Congregation Center

USA / New Jersey / West New York / Madison Avenue, 460

4-story Neo-Gothic rectory completed in 1882, only a few years after the original dedication of the cathedral. Designed by James Renwick, Jr., who also designed the main church structure, it occupies the northeast corner of the site, and is also known as the parish house. Like the cathedral, it is clad in marble. The main entrance is on Madison Avenue, with paired iron gates up a set of steps, framed in a pointed-arch topped by a gable. The arch is flanked by buttresses topped by spires with finials, and a slightly higher finial crowns the gable in front of the center window on the 2nd floor. Flanking the entrance on the ground floor are paired arched windows with low basement windows below them. Buttresses at the corners recede into the facade at the top of the 1st floor.

The 2nd floor has two additional arched windows on either side of the center one, which is in a slightly recessed bay. This bay continues on the 3rd floor, with three smaller, pointed-arch windows. To the south are two separate pointed-arch windows, below a gable; to the north are paired pointed-arch windows below a matching gable; both gables have a single, narrower arched window at the 4th floor and are topped by finials. Between them, there is a peaked dormer at the 4th floor, breaking the steep slate roof, with a small arched window.

The narrower north facade on 51st Street is symmetrical, with tall windows at the ends of the 1st floor, above three basement windows and a door, fronted by an open basement areaway behind an iron fence. At the 2nd floor there is a tripartite arched window at the center, above a course of modillions, and arched single-windows at the ends. The center bay at the 3rd floor has paired windows, surmounted by a large gable, and flanked by arched single-windows at the end bays, topped by peaked dormers at the 4th floor, piercing the slate roof. The central gable has a single-window at the 4th floor. The south facade has a matching design to the north, and the west facade is very similar to the east, with the main difference being the triple-windows at the center of the 3rd floor replaced by paired windows.

On the north facade, facing the Lady Chapel, the 3rd floor has four bays: there are paired arched windows in the end bays, a small single window in the 2nd bay from the street, and two separate arched windows in the other middle bay. The west bay has a gable with a 4th-floor arched windows, while there are smaller peaked dormers piercing the slate roof at the east and 2nd-from-west bays, both with an arched window.

The Archbishop's Residence, at the southeast corner of the site, is very similar in design to the Congregation Center, with only a few major design differences.
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Coordinates:   40°45'30"N   73°58'31"W
This article was last modified 5 years ago