{"id":160307,"date":"2026-03-11T13:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/160307\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:50:36","slug":"a-tale-of-two-manhattan-churches-landmarks-preservation-commission-weighs-landmarking-one-house-of-worship-demolishing-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/160307\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of two Manhattan churches: Landmarks Preservation Commission weighs landmarking one house of worship, demolishing another"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Landmarks\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In a tale of two churches that cast a huge question mark over the future of New York City\u2019s historic houses of worship, the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) heard arguments on Tuesday to landmark one house of prayer and demolish the other.<\/p>\n

Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n

In a tale of two churches that cast a huge question mark over the future of New York City\u2019s historic houses of worship, the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)<\/a> heard arguments on Tuesday to landmark one house of prayer and demolish the other.<\/p>\n

The commission unanimously supported landmarking<\/a> the Catholic Church of Saint Mary at 440 Grand St. on the Lower East Side, built in 1833 with a Romanesque Revival facade designed by prolific architect Patrick Charles Keeley in 1864.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nearly 20-member body also heard a hardship application to demolish the landmarked West Park Presbyterian Church at 165 West 86th St., an Upper West Side structure more than 130 years old that its owners say has become financially untenable to maintain.<\/p>\n

St. Mary\u2019s: A \u2018spiritual and social beacon\u2019
\n\"ExteriorThe Catholic Church of Saint Mary at 440 Grand St. on the Lower East Side was built in 1833 with a Romanesque Revival facade designed by prolific architect Patrick Charles Keeley in 1864.\u00a0Photo via Google Maps<\/p>\n

Richard Moses, president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, called the Church of St. Mary \u201ca landmark in the true sense of the word\u201d and \u201ca link to history in an ever-changing environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the second oldest remaining Catholic church in New York City, Moses said, \u201cThe church clearly deserves landmark protection. St. Mary\u2019s has great architectural significance due to its age, condition and design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeley, the church\u2019s architect, designed nearly 600 churches during his career, but this would mark the first of his works to be landmarked in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Historic Districts Council called St. Mary\u2019s \u201cone of the earliest Catholic parishes in New York City,\u201d one that has served immigrant communities for over a century beginning with the Irish.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Ratcliffe, artistic director of the Art Loisaida Foundation, noted the church\u2019s singular place in the city\u2019s history.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis church has a totally unique history in New York City,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has the first bell in a Catholic church in New York City, made in Ireland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added that Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s daughter Rose Hawthorne converted to Catholicism there.\n<\/p>\n

Preservationist Simeon Bankoff framed the case in broader terms.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you define churches?\u201d he asked. \u201cIs it the cultural meaning or the architecture that\u2019s significant? The architecture embodies its cultural significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moses called St. Mary\u2019s a \u201cspiritual and social beacon to Irish immigrants in the early 19th century and today to Latino and other communities on the Lower East Side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin Grubler, co-founder of Friends of the Lower East Side, pointed to a recent \u201cmulti-year restoration and renovation,\u201d noting that \u201cconsiderable funds were devoted to this effort, extending the useful life of this 1833 church into the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Park: A landmark fighting for its life
\n\"theThe exterior of Manhattan\u2019s West Park Presbyterian ChurchCourtesy West Park<\/p>\n

The case for demolishing West Park Presbyterian proved far more contentious.<\/p>\n

The congregation, which was landmarked over its own objections a decade ago, is seeking permission to tear down the structure, citing the \u201coverwhelming cost of addressing serious and ongoing building maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LPC\u2019s Frank Mahan pressed the church\u2019s representatives on why neighboring landmarked buildings had found paths forward.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

He noted that St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church had recently secured a $5 million renovation grant, while another nearby landmark added condominiums to its rear.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo nearby buildings had different outcomes,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy are those buildings different than yours?\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Roger Leaf, chair of the West Park Administrative Commission, acknowledged the difference.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the principal differences are the condition of the structure. The buildings are in better condition,\u201d he said. \u201cOur position is that the cost of restoring and maintaining the building far exceeds the resources of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debby Hirshman, executive director of the Center at West Park \u2014 a nonprofit that operates out of the building \u2014 pushed back hard.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

She said the church was landmarked for its Romanesque architecture and its history as an early Civil Rights center, the birthplace of Joseph Papp\u2019s Public Theater, and the founding site of God\u2019s Love We Deliver, the nonprofit group that delivers prepared food to patients with serious illnesses such as HIV\/AIDS and their loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are just some of the key reasons,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Hirshman said the Center has $1.7 million in the bank and $11.6 million in committed funds through formal legal agreements. \u201cThere are funds available,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were many paths the church might have taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaf, in turn, pointed to the social need the church\u2019s potential sale could address.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur historic $30 million social justice fund will allow us to respond in meaningful ways to these urgent challenges,\u201d he said, citing demand for food assistance, immigration support, housing help and senior services.<\/p>\n

Attorney Valerie Campbell, representing the church, called hardship applications \u201cquite rare and only filed as a last resort,\u201d warning commissioners against setting \u201ca precedent of denying a worthy application.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission did not vote on the West Park application Tuesday. Both cases will continue to be deliberated in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a tale of two churches that cast a huge question mark over the future of New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[66139,66140,66141,66142,8315,32576,6167,358,75,84,83,9,24,66143,66144,63,66145,66146,66147,62,34675],"class_list":["post-160307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-church-demolition","tag-church-of-saint-mary","tag-hardship-application","tag-historic-houses-of-worship","tag-historic-preservation","tag-immigrant-communities","tag-landmarks-preservation-commission","tag-lower-east-side","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-history","tag-new-york-city-landmarks","tag-nyc","tag-patrick-charles-keeley","tag-religious-buildings","tag-romanesque-revival-architecture","tag-upper-west-side","tag-west-park-presbyterian-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}