{"id":185552,"date":"2026-04-04T16:48:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:48:35","slug":"hail-mary-to-save-beloved-queens-church-rotting-in-a-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185552\/","title":{"rendered":"Hail Mary to save beloved Queens church rotting in a cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens community is praying for a $6 million miracle to resurrect an iconic church dismantled nearly two decades ago and rotting away in a local cemetery.<\/p>\n

St. Saviour\u2019s Church was a Maspeth mainstay for more than 160 years until its wooden fa\u00e7ade and stained-glass windows were removed piece by piece in 2008 \u2014 to make way for a warehouse.<\/p>\n

Today, the\u00a0remnants of the Carpenter Gothic-style Episcopal Church<\/a>\u00a0remain disassembled but mostly intact, stored two miles away in a pair of trailers\u00a0parked at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.<\/p>\n

St. Saviour\u2019s Church was a Maspeth mainstay on Rust Street near 57th Road for more than 160 years until its wooden fa\u00e7ade and glass-stained windows were removed piece by piece in 2008 \u2014 to make way for a warehouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just a travesty that it\u2019s been sitting around like that for the last 18 years and deteriorating away,\u201d said Paul Pogozelski, president of the Middle Village Residents Association. \u201cIf we let it sit around for another 18 years, it definitely won\u2019t be able to be built again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempts by pols, preservationists and community leaders to find a new site, and an estimated $6 million-plus to rebuild it, have repeatedly come up short.<\/p>\n

Now, the project is in purgatory because the cemetery wants the trailers off its property. The graveyard operators have openly discussed putting the land to more profitable use, such as\u00a0hosting a battery storage farm.<\/a><\/p>\n

The cemetery would welcome having the church rebuilt on another part of its property for use as a chapel, James McClelland, the cemetery\u2019s treasurer, told the Middle Village Residents Association during a Feb. 3 meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re willing to find a spot on our property, but we can\u2019t do it without financial support,\u201d said McClelland, who estimated the cost to restore the church between $6 million to $7 million.<\/p>\n

St. Saviour\u2019s Church being dismantled in 2008. New York Landmarks Conservancy<\/p>\n

Today, the\u00a0remnants of the Carpenter Gothic-style Episcopal Church\u00a0remain disassembled but mostly intact, stored in a pair of trailers\u00a0parked along grounds at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village. New York Landmarks Conservancy<\/p>\n

Members of the New York Landmarks Conservancy inspected the trailers Jan. 22 and issued a\u00a0report\u00a0saying much of the wood inside<\/a> \u201cappeared to be in good condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the significant rebuilding challenges is replacing some wood charred in a 1970 fire.<\/p>\n

Judge David Jones, son-in-law of former NYC Mayor and NY Governor DeWitt Clinton, organized the church, which Robert Upjohn, the architect behind Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, designed. Built from redwood, St. Saviour\u2019s opened in 1847 along what is now Rust Street and 57th Drive.<\/p>\n

A warehouse replaced St. Savior\u2019s Church in Maspeth. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n

After St. Saviour\u2019s merged with another nearby church in the mid-1990s, it was sold to San Sung Korean Methodist Church\u00a0for a reported $450,000. In 2005, the Korean church flipped the site for $7.5 million to a developer who intended to demolish what was then Masbeth\u2019s oldest building.<\/p>\n

Local pols and activists rallied to save the church, but fell short trying to convince the city to purchase it or protect it through landmark designation.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But ex-Councilman Bob Holden, then president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, was able to cut an 11th-hour deal in 2008 protecting the church from turning to rubble.<\/p>\n

The moderate Queens Democrat helped raise $250,000 and worked with the conservancy and other volunteer groups to carefully dismantle the church and create blueprints for its reconstruction.<\/p>\n

Historical photo of St. Saviour\u2019s Church. <\/p>\n

Members of the nonprofit New York Landmarks Conservancy inspected the trailers Jan. 22 at the request of community leaders, and they issued a\u00a0report\u00a0saying much of wood inside \u201cappeared to be in good condition.\u201d New York Landmarks Conservancy<\/p>\n

The JPCA cut a deal with the cemetery to store the timbers in trailers at All Faith\u2019s at no charge. The JPCA\u2019s leaders now contend the potential rebirth of St. Savior\u2019s is being used by rival political factions and civic groups to score points with voters.<\/p>\n

Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens), Holden\u2019s predecessor and ally, told The Post he\u2019s had positive talks with Mayor Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin about trying to secure funding to save the church and is \u201cfocused on results \u2014 not drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing this community needs is people who\u2019ve never been part of this effort suddenly trying to insert themselves for attention,\u201d added Wong, without naming names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens community is praying for a $6 million miracle to resurrect an iconic church dismantled nearly two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[53920,21977,301,30087,3000,57,9,24,63,87,122,124,123,67371,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-185552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-cemetery","9":"tag-church","10":"tag-city-council","11":"tag-episcopal-church","12":"tag-landmarks","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-queens-headlines","20":"tag-queens-news","21":"tag-trailers","22":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185552","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=185552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}