288 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10009
P: (212)254-6685 E: info@stnicholaschurchnyc.org
Rev. Fr. William Bennett
P: (212)254-6685 E: info@stnicholaschurchnyc.org
Rev. Fr. William Bennett
NYS Landmark Designation
December 16, 2008, 6:00 pm
Church and Midtown Building Are Landmarks
By SEWELL CHAN
Church and Midtown Building Are Landmarks
By SEWELL CHAN
The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated two new landmarks on Tuesday: St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church — a creation of James Renwick Jr., the architect of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington and St.
Patrick’s Cathedral in New York — and the former headquarters of the American Society of Civil Engineers on West 57th Street in Midtown. The church, at 288 East 10th Street, near Avenue A, was built in 1882 and 1883 as the Memorial Chapel of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, one of the city’s oldest Episcopal parishes, as the gift of Rutherford Stuyvesant, a descendant of the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, in memory of his wife. In 1911, St. Mark’s rented the church, which served members of the area’s large Eastern European immigrant community, to the Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church, which remained there until St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church, a Carpatho-Russian congregation, assumed the lease in 1925. The church is named for the archbishop of Myra (located in what is modern-day Turkey), who is a patron saint of children, sailors, merchants and students. The congregation bought the building from the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 1937. |
St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on East 10th Street and Avenue A, a brick and terra cotta building designed by the 19th century architect James Renwick Jr. (Photo: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission)
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The commission said in a statement:
The brick and terra cotta Renaissance Revival-style church, features intricate trim, Gothic-arched windows and a pair of ornate wooden doors topped by a stained-glass transom. The distinctive copper crosses that now crown the church were added later by the current congregation.
“This lively, picturesque church has anchored the neighborhood for more than 100 years and served thousands of immigrants as they tried to adapt to their new country,” said the commission’s chairman, Robert B. Tierney.
Full Landmark Preservation Commission Document (22 pages)