St. Ann's Church
295 St Anns Avenue | Mott Haven | built 1841
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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.
- 1841
Gouverneur Morris completes a fieldstone church on his estate in memory of his mother
Gouverneur Morris (1813-1888) built St. Ann's in a field on his estate that already held his parents' tomb, and a brass tablet beside the chancel records that he gave the parish its church and land to honor his mother. His mother, Ann Cary Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, a lineal descendant of Pocahontas, died in 1837 and lies in a large vault beneath the chancel. The crypt also holds Major General Lewis Morris (died 1798), a Continental Congress member who signed the Declaration of Independence, in what is called the Signers Vault.
“Founder of this Parish, to which he gave church and lands for the glory of God and in memory of his mother.”
- 1916
St. Ann's gains a Gothic parish house linked by a covered arcade
In 1916 a Gothic parish house was added northeast of the chancel, reached by a covered walkway of seven Gothic arches. Its random ashlar stone walls are pointed up with brick, and it is matched to the small fieldstone church in scale and character. A sharp gable at the center of its second floor holds three pointed arches with traceried windows.
“…this section with a covered walkway containing a series of seven Gothic arches, dates from 1916.”
- 1967
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates St. Ann's Church and Graveyard
After hearings in January and February 1966 at which one witness spoke in favor and no one opposed it, the commission named St. Ann's Church and Graveyard at 295 St. Ann's Avenue a city landmark. It described the site as a forgotten country churchyard surrounded by the sprawling city, and found the church's historic associations and the people buried in its graveyard to be of great interest to the city and the nation.
“St. Ann's Church and Graveyard is a forgotten "country churchyard" in the heart of the sprawling City…”
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