St. John's Chapel (New York City)

Coordinates: 40°43′16″N 74°00′22″W / 40.72111°N 74.00611°W

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St. John's Chapel
An engraving of the chapel in the New-York Mirror from 1829.

Location	Manhattan, New York City
Country	United States
Denomination	Episcopal
Architecture
Architect(s)	John McComb Jr. & Isaac McComb
Architectural type	Chapel
Style	Georgian
Completed	1807
Demolished	1918
Specifications
Height	214 feet (65 m)
Administration
Parish	Trinity Church

St. John's Chapel belonged to the Episcopal parish of Trinity Church in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York City.

History

It was constructed in 1803 to designs by John McComb Jr. and his brother Isaac McComb on Varick Street, facing St. John's Park. McComb gave it a sandstone tetrastyle prostyle portico supporting a tower and multi-storeyed spire that rose to 214¼ feet. Master builders for the chapel have been recorded as T. C. Taylor, Henry Hedley, Daniel Domanick and Isaac McComb.^[1] The chancel was added in 1857 to designs by Richard M. Upjohn.^[2]

The original location of this church was one of the most attractive in New York. It stood opposite the eastern side of St. John's Park, whose tree-shaded walks were a favorite recreational spot for the well-to-do residents of the neighbourhood. In 1867 Trinity Church, which had retained ownership of the park, sold it to the Hudson River Railroad for a downtown freight terminal. This unfortunate occurrence changed the character of the residential section nearby; the warehouse's undesirable influences were felt for many blocks in every direction. What had been a neighborhood of patrician dwellings was reduced to a slovenly purlieu of ramshackle buildings.^[1]

The congregation left in the 1890s and the structure was torn down in 1918.^[3] It was cleared during a construction project that widened Varick Street and also facilitated construction of the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line. City officials wanted to allow the portico to protrude into the widened street and vault the flanking pedestrian sidewalk under it because they recognized the steeple’s importance as a landmark. The Episcopal Church instead decided to demolish the building.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "Portico of St. John's Chapel, Varick Street," Special Index Issue: The American Architect (Weekly publication, founded 1876), (New York:243 West 39th Street) (July–December 1920).
^ J. Russiello, A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America^{[permanent dead link‍]} (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.26-31.
^ Nathan Silver, Lost New York, (New York: Weathervane Books, 1967), p.151-152
^ Christopher Gray. "STREETSCAPES: A Chapel the City Fought to Save" New York Times (April 27, 2008).

External links

Media related to St. John's Chapel (New York City) at Wikimedia Commons
St. John's Chapel records at Trinity Wall Street Archives

40°43′16″N 74°00′22″W / 40.72111°N 74.00611°W / 40.72111; -74.00611

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