Church of the Transfiguration (Little Church Around the Corner)
1 East 29th Street | NoMad | built 1850
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1863
The rector shelters Black New Yorkers from Draft Riot mobs inside the church
During the Draft Riots of July 1863, when mobs attacked Black New Yorkers, the Rev. George Hendric Houghton took in people fleeing the violence, filling the church's sanctuary, schoolroom, library and vestry. He is recorded as driving off rioters with a rebuke about the spirit of Christ. Houghton had founded the congregation in 1848, and the church was consecrated in 1849.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1865
Surgeon Valentine Mott, a friend of Lincoln, has his funeral at the church
Dr. Valentine Mott, a surgeon of international reputation whose mansion stood at No. 1 Gramercy Park, was among the church's prominent members. He was a close friend and adviser to Abraham Lincoln and died a week after the president, said to be so disturbed by the assassination that it hastened his death. His funeral was held at the church on April 30, 1865. The New York Herald that day predicted that leading medical men and distinguished people from every profession would attend.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1870
An actor's funeral gives the church its nickname, the Little Church Around the Corner
In 1870 another rector refused to hold a funeral for the actor George Holland. His friend and fellow actor Joseph Jefferson, trying to arrange the burial, responded with "God bless the little church around the corner!" and the nickname stuck. The church kept its ties to the stage: the Episcopal Actors' Guild held its first meeting here in 1923.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1893
Edwin Booth's funeral draws New York's theatrical elite
Actor Edwin Booth's funeral fills the church on June 9, 1893, with mourners including fellow actor Joseph Jefferson, architect Stanford White, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and producer Daniel Frohman. Police manage crowds gathered outside. The service cements a reputation, already two decades old, as the preferred church for New York's theater community.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1897
Rector George Houghton dies after 49 years leading the church
George Hendric Houghton, who founded the congregation in 1848 and served as its only rector for 49 years, dies on November 17, 1897. Nearly 2,000 people file past his casket. Parishioners later raise a memorial tower and spire in his honor, and a mortuary chapel dedicated in 1908 also honors his memory.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1914
P. G. Wodehouse marries Ethel at the church and later sets his fictional weddings there
In September 1914 the young writer P. G. Wodehouse, then living in Greenwich Village and writing novels and musical lyrics, married Ethel at the Little Church. He later set most of his fictional weddings there. The hit musical Sally, which he wrote with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton, closed with the company singing in tribute to the church's bohemian congregation.
“P. G. Wodehouse, when living in Greenwich Village as a young writer of novels and lyrics for musicals, married his wife Ethel at the Little Church in September 1914.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1922
The church becomes a hub for high-volume society weddings
By 1922 the Church of the Transfiguration hosts as many as ten wedding ceremonies a day during peak season. Parish secretary Mary Hanlon estimates in 1948 that she arranged roughly 50,000 weddings over her career, and a 1939 WPA guide calls it the busiest marriage venue in the city.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1923
The Episcopal Actors' Guild holds its first meeting at the church
In 1923 the Episcopal Actors' Guild met for the first time at Transfiguration, extending the church's link to the theater that had begun with an actor's funeral in 1870. Basil Rathbone, Tallulah Bankhead, Peggy Wood, Joan Fontaine, Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston were among those who later served the guild as officers or council members.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1925
A wedding scene in a silent film, The Street of Forgotten Men, is shot at the church
Herbert Brenon's silent film The Street of Forgotten Men, released in 1925, shot a key scene at the church: a wedding between the characters played by Neil Hamilton and Mary Brian. Parts of the church's facade and lich-gate can be seen in the film, and one of its lobby cards shows the lich-gate.
“A key scene, a wedding between characters played by Neil Hamilton and Mary Brian, in the 1925 Herbert Brenon–directed silent film The Street of Forgotten Men was shot at the church.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
A line of about 1,500 hungry men forms each morning at the lich-gate
In 1930 the rector, Dr. Ray, began feeding the hungry. For many weeks a queue of about 1,500 men stretched each morning from the lich-gate, and when the clergy appeared each man filed past to receive a meal ticket. The Landmarks Commission counted it as the third bread line in the church's history. Earlier rectors had run one after the Civil War and another after the financial crash of 1907.
“For many weeks an appalling queue of about 1,500 men extended each morning from the lich-gate until the clergy appeared…”
- 1948
A retiring parish secretary estimates she arranged 50,000 weddings
Mary C. Hanlon retired as parish secretary in April 1948 after thirty-two years. By her own estimate she had probably arranged 50,000 weddings at the church, according to the New York Times. The Works Progress Administration's 1939 city guide had said that more marriages were performed here than perhaps at any other church in the city.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1967
The city designates the church's Gothic Revival rectory a landmark
After a hearing on December 13, 1966, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church's rectory a landmark on May 25, 1967. Two witnesses spoke in favor, and the rector, the Rev. Orin A. Griesmyer, wrote in support. The commission praised the five-story, mansard-roofed Gothic Revival building of brick and brownstone, set behind a garden and tied in character to the church beside it.
“…the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a LAndmark the Rectory of the Church of the Transfiguration, 1 East 29th Street…”
Further reading
- Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal (Manhattan)Wikipedia
- The Church of the Transfiguration - 1 East 29th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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