Saints Kiril and Methodi Diocesan Cathedral (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / West 50th Street, 552

3-story Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox church completed in 1899 as a Lutheran church. In 1909, the church was rented by a Polish Catholic parish until their new building, then under construction, was completed in 1913. That same year, another Catholic parish - this one founded in Manhattan by Croatian Franciscan friars to serve Croatian immigrants - rented the church. By 1914 they were able to purchase the building, dedicating it to Saints Cyril and Methodius, ninth century Greek brothers recognized as saints by the Catholic Church in 1881. After 60 years, the Croatian congregation moved into the grander St. Raphael's Church at 502 West 41st Street in 1974, forming the merged parishes of Sts. Cyril & Methodius and St. Raphael, after which the 50th Street building stood empty for several years. In 1979 it was purchased by the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church, which retained the dedication to the Slavic patron saint, changing only the spelling.

The facade is clad in pale yellow-beige brick. Two slightly-projecting brick piers organize the facade into three bays. At the ground floor the center bay has a pointed-arch with wooden double-doors below a wood-framed stained-glass panel. The east bay has a paneled wooden door with a transom, and the west bay has a brown metal service door; both doorways are topped by grey stone drip moldings. Four grey stone medallions top the ground floor, two at the center bay, and slightly larger ones at the outer bays.

The 2nd-3rd floors at the center bay have a large, pointed-arch stained-glass window topped by a vertical niche. The outer bays have smaller pointed-arch windows at the 2nd floor, and square-headed windows at the 3rd floor, topped by drip moldings. The roof line has a stone coping, is stepped up at the very ends, and has a triangular gable in the center, from which rises a square brick tower with a copper steeple and a cross at the apex.
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Coordinates:   40°45'55"N   73°59'39"W
This article was last modified 4 years ago