Grace Church on Broadway--Never Realized its Fame with Architectural Historians

As Manhattan grew in the 1800's, its center moved up Broadway from way downtown and then leapfrogging up to different places and Squares where Bway crossed Uptown Avenues at a diagonal...( Madison Square, for instance, started off as a fashionable address for the rich and then was overtaken by all kinds of other development...something similar happened on other streets, such as Lafayette Place ( once had a millionaire's row type of area, later a place for Bowery bums)...

I remember Grace Church just for two things: they let us use their big meeting room for our Tenants' Association meetings ( our building was nearby)  --free of charge, if I remember right-- I wonder if they would do that now-- and going to a Christmas eve service there once with a couple of people ( very nice indeed).

Here is brief history of what was once a socialite church from the internet--oh, what do you know, Wikipedia has a treasure trove of info on the place...here is some of it


Grace Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, located at 800 and 804 Broadway at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the north, with Grace Church School and the church houses – which are now used by the school – behind it at 86-98 Fourth Avenue between East 10th and 12th Streets, in Manhattan, New York City. It is a French Gothic Revival ^[4] masterpiece designed by James Renwick, Jr., his first major commission.
The church, which has been called "one of the city's greatest treasures",^[5] is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City,^[3][6][7] and the complex is a New York City landmark, designated in 1966 (church and rectory) and 1977 (church houses).^[4]

History and architecture

Grace Church, circa 1900

Grace Church was initially organized in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Street.^[8] Under rector Thomas House Taylor, who began service at the church in 1834,^[9] the decision was made to move the church uptown with the city's expanding population. In 1843, the land on which the church was built was purchased from Henry Brevoort. The 23-year-old architect James Renwick, Jr. – a nephew of Brevoort – whose sole completed work at the time was the Bowling Green Fountain, was commissioned as the architect.
The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1843 and the church was consecrated in 1846. Vestry minutes from January of that year break down some of the expenses for building a new church – including items ranging from the cost of the workers from Sing Sing state prison who cut the stone to the cost of the embroidery for the altar cloth. Like Trinity Church, which was also consecrated in 1846, Grace Church was designed in the Gothic Revival style, and despite the wood, plaster scored to look like stone and lathe construction – as opposed to the stone construction of medieval Gothic cathedrals. The church originally had a wooden spire, but under the leadership of the rector at the time, Henry Codman Potter, it was replaced in 1881 with a marble spire designed by Renwick.^[8]
The east window over the high altar created by the English stained glass manufacturer Clayton and Bell in 1878, dominates the chancel, and the whole church; a "Te Deum" window, its theme is praise. The figures with their faces raised toward Christ, who is seated at the top center, represent prophets, apostles, martyrs and all the world. Other windows in the church are by Henry Holiday.^[10] The reredos, with mosaic figures of the evangelists, is made of French and Italian Marble and Caen stone, and shows the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, flanking the Risen Christ as he gives the great commission, "Go into all the world and make disciples..." This piece, along with the altar, was designed by Renwick and executed by Ellin & Kitson in 1878. The choir furniture was installed in 1903 after the chancel was lengthened an additional fifteen feet in a renovation designed by Heins and La Farge. On the lawn in front of Renwick's Grace House (1880–1881), which connects the sancturary to his Rectory (1846–1847), stands a terra-cotta Roman urn dating from around the time of the Emperor Nero.^[10]
For a full generation after it was built it was the most fashionable church in New York: "For many years Grace has been the centre of fashionable New York", Matthew Hale Smith observed in 1869: "To be married or buried within its walls has been ever considered the height of felicity".^[11]

Renwick's 1847 rectory...

...and his 1881 Grace House

The church houses on Fourth Avenue, behind the church: Renwick's Memorial House takes up the three bays in the center, with Clergy House by Heins & LaFarge to its left, and Neighborhood House to its right.

Edward T. Potter's chantry was built in 1879, and added to in 1910 by William W. Renwick; this is the view from Broadway

The marble steeple was installed in 1883, and had its lean fixed in 2003.

The Church at dusk

Date[12]	Building or action	Architect
1843-1846	sanctuary (800 Broadway)	James Renwick, Jr.
1846–1847	rectory (804 Broadway)	James Renwick, Jr.
1878–1879	chantry	Edward T. Potter
1880–1881	Grace House (802 Broadway)	James Renwick, Jr.
1881	front garden	Vaux & Co.
1881–1882	Memorial House (92-96 Fourth Avenue)	James Renwick, Jr.
1883	replacement of wooden spire with marble spire	James Renwick, Jr.
1902–1903	Clergy House (90 Fourth Avenue)	Heins & LaFarge
1903	extension of chancel	Heins & LaFarge
1906–1907	Neighborhood House (98 Fourth Avenue)	Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker
1910	additions to chantry	William W. Renwick
1975–1976	addition to rear of church houses for school
2003	straighten lean in spire	Walter B. Melvin Architects[10]