Tuesday, January 22, 2008

St. Paul's Woodside may be demolished

Manuel's 30-member flock and two other congregations - which worship in an adjoining brick sanctuary that was spared damage by firefighters' efforts - are waiting for the Buildings Department to rescind a vacate order.

Church's future uncertain after blaze

Manuel said engineers have recommended that the wooden sanctuary be razed, but he and diocesan officials are awaiting an insurance estimate before making any decisions.

"We want to rebuild," he said, noting that the working-class congregation will soon begin a fund-raising drive.

7 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

"...surveying the destruction that unattended altar candles wrought upon the sanctuary..."

When a candle burns down to the bottom, it self-extinguishes, no? How does that start a fire? Or did the candles get affected by a blast of air while unattended? Just HOW DID this fire really start? Any forensic experts in pyrotechnique reading this?

Also, there have been some really nice old photos of St.Saviour's posted on this site. Any ancient views of St. Paul's that could be posted?

Queens Crapper said...

Sure, how about this?

St. Paul's 1932

georgetheatheist said...

Thanks Crapper!

What a beautiful building, no? It's history goes back to 1884. This photo is from 1932. There must be in somebody's attic an even older photo.

BTW thanks for posting the NYPL photo site! This is great one to surf through. Fantastic old photos for the readers.

I just printed out nicely on glossy paper - ready for framing - "Pastoral Scene At Winfield, On The Road From Long Island City To Flushing" (Check it out under "Woodside"): Moooooooo!

Queens Crapper said...

If you search the NYPL website, do so by street name and "Queens" otherwise you'll never find what you're looking for.

Anonymous said...

H-m-m-m.....
it seems that anything built on a human scale,
with humble piety must be razed.

Anyone with a heart
has no place in the envisioned New York 2030.......
where to be a money spending resident/robot
living in a box .....
is what our city fathers want of us.

Anonymous said...

My gr.gr. grandmother, Anna Maria (Kelly)(Terrett) Howell (1831-1882)donated the land and large stained glass window behind the altar. My extended family (Kelly, Howell,Terrett, Riker, Crandall) were the founding families of Woodside. Her family mansion was located at the present site of the St. Sebastian's parking lot next to the school.

Anonymous said...

I am happy no one was hurt. But the truth is the Episcopal Denomination has been spreading heresy and lies for decades. I'm thankful that people will be given pause before joining this denomination, and that hopefully the members of this congregation will consider joining more orthodox Anglican alternatives that are available (such as CANA, AMiA, and ACN).

It's a shame about the building, naturally, but the Episcopal Church spreads lies about Christ, peoples' sin and Salvation. The danger of what they do more than offsets the value of a building, no matter how historical.