St. George's Syrian Catholic Church

103 Washington Street | Financial District | built 1812

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1812

   A Federal-style building rises at 103 Washington Street

   Merchant Ryneer Suydam, who owns a store at 4 Stone Street, erects a three-and-a-half-story Federal-style building around 1812. The building serves a changing string of small businesses, including a ship chandlery and a liquor store, before becoming a boardinghouse for immigrants by the mid-1800s. In 1869, owner John Hermann Schutte adds two more floors to house transient sailors.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1916

   St. George's Syrian Catholic Church moves into the building

   The Melkite congregation of St. George's Syrian Catholic Church relocates from a shared basement chapel at St. Peter's Church to its own building at 103 Washington Street. The move comes as the surrounding blocks, known as the Syrian Quarter, fill with Syrian immigrants working in the import and dry-goods trades nearby.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1930

   Harvey Cassab redesigns the church's facade in white terra cotta

   Lebanese-American draftsman Harvey F. Cassab gives the church a new neo-Gothic facade of white terra cotta, centered on a polychrome relief of St. George slaying the dragon. Commissioned in 1929 and completed the following year, the redesign transforms the plain brick front into the parish's most distinctive feature.

   Source: Wikipedia

4. 2009

   July 14

   The city landmarks the former St. George's Syrian Catholic Church

   After World War II, the Little Syria community disperses, displaced in part by construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel approach. The church later closes, and in 1982 the building becomes an Irish pub. In 2009 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates it for its terra cotta facade and its ties to Manhattan's early Syrian community.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• St. George's Syrian Catholic ChurchWikipedia
• A Terra Cotta Gem at No. 103 Washington StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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