First Church of Christ, Scientist (New York City)

Last updated

First Church of Christ, Scientist
New York City Landmark  No. LP-0833
Children's Museum of Manhattan.jpg
Former building of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Manhattan, New York City
USA New York City location map.svg
Red pog.svg
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location1 West 96th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Coordinates 40°47′31.2″N73°57′53.64″W / 40.792000°N 73.9649000°W / 40.792000; -73.9649000
Built1903
Architect Carrère and Hastings
Architectural style English Baroque, French Beaux-Arts
Part of Central Park West Historic District (ID82001189 [1] )
NYCL No.LP-0833
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 9, 1982 [1]
Designated NYCLJuly 23, 1974 [2]

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Manhattan is a 1903 building located at Central Park West and 96th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. The building is a designated New York City landmark. [3]

Contents

Architecture

The building, designed by Carrère & Hastings, was completed in 1903, is described by New York Times architectural historian Christopher Gray as "one of the city's most sumptuous churches." [4] The style reminiscent of the churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor, a combination of English Baroque and French Beaux-Arts detailing. The building featured stained-glass windows by John LaFarge. The window over the front door was named "Touch Me Not" and was based on John 20:17, depicting Jesus' encounter with Mary Magdalene outside the tomb. [5]

It featured mosaics, gold-plated chandeliers, marble floors, curved pews made of Circassian walnut, and elevators called "moving rooms" because they were large enough to hold 20 people. [4] [5]

The church was designated a New York City landmark in 1974, and is a contributing property to the federally designated Central Park West Historic District. [6] [7] [8] [9]

Building use

In 2004 the building was sold to the Crenshaw Christian Center and the Christian Science congregation merged with the congregation of the Second Church of Christ, Scientist. [4] [10] [5]

In June 2014, after almost ten years in the building, the Crenshaw Christian Center sold the building to 361 Central Park L.L.C. for $26 million. The new owner planned to convert the 47,000-square-foot structure to condominiums. [5] However, the condominium plan was rejected by the zoning appears board. In January 2018 the Children's Museum of Manhattan announced that it had acquired the building. [11] In June 2020 the renovation plan was approved by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. [12]

Congregation

The congregation was organized in 1886 by Augusta Emma Stetson. The congregation gave Stetson the lot adjacent to the Church on West 96th St, where she lived in a neo-Georgian house. Stetson's house was demolished in 1930, replaced by a "mild(ly) Art Deco" apartment building designed by Thomas W. Lamb. [4]

The congregation met in rented space before construction of the church. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifth Avenue</span> North-south avenue in Manhattan, New York

Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue stretches downtown (southward) from West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan is the most expensive shopping street in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrère and Hastings</span> American architecture firm

Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings, was an American architecture firm specializing in Beaux-Arts architecture. Located in New York City, the firm practiced from 1885 until 1929, although Hastings practiced alone after Carrère died in an automobile accident in 1911.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abyssinian Baptist Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Abyssinian Baptist Church is a Baptist megachurch located at 132 West 138th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA and American Baptist Churches USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

St. Bartholomew's Church, commonly called St. Bart's, is a historic Episcopal parish founded in January 1835, and located on the east side of Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. In 2018, the church celebrated the centennial of its first service in its Park Avenue home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta Emma Stetson</span> American religious leader

Augusta Emma Stetson was an American religious leader. Known for her impressive oratory skills and magnetic personality, she attracted a large following in New York City. However, her increasingly radical theories, conflicts with other church members including a well-known rivalry with Laura Lathrop, and attempts to supplant Mary Baker Eddy as the leader of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, led to her eventually being excommunicated from the church on charges of insubordination and of false teaching. Afterwards she began preaching and publishing various works on her theories which she named the "Church Triumphant," and started a controversial radio station to advance her cause.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Michael's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

St. Michael's Church is a historic Episcopal church at 225 West 99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. The parish was founded on the present site in January 1807, at that time in the rural Bloomingdale District. The present limestone Romanesque building, the third on the site, was built in 1890–91 to designs by Robert W. Gibson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is an Episcopal Anglo-Catholic church in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of New York of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The church complex is located in the heart of Times Square at 133-145 West 46th Street, with other buildings of the complex at 136-144 West 47th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. It is colloquially known as "Smoky Mary's" because of the amount of incense used in the services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">96th Street (Manhattan)</span> West-east street in Manhattan, New York

96th Street is a major two-way street on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side sections of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs in two major sections: between FDR Drive and Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, and between Central Park West and the Henry Hudson Parkway on the Upper West Side. The two segments are connected by the 97th Street transverse across Central Park, which links the disconnected segments of 96th and 97th Streets on each side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Park West Historic District</span> Historic district in Manhattan, New York

