ALL FAITHS CEMETERY SAYS, “WE’LL TAKE ST. SAVIOUR’S CHURCH”All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village has stepped up to the plate in the battle to save neighboring Maspeth’s historic St. Saviour’s Church. They have agreed to receive the building as long as funds are raised for the move. The Juniper Park Civic Association has been trying to save the Gothic wooden structure, designed in 1847 by master architect, Richard Upjohn and founded by town pioneers, including James Maurice, a U.S. Congressman, since early 2006.
“At this point, saving the land is still questionable, but we certainly can save the building right now with the million dollars that was set aside for its acquisition, and we are grateful to Dan Austin and All Faiths Cemetery for agreeing to host the church,” said Robert Holden, President of Juniper Park Civic Association.
Tony Nunziato, Chair of the Maspeth-Middle Village Task Force said, “Since Councilman Dennis Gallagher secured $1 million last year for the purpose of saving St. Saviour’s, this money can be used toward the cost of moving the church.” He added, “I am sure this development company would be happy to have the building taken off of their hands.”
Dan Austin, Sr., President of All Faiths said, “These folks have worked extremely hard to keep this place standing for so long, and we would be honored to have such an historic building on our property.”
Christina Wilkinson, Chair of JPCA’s Committee to Save St. Saviour’s is relieved that the offer was made. “At this point, the church is in imminent peril and we need to get it out of harm’s way right now,” she said. On January 22, an expediting service notified property owners in the vicinity that there was a plan to demolish the church building in “5+ days”. However, it remains standing. “This church has been waiting for a miracle to save it for 2 years, and it looks like it may finally have found one,” Wilkinson stated.
The civic association is currently obtaining estimates for the move and reaching out to Maspeth Development to work out the details. It should be noted that several historic Queens structures have been successfully relocated and renovated, including the Latimer House and Kingsland Homestead in Flushing.
38 comments:
Does anyone question if Councilman Gallagher actually received or still has this $1 million dollars ?
Talk about the sh*t hitting the fan this saga may really get interesting.
-Joe
congrats to Maspeth residents and the JPCA. Now they can continue to fight to save the property, with less at stake and minds more at ease.
Right on "Joe".
We're all keeping a careful watch on the Pinkster!
That money had better be there!
Everyone - including me - now should write our apologies to Gallagher who clearly sacrificed his all to bring about this great development.
I heard that he refused to pay his bill at Harry's Hardware so that he could use the money to save Saint Saviour's.
Can anyone confirm the rumor that the little incident in his office was done to divert attention from the damage his developer friends were doing to Saint Saviour's?
What a man! If we had only known how brave he has been!
He will long be a historic figure in Middle Village. Perhaps he should have a memorial statue erected (oops! "erected" may be a poor choice of a word).
Teddy Roosevelt's "Birthplace" in Manhattan is not the original site either.
Close but no "cigar"?
If you think pinkerella actually secured those funds, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. That soul-less punk Pinky secured squat.
>>Pinkerella actually secured those funds<
Sure...And I'm the Pope !
Looks like all you Gallagher detractors have some crow to eat. Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher will be the one who saves St. Saviour's in the end!
Thank you, Dennis! Don't you haters feel stupid now?
"Looks like all you Gallagher detractors have some crow to eat. Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher will be the one who saves St. Saviour's in the end!"
No, I think its more like 'Gallagher will be the one who can't even save his own end'
I volunteer to feel stupid IF Gallagher actually comes through. What will you do if he doesn't?
I really hope this does save St. Saviour's. I've been following this on Forgotten NY for some time.
Is the $1,000,000 secured by Dennis Gallagher true? How come it wasn't brought to our attention earlier on, if so? I am perplexed. Doesn't he have ties to the Parkside Group?
Teddy Roosevelt's birthplace
is actually a total reconstruction!
And, I believe,
it's built in a different scale from the original.
Ha, ha, ha,
and I found my "million dollar baby
in the five and ten cents store"!
There is no money.
That lying pink bastard has probably already spent it
on his rape case defense if there was any.
When the church is finally saved,
can we use Gallagher's manhood
as the clapper to ring the steeple bell?
The church will not be in the middle of the cemetery, it will be along 69th street where a separate entrance will be made for access to it. The cemetery is really excited to be part of this.
and if you think about it, the church may already sit by a cemetery, of sorts, with Indian remains.
ps Still got my shovel & flashlight ready, Christina.
Why would you think it would take way more than $1M to dismantle and reassemble a simple structure and rehabilitate it?
