St. Peter's Chapel (BAAD!)

2474 Westchester Avenue | also 2500 Westchester Avenue | Westchester Square | built 1853

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1683

   Westchester becomes the county seat; its old county courthouse once stood on the chapel's site

   When Westchester County was formed in 1683, the town of Westchester was named its county seat. The first St. Peter's Church, built of wood in 1700 on the town green, stood next to the county courthouse and jail. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, St. Peter's Chapel now stands where that earlier courthouse building was.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1867

   Leopold Eidlitz designs St. Peter's Chapel as a Victorian Gothic Sunday school

   Built in 1867-68 as a Sunday school, the one-story chapel, now called Foster Hall, uses the same rough-faced stone as Eidlitz's church next door, laid in random ashlar with contrasting sandstone trim. Visitors enter through a gabled tower set into the churchyard wall, topped by a bell cot that the commission thought was purely ornamental.

   “It was built in 1867-68 for use as a Sunday School and was also designed by Leopold Eidlitz.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1976

   March 23

   The city landmarks St. Peter's Church, its chapel and its cemetery together

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the church, chapel and cemetery on March 23, 1976, after a January hearing with no speakers and with the parish's approval. The report called the two Gothic buildings in their graveyard a reminder of the area's rural past and noted headstones of Revolutionary War soldiers near the chapel.

   “LP-0917 ST. PETER'S CHURCH, CHAPEL AND CEMETERY, 2500 Westchester Avenue…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

4. 2013

   October

   The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance moves into the chapel after being priced out of Hunts Point

   Dancer Arthur Aviles and writer Charles Rice-González founded BAAD! in 1998, and it spent 14 years in the American Bank Note Company building in Hunts Point before rising rent forced it out. In October 2013 it moved into the Gothic Revival chapel in St. Peter's churchyard, bringing the Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre and programs centered on Latino and LGBTQ artists.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• Bronx Academy of Arts and DanceWikipedia

Nearby

• St. Peter's Church, Westchester2500 Westchester Avenue | 5 entries
• Huntington Free Library and Reading Room9 Westchester Square | 9 entries
• Herbert H. Lehman High School3000 East Tremont Avenue | 4 entries
• St. Raymond's Church1759 Castle Hill Avenue | 4 entries
• St. Helena's Church2050 Benedict Avenue | 1 entry
• Calvary Hospital1740 Eastchester Road | 4 entries

All 3 buildings with stories in Westchester Square