What remains of an 1830s church walled off and unrecognizable behind East Fourth Street
It’s the kind of curious New York City relic you typically find by accident. In this case, the story starts with a visit to a parking lot at the northeast corner of Lafayette and Great Jones Streets, just behind East Fourth Street.
The parking lot occupies space in this historic area of Noho, where 19th- and early 20th–century stables, tenements, and manufacturing buildings intersect with an older generation of pre-Civil War row houses.
From the parking lot, the backs of some of these buildings fronting Lafayette and East Fourth Street can be seen; nothing looks out of the ordinary.
But then there’s a brick structure behind a row of buildings just inside East Fourth Street. It’s hemmed in from the streetscape and only viewable between the steel vehicle stackers where cars are parked.
The red-brick building has the peaked roof and general outline of a Federal-style building, which was a popular architectural style in early 19th century New York City.
On closer inspection, something even more remarkable appears on both sides of the building—enormous Gothic-style cathedral windows.
The windows are the giveaway that this lonely building was once a church, and the peaked roof was perhaps a vaulted ceiling that helped create a simple yet light-filled, inspiring space of religious devotion and celebration.
But what kind of church was it, and why was it left behind in anonymity? A little research reveals that what is left of this house of worship was once St. Bartholomew’s Protestant Episcopal Church, founded in 1835 (illustration above).
“In 1835-36, a church in neo-Classical style with a Gothic or Regency spire was erected at a cost of $33,000 on Lafayette Place at Great Jones Street,” states nycago.com of St. Bartholomew’s.
“It was a time of unprecedented prosperity, when the price of land and the cost of building was at the peak,” the site continues.
This prosperous time in New York City history resulted in the creation just a few years earlier of “Lafayette Place” as it was called—an elite enclave for posh city residents looking to move away from the crowded downtown neighborhoods of the city center.
St. Bartholomew’s, part of the Evangelical movement of the Episcopal church, was constructed in the heart of this high-end area. Worshippers likely included many wealthy merchants and prominent New Yorkers.
The prosperity, however, came to a halt in 1837, a year of financial panic and ruin.
“For the next fifty years, the church struggled with inadequate finances despite having a communicant list that was larger than any other New York Episcopal church, including some of the wealthiest and most aristocratic families,” states nycago.com.
Coinciding with the church’s financial struggle was the northward march of rich New Yorkers to newer, more stylish neighborhoods like Gramercy and Murray Hill. By the Gilded Age, St. Bartholomew’s was in an unfashionable, increasingly commercial area.
So the church congregation moved with them—to Madison Avenue and 44th Street (above, sixth image). The land for the church was purchased with help from William H. Vanderbilt, a parishioner, states nycago.com.
James Renwick, the architect behind Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, designed the new granite church, which featured a bell tower and eventually a “triple portal” by Stanford White. It was completed in 1876.
Structural problems forced the church to move again, and in 1918, a third St. Bartholomew’s opened to parishioners, this one on Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Street (seventh image, above).
This third St. Bartholomew’s still stands today, a Byzantine Revival-style house of worship with a congregation dedicated to a strong social justice mission.
But what about the original St. Bartholomew’s from 1835? It seems to have become an afterthought. At some point, its spire disappeared. Construction in the early 20th century to create today’s Lafayette Street may have pushed the former church off its original corner.
It’s hard to tell, but the front of the church looks connected to a building facing East Fourth Street. Maybe the church is part of a loft or residence?
Or perhaps this church erected with power and purpose has been reduced to a mostly hidden remnant of the pre-Civil War city.
[Fourth image: nycago.com; sixth image: MCNY, 93.1.1.2472; seventh image: MCNY X2010.12.87; eighth image: Google maps]