The Central Park West Historic District is located along Central Park West, between 61st and 97th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 1982. The district encompasses a portion of the Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District as designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and contains a number of prominent New York City designated landmarks, including the Dakota, a National Historic Landmark. The buildings date from the late 19th century to the early 1940s and exhibit a variety of architectural styles. The majority of the district's buildings are of neo-Italian Renaissance style, but Art Deco is a popular theme as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park Avenue Christian Church</span> Reform synagogue in Manhattan, New York

The Park Avenue Christian Church is a joint Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ church located at 1010 Park Avenue at 85th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, United States. The Rev. Kaji S. Douša has served as Senior Pastor since 2016. She is the first woman and the first Black woman to be called to this role, the second African-American after the Rev. Alvin Jackson, Pastor Emeritus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Street (Manhattan)</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

William Street is a street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It runs generally southwest to northeast, crossing Wall Street and terminating at Broad Street and Spruce Street, respectively. Between Beaver Street and Broad Street, the street is known as South William Street. Between Beekman Street and Spruce Street, in front of New York Downtown Hospital, William Street is a pedestrian-only street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West End Collegiate Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The West End Collegiate Church is a church on West End Avenue at 77th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It is part of The Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the City of New York, the oldest Protestant church with a continuing organization in America. The Collegiate Church of New York is dually affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The West End Collegiate Church is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Saviour New York</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

Our Saviour New York, at 417 West 57th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was built in 1886-87 and was designed by Francis H. Kimball in the Late Victorian Gothic style for the Catholic Apostolic Church, an English group which believed in an imminent Second Coming. In 1995, with the congregation dwindling, the church was donated to the Lutheran Life's Journey Ministries, which in 1997 rededicated it as the Church for All Nations. On April 26, 2015, the Church for All Nations held its last service. Members of the congregation still worship as All Nations Lutheran Church in a rehearsal studio at 244 West 54th Street. The church itself is now, in 2018, Our Saviour New York and is directed by lead pastor Matt Popovits and Mark Budenholzer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West-Park Presbyterian Church</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

West-Park Presbyterian Church is a Romanesque Revival Presbyterian church located on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It consists of a main sanctuary and chapel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Church of Christ, Scientist (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist is a historic Christian Science church building located at Central Park West and West 68th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, within the Central Park West Historic District. The Beaux-Arts building was designed by architect Frederick R. Comstock and constructed in 1899–1901. The building was restored beginning in 2005 by Sydness Architects which planned to clean the facade, reinforce the stained-glass windows, and waterproof the copper dome and illuminate the skylight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Aloysius Catholic Church (New York City)</span>

The St. Aloysius Catholic Church is a Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of New York, located at 209-217 West 132nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

Sydness Architects is a New York City-based architecture firm founded by K. Jeffries Sydness AIA in 1996. Other senior members of the firm are Associates Matthew M. Ruopoli, AIA and Melissa Carolina Cheing, AIA.

5 Columbus Circle is an office building on the southeast corner of Broadway and 58th Street, just south of Columbus Circle, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States. Designed by Carrère and Hastings in the Beaux-Arts style, it is 286 feet (87 m) tall with 20 stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5 West 54th Street</span> Building in Manhattan, New York

5 West 54th Street is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along 54th Street's northern sidewalk between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. The four-story building was designed by R. H. Robertson in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and was constructed between 1897 and 1899 as a private residence. It is the easternmost of five consecutive townhouses erected along the same city block during the 1890s, the others being 7, 11, 13 and 15 West 54th Street. The first floor is clad with rusticated blocks of limestone, while the other floors contain buff-colored brick trimmed with limestone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">130 West 30th Street</span> Residential condominium in Manhattan, New York

130 West 30th Street, also known as The Cass Gilbert, is a luxury condominium on 30th Street between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The 18-story building was designed by Cass Gilbert in the Assyrian Revival style as offices, showrooms and manufacturing space in the Garment District. The building is a New York City designated landmark.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 17, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  3. "New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 17, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Gray, Christopher (February 15, 2004). "The First and Second Churches of Christ, Scientist; A Tale of 2 Warring Churches, and of One Woman". New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Barron, James (September 26, 2014). "A Difficult Passage from Church to Condominium". The New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
  6. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-0-470-28963-1., pp.145-146
  7. White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN   978-0-8129-3107-5., p.366
  8. Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   0-231-12543-7., pp.74-74
  9. "About Us" Archived 2016-10-24 at the Wayback Machine on the Crenshaw Christian Center East website
  10. Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: First Church of Christ, Scientist; 2 Congregations Unite, and No. 2 Becomes No. 1". New York Times (December 25, 2005)
  11. "Children's Museum Plans to Move Into Historic Church Building on Central Park West". West Side Rag. January 2, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  12. Gunts, Edward (June 12, 2020). "FXCollaborative wins approval to convert Carrère and Hastings church into children's museum". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved August 5, 2020.