St. Peter's Church, Westchester

2500 Westchester Avenue | also 1499 Seabury Avenue | Westchester Square | built 1853

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1700

    Westchester's parish raises its first church, a wooden building with a bell from the Morris family

    An earlier building on this site: the parish, organized in 1693, put up its first church in 1700 after worshipping in the town meeting house. It was a square wooden building with a pyramidal roof and a bell turret, standing on the town green beside the county courthouse and jail. Its bell, a gift of the Morris family, was inscribed "Lewis Morris, 1677," and a tax on the inhabitants of Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the manor of Pelham paid for construction.

    “The bell, presented to the church by the Morris family, bore the inscription "Lewis Morris, 1677.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1706

    Queen Anne sends the congregation a chalice, Bible and other furnishings for its church

    In the parish's first church on this site, an earlier building, the congregation received a gift from Queen Anne of England in 1706. It included a chalice and paten for communion, along with a pulpit cloth, a book of homilies, a church Bible and a communion table. Four years earlier the Rev. John Bartow had arrived from London as the first regular minister, sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

    “In 1706 Queen Anne of England presented to the congregation a communion service consisting of a chalice and paten, a communion table, a church Bible…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1766

    Samuel Seabury, later the first Episcopal bishop in the United States, becomes rector

    The Rev. Samuel Seabury was appointed rector of St. Peter's in 1766, serving in the parish's first church on this site, an earlier building. During the American Revolution he stirred the anger of the townspeople by preaching on behalf of the Tories from the pulpit. Seabury later became the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.

    “…the Rev. Samuel Seabury, appointed rector in 1766 and later the first Protestant Episcopal bishop in the United States, aroused the ire of the local populace…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1855

    Leopold Eidlitz's Gothic church replaces the parish's 1795 wooden building

    The present church was completed in 1855 on the old site, replacing a wooden church with a cupola that had been consecrated in 1795. It was designed by Prague-born Leopold Eidlitz, who had worked in Richard Upjohn's office. In a history published in 1855, Robert Bolton reported that $15,000 had already been raised and the work was under contract, and he published a drawing and floor plan of the church.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1879

    Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz rebuilds his father's fire-damaged church in his first independent commission

    After a fire partly destroyed the church, Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, son of architect Leopold Eidlitz, restored it, and the rebuilt church was consecrated in 1879. It was the younger Eidlitz's first independent work; he added the clerestory and raised the transepts, and rebuilt the spire to its original design. The Landmarks Preservation Commission suggests his father was too busy with the New York State Capitol in Albany to take the job.

    “His first independent work was the rebuilding and remodeling of St. Peter's Church…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 3 buildings with stories in Westchester Square