Our Saviour New York, at 417

West 57th Street 57th Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at ...

between

Ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

and Tenth Avenues in the

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, was built in 1886-87 and was designed by

Francis H. Kimball Francis Hatch Kimball (September 24, 1845 – December 20, 1919) was an American architect practicing in New York City, best known for his work on skyscrapers in lower Manhattan and terra-cotta ornamentation. He was an associate with the firm ...

in the Late Victorian Gothic style for the

Catholic Apostolic Church The Catholic Apostolic Church (CAC), also known as the Irvingian Church, is a Christian denomination and Protestant sect which originated in Scotland around 1831 and later spread to Germany and the United States.Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messi ...

. In 1995, with the congregation dwindling, the church was donated to the Lutheran Life's Journey Ministries, which in 1997 rededicated it as the Church for All Nations. On April 26, 2015, the Church for All Nations held its last service. Members of the congregation still worship as All Nations Lutheran Church in a rehearsal studio at 244 West 54th Street. The church itself is now, in 2018, Our Saviour New York and is directed by lead pastor Matt Popovits and Mark Budenholzer. On February 7, 2001 the building was designated a

New York City landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

under the name "Catholic Apostolic Church".

History

French Evangelical Church 126 West 16th St

Catholic Apostolics first began worshiping in New York City in 1848, utilizing a sanctuary at 126 West 16th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. By 1885, the congregation numbered around 400, and it purchased two lots for a new church "in a middling area of tenements and flats."Gray, Christopher. ''New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan’s Significant Buildings and Landmarks.'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), p.163. The English-trained American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

designed the Victorian Gothic Revival church in 1897. The design features deep red bricks and abundant

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

ornamentation, typical of Kimball's noted style. The doorway arches deeply protrude from the church with molded terra-cotta leaves and angelic heads; the building is set back from the street by a black

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

fence with flame-shaped posts. It was praised by influential New York architectural critic

Montgomery Schuyler Montgomery Schuyler AIA, (August 19, 1843, Ithaca, New York – July 16, 1914, New Rochelle, New York) was a highly influential critic, journalist and editorial writer in New York City who wrote about and influenced art, literature, music ...

, who wrote that there was "no more scholarly Gothic work in New York." By 1893, the church hosted two daily services, recorded in ''King's Handbook of New York City''. Because of a lack of clergy in the greater Catholic Apostolic Church, the

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

priest Henry Ogden DuBois served as Angel of the church in conjunction with his Episcopal duties, until his death in 1949. When the church had diminished to a few members, it was decided to donate the structure to another church instead of allowing the structure to be adaptively reused for a secular purpose. In 1995, the church was donated to the Lutheran Life's Journey Ministries. The congregation became a member of the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...

in 1997. The building has been described as "a superior work of urban architecture.", p.250

References

External links

* {{Authority control The (Former) Catholic Apostolic Church (New York City) Churches in Manhattan Churches completed in 1897 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City Victorian architecture in New York City Irvingism Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan 1995 establishments in New York City Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod churches New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan 57th Street (Manhattan)

History

See also

References

External links