Church of the Ascension, Episcopal (Manhattan)

Church of the Ascension (Episcopal)
(2007)
Location 36–38 Fifth Avenue
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates: 40°44′1.3″N 73°59′46.2″W / 40.733694°N 73.996167°W
Built church: 1840–41
parish house: 1888–89[1]
Architect church: Richard Upjohn
parish house: McKim, Mead & White[1]
Architectural style church: Gothic Revival
parish house: Northern Renaissance[1]
Governing body private
NRHP Reference # 87002593[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP December 23, 1987[2]
Designated NHL December 23, 1987[3]

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[4] and was designed by Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style.[1] The interior was remodeled by Stanford White in 1885–88.[1]

The church's parish house, at 12 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), was originally built in 1844 as a residence, and was altered to its current state in 1888–89 by McKim, Mead and White in a Northern Renaissance-inspired style.[1]

The church became a National Historic Landmark in 1987.[3][5][6]

Both the church and parish house are part of the Greenwich Village Historic District, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1969.[1][7]

Parish history

The Church of the Ascension was first organized in 1827,[8] and their first church – located on the north side of Canal Street east of Broadway[4] – was one of the early Greek Revival buildings in the city, designed by the city's first professional architectural firm, Town & Thompson, the partnership of Ithiel Town and Martin Euclid Thompson.[9] Built in 1828–29, the church burned down in 1839, prompting the move to the parish's current location and church.[8] Until the new church was completed, the parish met in a number of places for two years.[4]

Not long after the church opened, on June 26, 1844, United States President John Tyler married Julia Gardiner.[10] Since Gardiner was much younger than Tyler, John Quincy Adams called the couple the "laughing-stock of the city."[8]

In 1865, under the Rev. James Cotton Smith, the parish began a mission church – originally the Chapel of the Shepherd's Flock, later the Ascension Memorial Chapel – at 249 West 43rd Street, building a sanctuary there in 1895. This acquired the nickname of "The Little Brick Church in Times Square".[8]

In response to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Rev. Donald Bradshaw Aldrich opened the doors of the church 24-hours a day for prayer and meditation, earning the church the name "The Church of the Open Door". This policy was in effect for decades: about 30,000 people visited the church in the 1960s. Although the doors are not still open around the clock, the stained-glass windows are illuminated at night.[7][8]

Buildings

Richard Upjohn's design for the church is "closely related" to his designs for Trinity Church (Manhattan), which began construction slightly earlier, in 1839,[11] and Christ Church in Brooklyn, which came afterwards.[1][12] The brownstone church is symmetrical, and features a square tower.[1]

Stanford White's interior design was "one of the great collaborative efforts of the era", and features a pulpit designed by Charles Follen McKim; mosaics by D. Maitland Armstrong; a marble reredos by Louis Saint-Gaudens, the brother of Augustus Saint-Gaudens; several stained glass windows by John LaFarge and his altar mural The Ascension, a 30-foot (9.1 m) by 35-foot (11 m) piece[8] considered to be one of his best works[1][7][10]

The parish house designed by McKim, Mead and White took a previously existing building and turned it into a Northern Renaissance-inspired building of yellow brick with bottle-glass windows.[1]

Organ

The church has had a series of organs since its construction in 1840–41. The current organ dates from 2010 and was built by Pascal Quoirin of St. Didier in Provence, France. It is the first organ built in France to be installed in New York City. It replaced a Holtkamp Organ Company instrument built in 1966.[4]

Gallery

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference aia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.55
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Church of the Ascension". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-10.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Church of the Ascension (Episcopal) New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists website
  5. ↑ Pitts, Carolyn (1986-12-20). "Church of the Ascension (Protestant Episcopal) – National Register of Historic Places Inventory" (PDF). National Park Service.
  6. ↑ "Church of the Ascension (Protestant Episcopal, Two accompanying photos, interior, from 1976 – National Register of Historic Places Inventory" (PDF). National Park Service. 1986-12-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot with Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195383867., p.145-46
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion. (2004) New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12543-7, p.17-18
  9. ↑ Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195116348., p.467
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Federal Writers' Project. (1939) New York City Guide. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-403-02921-X (Reprinted by Scholarly Press, 1976; often referred to as WPA Guide to New York City), p.135
  11. ↑ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.11
  12. ↑ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot with Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195383867., p.621

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Church of the Ascension, Episcopal (Manhattan).