Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava Restoration Site (New York City, New York) | church, movie / film / TV location, historic ruins

 church, movie / film / TV location, historic ruins

English Gothic-Revival style church constructed in 1850-55. Designed by noted architect Richard Upjohn, it was built as one of several uptown chapels of the Trinity Church parish, but was sold to the Serbian Eastern Orthodox parish in 1942, re-opening as the Cathedral of St. Sava in 1944.

The church complex includes the Trinity Chapel School, now the Cathedral's Parish House, which was built in 1860 and was designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, a polychromatic Victorian Gothic building which is Mould's only extant structure in New York City. Attached to the sanctuary itself is the Clergy House at 26 West 26th Street, which was built in 1866 and was designed by Richard Upjohn and his son Richard M. Upjohn.

The brownstone-clad church building is reinforced with large buttresses which give it both durability and permanence. The lofty nave is expressed in the steep pitched slate roof and the sharp, angular gable of the south elevation facing 25th Street. Centered in this gable wall is a large wheel window of impressive size. Directly below and flanked by buttresses, a bold and striking pointed-arch portal, accented with slender columns and graceful arches within its deep reveal, serves as the main entrance to the Cathedral. Three side entrances provide additional access to the nave. The sidewalls of the long nave are pierced by slender pointed-arch windows, nine on each side, and end in a spacious apse of seven bays, topped by an octagonal-shaped slate covered roof.

Gradual changes were made to the sanctuary to make it more Eastern Orthodox in style. A hand-carved oak iconostasis was added in 1962, and when a bomb went off nearby the church in 1973 (targeting the communist party's headquarters on 26th Street), destroying some of the stained-glass windows, they were replaced with new ones commissioned in Byzantine-style.

Adjacent to and contiguous with the chancel, the Clergy House completes the short leg of the L-shaped plan of the ensemble. It is picturesque and charming in character with a steep pitched pyramidal roof containing a superb triangular dormer window. A pair of leaded glass, pointed-arch windows pierce the center of the sturdy buttress-supported wall. Completing the ensemble is a fine entrance door topped by an arched molding and a pointed gable.

The Parish House to the east, separated from the church by about forty feet, is a beautiful example of the English Gothic style. Completed about five years later than the Cathedral, it is more flamboyant in character and style. The high pointed-arch leaded glass windows are truly distinctive and contain fine stone tracery. One distinctive feature is the open-arched belfry rising above the gable of the south elevation. Taken together, these buildings make a remarkably homogeneous group.

The exterior was used as a filming location for S1E14 of the USA Network series "White Collar as Neal is tazed as ransom trying to enter an underground nightclub. On May 1, 2016, the church caught fire which completely destroyed the interior and roof leaving only the exterior shell. As of 2021, it is being rebuilt.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/11/richard-upjohns-...
www.easterndiocese.org/stsavanyc
avsc.co/stsava/