St. Margaret's Episcopal Church
940 East 156th Street | Longwood | built 1961
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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.
- 1900
St. Margaret's mission builds an earlier church on this triangular lot under Rev. Charles Hamilton
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church began as a mission on January 15, 1899, holding its first meeting at the White Mansion, on the corner of Beck and East 156th Streets. A year later the Rev. Charles Hamilton became its pastor, and an earlier church went up on this triangular block bounded by Dawson, Kelly and East 156th Streets and Leggett Avenue. When the IRT subway extensions of 1904 and 1905 brought new housing, the congregation grew and that building was renovated to hold the crowds.
Source: bxtimes.com
- 1920
A brick neo-Gothic St. Margaret's replaces Dickerson's earlier frame church
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Around 1920 St. Margaret's was rebuilt in a simplified neo-Gothic style, replacing an earlier frame church designed by Warren C. Dickerson. The freestanding brick church sits back behind a large lawn with its gable end to East 156th Street. A crenellated polygonal tower at the northwest corner holds the main entrance, and a single large Gothic-arched window lights the front.
- 1922
Some 40,000 mourners besiege St. Margaret's for slain police officer Douglas W. Hay
Police Officer Douglas W. Hay was shot dead by Michael Trabiano at the corner of Third Avenue and 172nd Street on May 18, 1922. Some 40,000 well-wishers crowded his home at 711 Tinton Avenue and St. Margaret's Church, the biggest crowd in the parish's history. The rector, the Rev. Frederick B. Hodgins, led the funeral with Police Chaplain John A. Wade, and parishioners talked about the day for years.
Source: bxtimes.com
- 1961
Adams and Woodbridge design a concrete parish house behind St. Margaret's
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In 1961 the architecture firm Adams and Woodbridge designed a plain two-story concrete parish house for St. Margaret's, set behind the church and facing Leggett Avenue. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1980 Longwood Historic District report describes the parish house together with the church.
“A simple, two story, concrete parish house is located to the rear of the church, on Leggett Avenue, and was designed in 1961 by the firm of Adams and Woodbridge.”
- 1993
Theodora Nmade Brooks becomes rector of a smaller but busy St. Margaret's
Theodora Nmade Brooks became rector of St. Margaret's in 1993. Membership had fallen off in the 1950s, and renovation of the brick church began in 1961 with money from a building fund. By 2008 the congregation shared the building with a food pantry, a Sunday breakfast program, a Friday night basketball program for young men, an after-school program, a summer day camp and the local American Legion post.
Source: bxtimes.com
Nearby
- St. Margaret's Rectory948 East 156th Street | 2 entries
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- 952 East 156th Street2 entries