St. John's P.E. Church Rectory
1329 Bay Street | Shore Acres | built 1931
Open on the map4 entries
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.
- 1873
Publisher John A. Appleton parts with the rectory's lot for $2
John A. Appleton, a publisher and warden of St. John's Church, had sold the parish the ground for its new church in 1870 for $7,000 plus a $5,000 mortgage. In a deed recorded on July 31, 1873, he passed the neighboring parcel to the south, where the rectory now stands, to the church for just $2, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission treats as a donation.
“He later sold or “donated” the adjacent parcel to south, where the rectory stands for $2.”
- 1882
The Rev. John C. Eccleston moves his family into the new rectory
Eccleston, St. John's rector for roughly 31 years after his 1867 return to Staten Island, was the first rector to live in the house, sharing it with his family. His daughter Gertrude, known as Trude, was a close friend of photographer Alice Austen, and several of Austen's early pictures of the rectory and church survive. Cornelius Vanderbilt gave furniture for the rector's study, and a plaque on the northwest wall honors Appleton's gift.
“The Rev. Eccleston was the first rector to occupy the new rectory. He lived there with his family. His daughter, Gertrude, referred to as Trude, was a close companion of Alice Austen.”
- 1882
Builder John W. Winmill finishes an early Queen Anne rectory with a granite base
Built in 1881-1882 by John W. Winmill, the two-and-a-half-story house mixes jutting gables, bay windows and a recessed entry porch in an asymmetrical Queen Anne plan. Above a rough-faced ashlar base, the upper walls switch to scalloped shingles, half-timbering and vertical boards. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls the stone base unusual among Staten Island's Queen Anne houses and notes that it echoes Arthur D. Gilman's 1869-71 church next door.
“…the house’s granite base, an unusual feature among Staten Island’s Queen Anne style houses, complement St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church…”
- 2016
The rectory becomes a city landmark fifty years after its first hearing
The Landmarks Preservation Commission first held hearings on the rectory in 1966, when the Municipal Art Society and the American Institute of Architects backed protecting all three buildings of the church complex. The matter returned at a special hearing on October 22, 2015, with the Rev. Roy A. Cole writing in support for the church, and the house was designated on June 28, 2016.
Nearby
- St. John's Episcopal Church1334 Bay Street | 4 entries
- Woodland Cottage33 Belair Road | 4 entries
- Alice Austen House (Clear Comfort)43 Maryland Avenue | 1 entry
- McFarlane-Bredt House30 Hylan Boulevard | 8 entries
- Alice Austen House (Clear Comfort)2 Hylan Boulevard | 8 entries
- St. Mary's Church1107 Bay Street | 3 entries