St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine
130 Liberty Street | also 140 Greenwich Street | Financial District | built 2016
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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.
- 1919
Greek immigrants convert a three-story Cedar Street tavern into the original St. Nicholas Church
An earlier St. Nicholas church stood a short walk from today's building. Greek immigrants who had come through Ellis Island founded the congregation in 1916 and first worshiped in a hotel dining room on Morris Street. In 1919 five families raised $25,000 to buy a three-story tavern at 155 Cedar Street, built in the 1830s as a private home. It was converted and given a fourth story, and held services by 1922.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The original church's relics of St. Nicholas, St. Catherine and St. Sava are lost
Among the most valuable things lost when the South Tower fell on the original church were relics of St. Nicholas, St. Catherine and St. Sava, gifts of Tsar Nicholas II that were taken from a safe and shown to the faithful on holy days. Few of the contents were recovered. The damaged icons of St. Dionysios of Zakynthos and the Zoodochos Pege were among the objects found and are planned for display in the new church.
“Among the most valuable physical possessions lost were some relics of St Nicholas, St Catherine, and St Sava, which had been donated by Nicholas II…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The original church is destroyed when the South Tower collapses, the only house of worship lost
The South Tower's fall flattened the church at 155 Cedar Street. It was the only place of worship destroyed that day, and the only structure beyond the original trade center complex lost entirely. Nobody was inside, though the sexton and an electrician got out only minutes earlier. Relics of three saints, donated by Russia's last tsar, vanished, and just a few damaged icons and objects were found.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
The Port Authority walks away from its 2008 deal to rebuild the church
On July 23, 2008, the Port Authority reached a deal to acquire the church's 1,200-square-foot lot for $20 million, split between the agency and JPMorgan Chase, and was willing to pay up to $40 million for a bomb-proof platform under a new church. In March 2009 the agency said it had stopped talks, claiming the church was asking too much, while the Archdiocese said it only wanted its church back.
“In March 2009, the Port Authority stated that it had stopped talking with the church and had canceled building St. Nicholas altogether.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
Workers uncover an 18th-century ship at the site of the destroyed church
In July 2010, while rebuilding was still stalled, remains of an 18th-century ship turned up on the very spot where the original St. Nicholas had stood. Because the saint is the patron of those who sail the sea, many took the discovery as a sign that the church would rise again, according to the church's own history of the site.
Source: stnicholaswtc.org
- 2011
The Greek Archdiocese sues the Port Authority for $20 million over the church
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America sued the Port Authority for $20 million on February 14, 2011, under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act, over the failure to rebuild St. Nicholas. The suit followed a 2010 petition drive by former SEC attorney George Demos and a press conference at which former Governor George Pataki urged the agency to reopen talks.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
The Port Authority and Greek Archdiocese sign a deal to rebuild the church at 130 Liberty Street
After a lawsuit and years of stalled talks, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Archbishop Demetrios and Port Authority director Christopher Ward announced an agreement on October 14, 2011. The church would be built at Liberty and Greenwich Streets in Liberty Park, on a 4,100-square-foot plot about two-thirds the size of an earlier 2008 plan. It would sit on a platform above the World Trade Center's vehicle security ramp, which the Port Authority expected to cost about $25 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Santiago Calatrava's domed, marble-clad design is marked with a ground blessing and symbolic cornerstone
Officials and church leaders gathered on October 18, 2014 for a ground blessing and a symbolic laying of the cornerstone. The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed a round, domed building with four flanking towers, echoing two Byzantine churches in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia and the Chora church. Its steel and concrete frame is wrapped in thin Pentelic marble slabs, illuminated nightly by LEDs.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
The church signs a 198-year lease with the Port Authority at $1 a year
On August 21, 2017, the Archdiocese signed a lease and purchase agreement for the shrine's site at 130 Liberty Street, a deal completed days after Rick Cotton became the Port Authority's executive director. The lease runs 198 years, to July 31, 2215, with a 99-year extension, and the rent is a dollar a year. The church also holds an option to buy the land for a nominal dollar after construction ends.
Source: nypost.com
- 2017
Construction halts when the Archdiocese cannot pay the builder, and prosecutors open inquiries
In December 2017 the contractor Skanska stopped work in Liberty Park because the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America had not paid its bills, despite about $37 million in donations. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the state Attorney General began looking into the project's finances. A later PricewaterhouseCoopers report found no evidence of fraud and blamed cost overruns on design change orders, with the budget having climbed to about $80 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
Costs for the Calatrava church balloon from about $30 million toward $80 million
By April 2018 the half-built church had been stalled for five months, and its price tag, once pegged near $30 million, could reach $80 million. The Port Authority had spent about $18 million preparing the site, including a four-foot-thick concrete mat that serves as the shrine's base atop the Vehicle Security Center. A project source put the cost of the exterior cladding, roughly 2,500 marble and glass panels, at about $10 million, and who was to blame for the design changes was a matter of debate.
Source: nypost.com
- 2020
Governor Cuomo announces that stalled construction will resume under a new nonprofit
On January 2, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that building of the shrine would resume at the end of the month after two years of stoppage. A new nonprofit, the Friends of St. Nicholas, with a 13-member board chaired by Dennis Mehiel, would oversee the work, and the new archbishop, Elpidophoros, promised to finish by September 11, 2021. Roughly $40 million was still needed.
Source: nypost.com
- 2022
Critic Justin Davidson calls the $85 million church a refined pocket project
Reviewing the opened church for New York magazine, Justin Davidson wrote that Santiago Calatrava's $85 million sanctuary, which seats only 125, is a triumph of fine detail. Calatrava said he derived the form from a Hagia Sophia mosaic, and the dome has 40 ribs and 40 stone panels. Murals inside are by a monk, Father Loukas of Xenophontos, and the Greek government supplied Pentelic marble.
Source: curbed.com
- 2022
Archbishop Elpidophoros consecrates the church, which opens for regular services in December
A nonprofit created in January 2020 raised $41.5 million in eight months, and a ceremony in August 2020 restarted construction. The marble cladding went up by February 2021. Archbishop Elpidophoros consecrated the church on July 4, 2022, with Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit and Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh. Regular worship began that December 6, the Feast of Saint Nicholas.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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