From the NY Post:Neighbors and parishioners of an East Village church are steaming mad over a developer’s plans to demolish the 96-year-old building for market-rate apartments — and it’s just one of many historic holy houses in need of divine intervention.
Douglas Steiner, head of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Steiner Studios, bought Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street for $41 million in November. Now he has permits to raze the sacred site, which includes a rectory, school and parking lot, for residential property with ground-floor retail.
But preservationists say the Roman Catholic church can be saved.
“This is heartbreaking,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “We hope [Steiner] can see the light and realize it’s advantageous to use something that’s special rather than demolishing it for something that’s a dime a dozen.”
Also likely condemned to the wrecking ball is the 140-year-old St. Vincent de Paul on West 23rd Street in Chelsea.
In Soho, the century-old Our Lady of Vilnius is on the market for $13 million — more than a year after parishioners lost a lawsuit against the Archdiocese to stop the Romanesque Revival church’s demolition.
Meanwhile, Harlem residents are bristling at the partial demolition of St. Thomas the Apostle, a 106-year-old Roman Catholic parish on West 118th Street. The Gothic Revival church was first established for Irish immigrants.
I'm also told that Brooklyn's historic St Peter's Lutheran Church and Sunday School on Bedford Ave near Dekalb Ave. is being demolished. Maspeth Jewish Center is rumored to be on its last leg as well.
While it is true that American society as a whole has become less religious over the years causing drops in attendance, a lot of the local abandonment also has to do with displacing communities of people via forced gentrification and redlining. Religious properties are generally large and therefore are "soft targets" for development. The City, at least under this regime, likes it when they are torn down and replaced with condos because it gets them on the tax rolls (in 25 or 30 years when the exemptions expire). What the community gets is more overcrowding and strain on government services. And a boring architectural landscape.
17 comments:
What's happening on the St. Saviour's front?
In a city where greedy new comers worship the "Almighty Buck"...religion is fast fading...unless we convert these historic houses of worship into counting houses.
RE St. Saviour's:
Ask the termites, George.
Until the Liz Crowleys and the Marge Markeys of the city, are packed (like St. Saviour's into crates) it will sit there...poor little church.
Life in Queens can really suck sometimes!
Unfortunately, Maspeth is one of those places that's been written off (by Bloomberg and city planning)...so there goes St. Saviour's Park too.
Maybe with Tony Avella as our next borough president things will change for the far better!
Go Tony, go!
Maspeth Jewish Center has been on "its last legs" for quite a few years. Are its leaders even trying to attract new congregants? There's no information anywhere online on this shul nor does anyone pick up its phone.
If churches and shuls wish to remain alive, they must make more of an effort to attract people.
What are you talkin' about? Religion is alive and well in North Flushing. Loads of "houses" of worship on every block! Tax-free real estate is in abundance.
As a practicing catholic, I hate to see these churches disappear.
But you can't blame Steiner for planning to demolish this church.
The Catholic Dioceese of NY put the church up for sale...and Steiner bought it. He can do with it whatever he wants.
Period. End of story.
I'm sure the reason the church was sold in the first place is because it's empty on Sundays. The weekly collections don't generate enough revenue to cover the cost of operating the church.
As far as the Catholic leaders goes, these churches are just real estate and money. Don't ever think that they care. Your a fool to think they care what you think.
Uh buddy...there are relatively few houses of worship in north Flushing. I think you mean downtown Flushing.
Get your facts straight. Get a new pair of eyeglasses.
Anonymous said...
Uh buddy...there are relatively few houses of worship in north Flushing. I think you mean downtown Flushing.
Get your facts straight. Get a new pair of eyeglasses.
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Uh schmuck...have been on Bayside Avenue, 32 Avenue, 33rd Avenue east of Union Street recently? Get your own eyes checked. Many houses in the nabe are churches. Think before you speak!
Oh, I dunno...Morgan Chase is where I do my worshipping.
Uh, schmuck...that's part of downtown Flushing
The northeast begins east of 154th Street.
The Parsons Boulevard nabe is church row or the new religious midway, if you prefer.
There ate very few churches in Broadway-Flushing the last time that I strolled along the avenues.
So stop trying to play us, fella. I repeat...take a walk and adjust your ocular prescription.
The problems you've got on the western shore... where you hail from, I suspect...ain't our worry.
Stop trying to alarm and co-opt northeastern Queensites into your western territorial problems.
We know who you are. You never show up to help us and we, likewise, return the favor.
Now buzz off and sell your tabloid newspapers to the more poorly informed paranoids.
if you're jealous of the better life out here, THEN MOVE!
"There ate very few churches in Broadway-Flushing the last time that I strolled along the avenues."
Forget about your eyes, you need to have your reading comprehension checked. The other commenter is talking about an area north of downtown Flushing and just to the east of the Mitchell-Linden community where I've lived for over 60 years. "Bayside Avenue, 32 Avenue, 33rd Avenue east of Union Street"
I walk through the area being discussed and I see new large-scale religious development, especially around 32nd Avenue and Parsons Boulevard.
However, many private homes have small signs indiciating that it's a house of worship. Many signs are not in English except the word "church" or "temple". However, I'm not basing this comment on my observations.
I attended a CB#7 Community Board general meeting a few years ago. This topic was on the floor. A gentleman displayed maps of the community just east of Mitchell-Linden. The areas on the map that were in red were properties that no longer were on tax rolls. Over a 10 year period, the red areas expanded significantly!!!
Besides the many houses of worship, I also see the rise in private schools in private homes in this neighborhood which would also be a reason for the expansion of the "red zone." The bottom line is that the greater the areas of tax-free property, the greater the burden for homeowners in other areas of the county and city.
Very sad. I hope Maspeth JC can be saved.
Nothing's wrong
with my reading comprehension, fella.
Somebody's in denial here.
Like it or not...that area you refer to is, in reality, linked to DOWNTOWN FLUSHING!
Maybe you're long overdue for a move...or a splash of cold water on your face, to wake you up to reality.
"Like it or not...that area you refer to is, in reality, linked to DOWNTOWN FLUSHING!"
You are daft!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a map of downtown Flushing. Please point out the Mitchell-Linden community.
http://www.flushingbid.com/docs/mpa-inside.pdf
Can't do it, can you???
You are daft!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a map of downtown Flushing. Please point out the Mitchell-Linden community.
http://www.flushingbid.com/docs/mpa-inside.pdf
Can't do it, can you???
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Hey bud! You're arguing with someone who's delusional. You'll never win.
But yet in bayside, these damn Asians just keep building churches....we all know that their churches aren't churches at all, they are financial institutions for their own people....all they do is buy real estate, not pay taxes on it and collect rent from the 4 families they stick in those houses! The govt should be cracking down on churches buying property and not paying taxes on that property! I think its time we tax the churches!
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