St. Agnes Chapel (New York City)

Last updated
The Former Episcopal Chapel of St. Agnes
(King1893NYC) pg354 ST. AGNES' CHAPEL, PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL, NEAR THE BOULEVARD, ON WEST 91ST AND WEST 920 STREETS.jpg
St. Agnes Chapel (New York City)
General information
Architectural styleRomanesque Revival
Town or city New York, New York
Country United States of America
Construction started1890
Completed1892
Demolished1943
ClientThe Episcopal Church in the United States
Technical details
Structural systemLimestone masonry
Design and construction
Architect(s)William Appleton Potter

St. Agnes Chapel was an Upper West Side Episcopal "plant chapel" of Trinity Church (New York City), one of many. It was located at 121-147 West 91st Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. It was at first reused by its parish school and then demolished for a gymnasium in the 1940s. [1]

Like many large buildings in the 19th century, St. Agnes Chapel was the product of an architectural competition. In July 1888, Trinity Corporation announced a competition to design the chapel, a clergy house, and a parish house. The corporation invited six architects: Charles C. Haight, Henry M. Congdon, Frederick C. Withers, Richard M. Hunt, William Halsey Wood, and McKim Mead & White, each of whom received $1,000 compensation. However, other architects were invited to submit designs with the understanding that they would be paid if chosen. In the end, the jury selected a submission by the architect William Appleton Potter, a son of the Episcopal Bishop Alonzo Potter. [2]

The three buildings were built between 1890 and 1892 to the designs of architect Potter. The New York Times described the chapel as “the finest church structure, barring the cathedral, in New York City.” [3] The chapel entrance was on West 92nd Street, whereas the parish house and clergy house, flanking the chapel's apse, were entered on West 91st Street.

In 1934, Downtown Trinity Parish decided to close the small congregation, already split from nearby Episcopal churches. Eager to expand, the adjacent parish school, also named Trinity, bought it as a gymnasium space and demolished it for a more permanent structure in 1943. [4]

The St. Agnes Branch of the New York Public Library, now half a mile away, was founded by the parish. [5]

Related Research Articles

Trinity Church is a historic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, whose church is located at 89 Broadway opposite Wall Street, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Known for its centuries of history, prominent location, distinguished architecture and bountiful endowment, Trinity's congregation is said to be "high church", its activities based on the traditions of the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion in missionary outreach, and fellowship. In addition to its main church, Trinity parish maintains two chapels: St. Paul's Chapel, and the Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion on Governors Island. The Church of the Intercession, the Trinity Chapel Complex and many other of Manhattan's Anglican congregations were once part of Trinity parish. Columbia University was founded on the church's grounds as King's College in 1754. To some, the congregation epitomizes White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Intercession (Manhattan)</span> United States historic place

The Church of the Intercession is an Episcopal congregation located at 550 West 155th Street, at Broadway, on the border of the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City, on the grounds of Trinity Church Cemetery. The congregation was founded in 1846, and the current sanctuary, built in 1912–1915, was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the Gothic Revival style. From 1906–1976, it was a chapel of Trinity Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in New York, United States

Grace Church is a historic parish church in Manhattan, New York City which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The church is located at 800–804 Broadway, at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the south-southeast, bringing it in alignment with the avenues in Manhattan's grid. Grace Church School and the church houses—which are now used by the school—are located to the east at 86–98 Fourth Avenue between East 10th and 12th Streets. In 2021, it reported 1,038 members, average attendance of 212, and $1,034,712 in plate and pledge income.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul's Chapel</span> United States historic place

St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, and one of the nation's finest examples of Late Georgian church architecture.

<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> United States historic place

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">Charles C. Haight</span> American architect

Charles Coolidge Haight was an American architect who practiced in New York City. He designed most of the buildings at Columbia College's now-demolished old campus on Madison Avenue, and designed numerous buildings at Yale University, many of which have survived. He designed the master plan and many of the buildings on the campus of the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, New York, most of which have survived. Haight's architectural drawings and photographs are held in the Dept. of Drawings and Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)</span> United States historic place

St. George's Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 209 East 16th Street at Rutherford Place, on Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan, New York City. Called "one of the first and most significant examples of Early Romanesque Revival church architecture in America", the church exterior was designed by Charles Otto Blesch and the interior by Leopold Eidlitz. It is one of the two sanctuaries of the Calvary-St. George's Parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Appleton Potter</span> American architect

William Appleton Potter was an American architect who designed numerous buildings for Princeton University, as well as municipal offices and churches. He served as a Supervising Architect of the Treasury from 1874 to 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. H. Robertson</span> American architect

Robert Henderson Robertson was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches.

Edward Tuckerman Potter was an American architect best known for designing the 1871 Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. With his half-brother William Appleton Potter, he also designed Nott Memorial Hall (1858–79) at his alma mater, Union College, Schenectady, New York. Both the Mark Twain House and Nott Memorial Hall are National Historic Landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Street and Trinity Place</span> North-south street in Manhattan, New York

Church Street and Trinity Place form a single northbound roadway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its northern end is at Canal Street and its southern end is at Morris Street, where Trinity Place merges with Greenwich Street. The dividing point is Liberty Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Immaculate Conception and Clergy Houses</span> Historic church in New York, United States

The Church of the Immaculate Conception and Clergy House at 406–412 East 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City were built in 1894–1896 by Grace Church, one of the most prominent Episcopal churches in the city at the time. The buildings were a free chapel – meaning there was no pew rent – called Grace Chapel and a connected Grace Hospital, which could serve 16 senior citizens and 10 children, and was physically connected to the chapel by a bridge, so that patients could be wheeled to services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Chapel Complex</span> Historic church in Manhattan, New York

The Trinity Chapel Complex, now better known as the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava is a historic Eastern Orthodox church at 15 West 25th Street between Broadway and the Avenue of the Americas in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. James Church (Queens)</span> Church in Queens, New York

St. James Church is a historic Episcopal church building at 86-02 Broadway in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens in New York City. It is the city's oldest surviving Anglican building and Church of England mission church. It is also alternatively called the Old St. James Church to distinguish it from the St. James Episcopal Church two blocks away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Church, Princeton</span> Church in New Jersey, United States

Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal congregation located at 33 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey. It is the largest Episcopal church in New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John's Chapel (New York City)</span> Chapel in Manhattan, New York

St. John's Chapel belonged to the Episcopal parish of Trinity Church in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Davenport, Iowa)</span> Church in Iowa, United States

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, formerly known as Grace Cathedral, is the historic cathedral in the Diocese of Iowa. The cathedral is located on the bluff overlooking Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1873, Trinity is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1983 the cathedral was included as a contributing property in the College Square Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henderson (architect)</span> Scottish architect (1804-1862)

John Henderson was a Scottish architect operational in the mid-19th century. He is chiefly remembered as a church architect, with his early work being in the Gothic revival and tractarian style, before developing his own distinct style.

References

  1. 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. 129.
  2. The Engineering and Building Record, 28 July 1888, p. 99
  3. “Landmarks Preservation Commission,” p. 6.
  4. Margaret Maliszewski, “Designation List 219: “Trinity School and the Former St. Agnes Parish House,” (New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1989), p. 5-6.
  5. St Agnes Branch, New York Public Library

40°47′26″N73°58′18″W / 40.7906°N 73.9717°W / 40.7906; -73.9717