Church of the City (New York City, New York)

 church, protestantism, Victorian Gothic (architecture), 1887_construction, historic landmark

4-story Victorian-Gothic church completed in 1887. Designed by Francis H. Kimball for the Catholic Apostolic Church, it features deep red bricks and abundant terra-cotta ornamentation, typical of Kimball's noted style. The Catholic Apostolic Church was an English group which believed in an imminent Second Coming.

The church has a complex shape due to its cruciform plan, with a square central tower crowned by a peaked roof at the front of the nave, flanked by low side (aisle) wings; a peaked-roof nave with a gable-dormered clerestory behind the tower; a peaked-roof transept with a gable-dormered clerestory; and a peaked-roof chancel. Built with masonry bearing walls and timber framing, the church is clad in red brick laid in running bond and extensive red terra-cotta ornament, above a rusticated brownstone base. The terra-cotta has a
combed texture.

The ground-floor level has two sets of paired arched windows, with squat columns having stylized floral capitals, capped by a string course with end corbels in the shape of heads. The tower is dominated by an elaborate central rose window, set above a winged lion and an eagle and placed within a molded, pointed-arched surround. The rose window surmounts an arcade of windows, with columns having stylized floral capitals and floral roundels, surmounting a setback covered with terra-cotta tiles. The arcade and setback are flanked by buttresses ornamented with gablets and terra-cotta-tiled steps. Flanking the rose window are plaques ornamented with angels (the western angel originally played a musical instrument (which has been removed); the eastern angel bears a censer) and chamfered comers. The gable of the tower, rising above a wide, molded band course that continues along both sides of the tower, is ornamented by a tripartite arcaded window group and, at the peak, floral diaperwork with a small blind arch. All windows are leaded glass. The tower has four polygonal comer turrets with blind arches and steeply peaked roofs covered with terra-cotta tiles. Original finials are missing. The ridge of the front gable is coped with terra-cotta with crockets and a Celtic-type cross. The ridge of the rear gable is coped with copper.

Each side wing has an entrance with a molded, pointed-arched surround springing from squat columns with stylized floral capitals; stone steps with historic wrought-iron railings and gates; double, paneled wooden doors with wooden tympanum ornamented with quatrefoils; and reveals ornamented with terra-cotta blocks with floral and cherub motifs. Each entrance is surmounted by a setback covered with terra-cotta tiles, in turn surmounted by a triple band of windows with leaded glass and a gableted buttress on the outer end. The shed roof of each wing is covered with red tile shingles and has a terra-cotta ridgecap.

The two gable dormers on the eastern and western facades of the nave, and the gable dormer at each end of the transept, have double arched windows capped by a quatrefoil. The areaway is bordered by an historic wrought-iron fence and gate. Stone steps at the west end lead to a basement entrance, which has a non-his toric metal door and awning.

In 1995, with the congregation dwindling, the church was donated to a Lutheran group, which rededicated it as the Church for All Nations. On April 26, 2015, the Church for All Nations held its last service. It is now Church of the City, a nondenominational Christian church.

www.church.nyc/
www.loopnet.com/Listing/417-W-57th-St-New-York-NY/17457...