Good point. To move (take apart and rebuild) the church and restore it would take perhaps $2-3 million.
Look how expensive it is to restore Bowne House.
It's got to be that pink bastard posting again.
When he's not busy screwing his constituents
or raping grandmas, he sits in his office and blogs
at our expense.
Dennis, your comments lack the usual "refinement"
that Parkside added in the past.
But I guess you stiffed them too.
And since you can no longer pay your bills,
they've obviously dropped you!
So now us poor readers have to deal with
adolescent level posts!
Bubba just told me that
he's still waiting in anticipation
of you becoming his cell mate!
Hotcha, hotcha ! Watch your back!
I photographically documented
the move of Latimer House.
St. Saviour's doesn't appear to be any taller.
Both are of frame construction
and it offers no major difficulty in moving.
It doesn't even cost 1M to build a new house. Moving an old one, via whatever method, certainly will not cost as much, especially when you have people lining up (architects, carpenters, builders, etc.) to volunteer with the project. The only reason to post nonsense about $3 million is to try to soften the blow when the public finds out that Gallagher lied about securing the money.
Latimer is a hell of a lot smaller than St Saviours.
Also, remember the church would be on private land, so most forms of public moneys would be cut off.
If you cannot raise $6 million, $3million (without the location which is half the point) would be tougher.
It's a small project compared to the Bowne house, where you have restoration of an existing building plus the construction of a new one.
Sounds like the cemetery would keep up the church, from reading their preservtion history on their website.
How would most forms of public moneys be cut off? The cemetery itself is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation and its Beautification and Restoration Program is also registered with the State of New York under section 501C3 of the Not for Profit Law.
Even if there is no money at this time for restoration, the church needs to be moved now. How many historic buildings have been preserved and mothballed but later have sprung to life at the right time after citizens and the government raised the money? You can't restore it if it's laying in pieces in a landfill. Move the church now, seal it up, worry about the restoration later. The 1.15M on hand will go far if services are donated, and they certainly will be considering the importance of the architect and the fact that blue collar people tend to donate labor rather than money.
Gallagher is balking because he never had the money. He's scrambling.
All Faiths is a not-for-profit and could lease the land to the city for $1 a year. That takes away your argument Pinkyboy.
Dennis Gallagher is a liar (what else is new), he never had the money to begin with, now he got caught, again.
The firm that moved Latimer House
(located somewhere out in Blue Point Long Island)
successfully moved a big stone church!
You don't know what the f--k you're talking about.
A stone church is a lot bigger and heavier
than St. Saviour's ....uh....is it C.M. Gallagher
that's posting this inflamatory dribble?
There is also capital money for the restoration of the church from Senator Maltese and Assemblyman Hevesi.
the church can be moved at an affordable cost, so long as the city doesn’t get involved and start handing out lush contracts. To prevent this, residents should demand a cost breakdown of all labor involved and call the city on anything extravagant or excessive, e.g. a concrete walkway being built up to the church so politicians won't get their shoes muddy when going up to officiate the move.
In honor of Valentine's Day, express your love for your community and this local & national icon. Let's all work together, and "Love thy neighbor as thy self." If you think of it, every day is V-Day, and the world would be a much better place.
I think it can be moved intact. The developers should be pleased that we're willing to save them the cost of demolition.
Never trust this foreign developer.
He's a goniff (thief) with chutzpah ("balls") to spare!
Keep a watchful eye on everything and everybody,
from Mas Fed Bank, all the way down the line !
A little historical note:
The "Tisdale House"
was a huge Mansard roofed post Civil War
Victorian mansion right off Main St. on Maple Ave. in downtown Flushing.
It was scheduled to be moved nearby
to the Queens Botanical Garden
back in about 1984 or 85.
(This was officially sanctioned by Borough Hall).
The builder who owned it, Richard Fiorenze
(who supposedly supported this proposed move)
screwed the community at the last minute
and mercilessly demolished it.
A successful move,
just like any baseball game,
"AIN'T OVER 'TILL IT'S OVER" !
At this point, I am waiting when someone has enough balls at HDC to strip Pinky of his preservation award.
I think all of us should tip our hats to the grassroots efforts at trying to save this church.
St Saviours is a perfect example of how preservation in this city has lost its way, how the law has become all but worthless and should be replaced.
Special mention to Bob and Christina.
We all should have a Bob and Christina in our community.
(PS - no , I don't even live in central Queens)
you are all worrying about the building itself, but what about the land? I live nearby and Idont want to see another dirty warehouse around...
There's a plan to save the land as well. I just cannot reveal what that is right now.
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