Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord
228 North 12th Street | Williamsburg | built 1920
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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.
- 1916
The parish outgrows its North 5th Street church and buys five lots at Driggs Avenue and North 12th Street
Immigrants from Galicia had settled around Williamsburg and Greenpoint by 1880, and the congregation began in a parishioner's home before buying a vacant wooden Methodist church at North 5th Street and Bedford Avenue. That church, St. Vladimir's, was dedicated in 1908. By 1916 the parish had outgrown it and bought five lots at the corner of Driggs Avenue and North 12th Street.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1916
Louis Allmendinger designs a Greek-cross cathedral with five copper onion domes modeled on a Kremlin church
Louis Allmendinger based his design on the Cathedral of the Dormition inside the Kremlin in Moscow. The plan is a Greek cross with a square tower and copper-covered onion dome at each corner, and a larger central dome crowned with a gilded Russian Orthodox cross. Brownstoner says it was unlike anything else he designed, and that he built it in the same beige-yellow brick he used for the Mathews Model Flats in Ridgewood.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1922
The cathedral is consecrated after World War I delays
World War I held up the cathedral's completion, and the congregation had to sell St. Vladimir's before the new building was done. The parish was already worshiping on Driggs Avenue well before then, using parts of the old iconostasis in a side altar dedicated to St. Vladimir. The finished cathedral was consecrated in September 1922, and its new iconostasis is a three-door screen.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1969
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the cathedral a New York City landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the cathedral at 228 North 12th Street an individual city landmark in 1969. It went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The church, designed by Louis Allmendinger, is built of yellow brick and has copper onion domes on four octagonal belfries around a large central dome.
Source: Wikipedia
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