St. Thomas More Church

59 East 89th Street | Carnegie Hill | built 1910

Open on the map8 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. 1870

    Caroline Talman agrees to pay for a church for the residents of a women's home

    The Church of the Beloved Disciple is built in 1870 because the elderly residents of the Home for Indigent Christian Females can no longer easily reach St. Luke's Church after the home moves to 89th Street. Caroline Talman, a donor active in Episcopal philanthropy, agrees to finance a new church for them. St. Luke's establishes the congregation to serve the home.

    Source: nycago.org

  2. 1870

    Hubert & Pirsson model the church on a London country church

    Hubert & Pirsson design the Gothic Revival church in Nova Scotia sandstone, following St. Martin's, Gospel Oak, a London church of 1865 by Edward Buckton Lamb, according to architectural historian Andrew Dolkart. He points to details such as the chamfered corners, the shifting planes of the facade and the asymmetrical pinnacle on the tower. A chapel is added in 1879, followed by a rectory in 1880 and a parish house in 1893.

    “…closely modeled after Edward Buckton Lamb's Church of St. Martin's, Gospel Oak, London ... The chamfered corners, the varying planes of the façade, the asymmetrical pinnacle at the top of the tower…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1929

    Beloved Disciple is sold to a Reformed congregation, which rebuilds the organ

    After Beloved Disciple merges into the new Church of the Heavenly Rest, the old building is sold to the Eighty-ninth Street Reformed congregation in 1929. The new owners hire the Hall Organ Company of West Haven, Connecticut, to rebuild the church's 1914 Moller organ, adding new chests and a three-manual console. The organ was removed in 1998.

    Source: nycago.org

  4. 1950

    Cardinal Spellman founds St. Thomas More parish in the old church

    Cardinal Spellman establishes the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas More in 1950 for the Carnegie Hill area. The Reformed congregation sells the building to the new parish, which names it for the English lord chancellor who was beheaded for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as head of the English church. He had been canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

    Source: nycago.org

  5. 1995

    A small organ stored in a Chelsea bar finds a home in the church

    A one-manual Flentrop organ built in 1960 for a Pittsburgh church was sold about 1966 to a private buyer who planned to put it in his West Side home. For several years it was kept at The Spike, a bar at Eleventh Avenue and 20th Street. After a stop at St. Ignatius of Antioch, it reached St. Thomas More in 1995. In 2009 it was sold to organist Renee Anne Louprette.

    Source: nycago.org

  6. 1999

    July 23

    The Kennedy family holds a private memorial for John F. Kennedy Jr.

    Days after the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and two others, a memorial service is held at St. Thomas More, a parish where he had often worshipped with his mother and sister. Hundreds of mourners attend the invitation-only service, among them President Bill Clinton, who presents the family with photo albums from the couple's visit to the White House the year before.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2016

    June 30

    Photographer Bill Cunningham, a regular in the back pews, gets a private requiem Mass

    Bill Cunningham, the New York Times street-fashion photographer who died at 87, is remembered at a private funeral Mass celebrated by Father Kevin Madigan. America magazine reports that Cunningham regularly attended Sunday Mass at St. Thomas More and spoke little about his faith. In his homily Madigan says Cunningham could be found in a back pew each Sunday, as quiet there as at any gala or fashion show.

    Source: americamagazine.org

  8. 2019

    February 25

    Lee Radziwill's private funeral is held at her sister's parish

    The private funeral for Lee Bouvier Radziwill takes place at St. Thomas More on February 25, 2019. Her sister Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had been a parishioner until her death and had a Mass said at the church every November 22 for John F. Kennedy, a tradition her daughter Caroline keeps up. Jacqueline's own 1994 funeral was held at St. Ignatius of Loyola instead, because of the size of the crowd.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 21 buildings with stories in Carnegie Hill