St. Malachy's (The Actor's Chapel) (New York City, New York)

 church, chapel, Gothic revival (architecture), 1911_construction

French-Gothic -style Roman Catholic Church completed in 1911 (the basement sanctuary was built in 1904, designed by Joseph H. McGuire). Designed by Thomas J. Duff, the parish church has served the theater community in a special way since 1920, and its parishioners have included a large number of celebrities in the field of acting, such as Bob Hope and Gregory Peck.

The church features a modest 12-foot tall brick and limestone front façade. There is a central main entrance up a set of steps, with wide wooden double-doors under a rounded segmental-arch; the whole entrance is enclosed by a grand pointed-arch with Gothic tracery and an ornate, peaked gable on top, terminating in a finial. On either side, brick piers articulate the central tower. Above the entrance arch are five narrow, joined windows with arched tops; a stone cornice sets off the large, circular rose window above, filled with tracery and topped by a pointed-arch. To the sides of this arch, the piers take an engaged octagonal form and then transition to stone octagonal spires framing three central panels of small, round-arched triple-windows, and a crowning gable with a circular window with tracery, and a cross.

At the ground level, on either side of the main entrance is a secondary entrance with wooden double-doors set in a pointed-arch stone enframement; the top of the arch is filled with carved figures. A squared frame extends up from the ends of the arch, ornately carved, and terminates with three finials against the facade. There is a shorter pointed-arch on either side of the doors; the innermost having a triple-window of leaded glass, and the outermost having a single-door. The western of these has had the original wood door and stone surround replaced by a modern glass-and-metal door and framework. Carved angels fill the squared-off corner spaces above the shoulder of these arches. To the west there is a high-set, small pointed-arched window and another pointed-arch at the far end, filled-in with stone blocks and a metal service door. To the east there is a square-headed opening with an iron gate, set under a stone drip molding. Above and between this portal and the adjacent arch with its single-door is a modern-styled tripartite window with a stone surround. A stone band marks the top of the ground level.

Above this band, directly on either side of the center tower, the facade is set far back, and has round-arched triple-windows topped by bands of smaller, paired round-arches. These are surmounted by a sloped, slate roof with copper trim, with two small pyramidal roof projections. A pair of chimney rise up at the outer edges of these sloped roofs; the west one is freestanding, while the east one abuts the 5-story rectory at the east side.

The west end of the church has a round-arched triple-window in a quoined stone surround above the ground level, and slightly-projecting end piers. Above a stone cornice is a band of small, paired round-arches between the piers, which are capped by stone pinnacles. The band of arches is surmounted by a sloped slate roof. The rectory at the east end of the church has three floors above the base, each with three windows. This facade is framed by stone quoins and has quoined surrounds around the windows of the 3rd & 4th floors; the top floor is completely faced in stone and capped by a sloped slate roof with a pair of stone pyramidal projections.

www.actorschapel.org/