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Saturday, April 30, 2011

St. Barthomolew Church

This was always traditionally THE Episcopalian high society church in Manhattan, at least in Midtown ( I remember now the Rockefellers built the Riverside Church on the Upper West Side later)...

Remember this church primarily for its old reputation for snootiness and also its attempt to sell its air rights for a skyscraper ( which I believe was never approved).

To quote Wikipedia again:

The current church was erected in 1916–17. The original freely handled and simplified Byzantine design by Bertram Goodhue was called "a jewel in a monumental setting" by Christine Smith in 1988. [6] Goodhue modified his design in response to the requirement that the old church portal, beloved by the parishioners, be preserved, with its bronze doors, from the Madison Avenue building and re-erected on the new site.

The foundation stone of Goodhue's original design, a vast, unified barrel-vaulted[7] space, without side aisles or chapels and with severely reduced transepts, was laid 1 May 1917[8] and the construction was sufficiently far along for the church to be consecrated in 1918; its design was altered during construction, after Goodhue's sudden, unexpected death in 1924, by his office associates, in partnership as Mayers, Murray and Philips; they were engaged in erecting the community house, continuing with the same materials, subtly variegated salmon and cream-colored bricks and creamy Indiana limestone; they designed the terrace that still provides the equivalent of a small square, surrounded by the cliff-like facades of Midtown commercial structures (illustration, upper right); in summer, supplied with umbrellas and tables, it becomes the outside dining area for the restaurant, Inside Park. They also inserted the "much discussed"[9] dome, tile-patterned on the exterior and with a polychrome Hispano-Moresque interior dome, which substituted for the spire that had been planned but never built.[10] Completed in 1930, the church contains stained-glass windows and mosaics by Hildreth Meiere, and a marble baptismal font by the Danish follower of Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen. St. Bartholomew's, completed by 1930 at a cost of $5,400,000,[11] is one of the city's landmarks. For long one of New York's wealthiest parishes, St. Bart's is known for a wide range of programs. It draws parishioners from all areas of New York City and surroundings.

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