floor by plywood hoarding. The second and third floors are partially open to the street, and the interior can be seen. Part of the roof has also been torn away, and the joists and trusses are exposed.

1860s construction

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  • 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.[29]
  • 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."[20]

1870s construction

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1880s construction

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  • 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.[33] "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.[34] 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.[33] The new church was demolished in 1942, condemned by Robert Moses for the BQE.
  • The Church of Our Lady of the Scapular of Mount Carmel (c.1889), 341 East 28th Street—Founded in 1889, designed in a "Country Gothic" style. It was previously staffed by the Carmelite Fathers and was the original location of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which had been established in 1941 and was moved to Middletown. "Our Lady of the Scapular was merged into Church of St. Stephen the Martyr in the 1980s, and the original building was razed. In January 2007, the Archdiocese of New York announced that the Church of the Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus, located at 307 East 33rd Street, would be merged into Our Lady of the Scapular-St. Stephen Church."[35]

1890s construction

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  • 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.”[36] It was hastily demolished c.1977 and replaced by a large apartment building to the shock of the community.[37]
  • 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.[38] "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."[39]
  • 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.[40] 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.[41]
  • 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.[42]
  • St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church (1896) -- A Catholic church in Woodside, Queens, New York. The parish was founded May 1894[43] by Charles McDonnell, Bishop of Brooklyn, and the first building was dedicatedJune 14, 1896.[44][45] a year after the demise of its architect, Franz J. Berlenbach, Jr. (also known as F.J. Berlenbach, Jr.);[46] 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

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1900s construction

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  • Madison Square Presbyterian Church (1906), northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 24th Street.[47] Demolished around 1919 for the Metropolitan Life Tower[48]
  • Church of the Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus (1906), Degraw and Hicks Streets—Built in 1906 and keeping the previous church as the Chapel of Saint Charles in the same parish. The new church and surrounding buildings were cleared by Robert Moses for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The final mass was celebrated on the morning of December 7, 1941.[33]
  • The former Baptist Temple Church (1906–1907), built as the synagogue for Congregation Ohab Zedek Synagogue, was a prominent midblock synagogue located at 18 West 116th Street, Harlem. The congregation sold the synagogue in 1926 and it eventually became The Baptist Temple Church, the final occupants for over fifty years until structural damage necessitated its demolition in 2009–2010.
  • Mary Help of Christians (1904), 431 East 12th Street at Avenue A. Built by the local Italian carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons and plasterers who lived in the neighborhood, and run by the Salesians of St. John Bosco, a Roman Catholic religious order, sold in 2012 to developer Douglas Steiner, who tore it down in 2013 so as to build luxury condominiums on the church's footprint and a large adjoining parking lot. For the year that the church was closed but still standing, the congregation held a Mass on its front steps every Sunday.

1910s construction

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Church of the Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus (1915)

1950s construction

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1960s construction

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Demolished churches in New York City.
  1. ^ a b c d e Congregation History
  2. ^ "TRINITY CHURCH PROPERTY.; Outline of the Legal History of the Trinity "Church Farm."" (PDF). The New York Times. November 18, 1859. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 28, 2021.
  3. ^ Trinity Church - Historical Timeline
  4. ^ a b c Historic Richmondtown Village Map
  5. ^ a b Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.147
  6. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.146
  7. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), pp. 151–152
  8. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), pp. 26–31.
  9. ^ Christopher Gray. "Streetscapes: A Chapel the City Fought to Save", The New York Times (April 27, 2008).
  10. ^ Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1999). New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age. Monacelli Press. p. 735. ISBN 978-1-58093-027-7. OCLC 40698653.
  11. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.395.
  12. ^ a b St Philip's Church History Archived 2010-08-01 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed 2 August 2010)
  13. ^ Loveland, etc., From Meetinghouse to Megachurch, p.27.
  14. ^ Review in The New York Evangelist quoted in Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), p.252.
  15. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.46
  16. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.216.
  17. ^ Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 260.
  18. ^ Israelowitz, Oscar. Synagogues of New York City: A Pictorial Survey in 123 Photographs, Dover Publications, 1982, p. 63.
  19. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.144
  20. ^ a b New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. "Designation List 425" Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.76.
  22. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.217.
  23. ^ Kathryn E. Holliden, Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2008), p.171
  24. ^ Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York: Collier Books, 1978), p.101.
  25. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.144-145
  26. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.131.
  27. ^ Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York: Collier Books, 1978), p.405.
  28. ^ Kleindeutschland and the Lower East Side, Manhattan
  29. ^ Donald Martin Reynolds (1994). The Architecture of New York City: Histories and Views of Important Structures, Sites, and Symbols. Rev. Ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 118. ISBN 0-471-01439-7.
  30. ^ Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York: Collier Books, 1978), p.289.
  31. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.351, 352.
  32. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.149
  33. ^ a b c Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – St. Stephen Archived 2010-06-22 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ – Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and St. Stephen Brief History
  35. ^ a b Our Lady of the Scapular–St. Stephen (Roman Catholic) Archived 2011-04-20 at the Wayback Machine
  36. ^ Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York: Collier Books, 1978), p.184.
  37. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.351, 353.
  38. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.401
  39. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.367.
  40. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America[permanent dead link‍] (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.129.
  41. ^ Margaret Maliszewski, “Designation List 219: “Trinity School and the Former St. Agnes Parish House,” (New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1989), p.5-6.
  42. ^ Sailors' Snug Harbor Information Plaque / American Architect and Building News Oct 25, 1899
  43. ^ Queens Parishes, listed in order established Archived 2010-02-28 at the Wayback Machine, Queens Parishes, Diocese of Brooklyn, Local Catholic Church History and Catholic Ancestors, New York, home.att.net
  44. ^ St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church, Queens Federation of Churches, Directory of Queens Congregations, queenschurches.org
  45. ^ The Founding of St. Sebastian's, Our History, St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church, stsebastianwoodside.org
  46. ^ "Franz J. Berlenbach" Archived 2010-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, City Planning Commission, June 23, 2004/Calendar No.15 N 040463 HKK, nyc.gov
  47. ^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.148
  48. ^ NYPL Digital Images
  49. ^ Our Faith always brought us here . . . Archived 2004-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
  50. ^ New York Landmarks Conservancy recently as demolished and undergoing redevelopment Advocacy for Threatened Sacred Sites Archived 2010-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  51. ^ Albert Amateau, “Washington Square Church Is Sold,” The Villager 75, no. 10 (27 July 2005).
  52. ^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.351, 353.
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