| St. John's Chapel | |
|---|---|
 An engraving of the chapel in the New-York Mirror from 1829. | |
 | |
| Location | Manhattan, New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Episcopal |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | John McComb Jr. & Isaac McComb |
| Architectural type | Chapel |
| Style | Georgian |
| Completed | 1807 |
| Demolished | 1918 |
| Specifications | |
| Height | 214 feet (65 m) |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Trinity Church |
St. John's Chapel belonged to the Episcopal parish of Trinity Church in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York City.
It was constructed in 1803 to designs by John McComb Jr. and his brother Isaac McComb on Varick Street, facing St. John's Park. McComb gave it a sandstone tetrastyle prostyle portico supporting a tower and multi-storeyed spire that rose to 214¼ feet. Master builders for the chapel have been recorded as T. C. Taylor, Henry Hedley, Daniel Domanick and Isaac McComb. [1] The chancel was added in 1857 to designs by Richard M. Upjohn. [2]
The original location of this church was one of the most attractive in New York. It stood opposite the eastern side of St. John's Park, whose tree-shaded walks were a favorite recreational spot for the well-to-do residents of the neighbourhood. In 1867 Trinity Church, which had retained ownership of the park, sold it to the Hudson River Railroad for a downtown freight terminal. This unfortunate occurrence changed the character of the residential section nearby; the warehouse's undesirable influences were felt for many blocks in every direction. What had been a neighborhood of patrician dwellings was reduced to a slovenly purlieu of ramshackle buildings. [1]
The congregation left in the 1890s and the structure was torn down in 1918. [3] It was cleared during a construction project that widened Varick Street and also facilitated construction of the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line. City officials wanted to allow the portico to protrude into the widened street and vault the flanking pedestrian sidewalk under it because they recognized the steeple’s importance as a landmark. The Episcopal Church instead decided to demolish the building. [4]
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.
Richard Upjohn was a British-born American architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to popularity in the United States. Upjohn also did extensive work in and helped to popularize the Italianate style. He was a founder and the first president of the American Institute of Architects. His son, Richard Michell Upjohn, (1828-1903), was also a well-known architect and served as a partner in his continued architectural firm in New York.
The Church of the Ascension is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of New York, located at 36–38 Fifth Avenue and West 10th Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan New York City. It was built in 1840–41, the first church to be built on Fifth Avenue and was designed by Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style. The interior was remodeled by Stanford White in 1885–88.
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.
City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York.
Varick Street runs north–south primarily in the Hudson Square district of Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Varick Street's northern terminus is in the West Village, where it is a continuation of Seventh Avenue South south of Clarkson Street. It continues downtown through Hudson Square and TriBeCa until it reaches Leonard Street, where it merges with West Broadway. Motor traffic is one-way southbound. Major east–west streets crossed include Houston Street and Canal Street. Approaching Broome Street, the two rightmost lanes of Varick Street are reserved for traffic entering the Holland Tunnel, where backups often occur at rush hour.
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.
Frederick Clarke Withers was an English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical designs. For portions of his professional career, he partnered with fellow immigrant Calvert Vaux; both worked in the office of Andrew Jackson Downing in Newburgh, New York, where they began their careers following Downing's accidental death. Withers greatly participated in the introduction of the High Victorian Gothic style to the United States.
Edward Brickell White, also known as E. B. White, was an architect in the United States. He was known for his Gothic Revival architecture and his use of Roman and Greek designs.
St. Agnes Chapel was an Upper West Side Episcopal "plant chapel" of Trinity Church, 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.
LentSpace is a temporary outdoor art space and sculpture garden located in Hudson Square, Lower Manhattan, New York City. The space, which opened in September 2009, is bounded by Varick Street to the west, Canal Street and Albert Capsouto Park to the south, Grand Street to the north, and Sullivan Street and Duarte Square to the east.
St. John's Burying Ground was a cemetery bounded by Varick Street, Leroy Street, Hudson Street and Clarkson Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The ground was connected with St. John's Chapel of Trinity Parish from 1834 to 1898, although many of the burials predate the cemetery's acquisition by the church. The last burials were in about 1860. It is estimated that about 10,000 people were buried there.
Media related to St. John's Chapel (New York City) at Wikimedia Commons