St. Mary's Episcopal Church

521 West 126th Street | Manhattanville | built 1908

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. 1823

    December 18

    Rev. William Richmond holds St. Mary's first service in a schoolhouse

    In the then-rural village of Manhattanville, Rev. William Richmond held St. Mary's first worship service in a local schoolhouse on Thanksgiving Day, December 18, 1823. Merchant Jacob Schieffelin soon donated land on Lawrence Street, and early members included Elizabeth Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, and her sons.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1831

    St. Mary's eliminates pew rents for its mostly poor parishioners

    Five years after its wooden church opened, the vestry stopped charging pew rents in 1831 since most of the Manhattanville congregation could not afford them. The parish went on to open a free school for children of any denomination and, in 1864, founded The Sheltering Arms, a home for displaced children.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1908

    Carrère and Hastings design a Gothic Revival replacement church

    By the early 1900s the original wooden church was too small, so the parish built a new $35,000 brick and stone Gothic Revival church, designed mainly by Theodore E. Blake of Carrère and Hastings, with a large traceried Gothic window and a Celtic cross atop the gable. The bell from the old wooden church was hung in the new tower.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1909

    January 1

    Manhattanville's St. Mary's, the church that dropped pew rents, consecrates a new building

    St. Mary's held its first service in a Manhattanville schoolhouse on December 18, 1823, and built a wooden church on land given by merchant Jacob Schieffelin; Elizabeth Hamilton was among its early members. In 1831 it abolished pew rents. The old church was razed in 1908, and the $35,000 brick replacement, credited to Carrère & Hastings with Theodore E. Blake as main designer, was consecrated on New Year's Day 1909.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1987

    Rev. Robert Castle becomes rector and opens the church to its changing neighborhood

    Robert W. Castle Jr. became rector of St. Mary's in 1987. He started Spanish-language services and outreach programs, and the parish's work with people living with HIV and AIDS grew into the St. Mary's Episcopal Center. Castle was the subject of the 1992 documentary Cousin Bobby and retired in 2000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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