St. Michael's Church

 church, rectory, Roman Catholic church, 1907_construction

Romanesque-style Roman Catholic church completed in 1907. Designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, it includes a church, school, convent, and rectory. Salvaged from the church's previous building on 32nd Street were the altar, organ, stained glass windows, and portions of the limestone facade. The church and rectory front 34th Street, while behind them, a school, convent, and vestry front on West 33rd Street.

The through-block church is a limestone Romanesque-revival structure. The primary façade fronts on West 34th Street and is faced in rough ashlar stone. The ground floor has five round-arches framed by engaged Corinthian columns; the middle three are grouped together and project slightly forward. All five have red wooden paneled double-doors and stained-glass fanlights. A wide set of low steps fronts the three middle bays and the one to the east; the westernmost bay's doors are set lower, with a stained-glass transom below the fanlight since the steps end before this bay. There is one other bay at the east end, with another set of doors at ground level, with a stained-glass transom. There is a small, carved stone panel above the doorway, with an angel, a dragon, and the date 1857, when the congregation was founded.

At the upper levels of the middle section, still slightly projecting, there are three bays of paired stained-glass windows framed by thinner engaged colonnettes with stylized capitals; those on the 3rd level are round-arched and grouped under larger arches. The stone piers at the end become groups of four colonnettes at the upper part, framing the base of the large gable that tops the north facade. The gable has a round window with a quatrefoil design, and the upper edges are lined with small dentils. At the 2nd floor, the wings to either side of the middle section have a triple-window with the same colonnettes seen at the middle bays; these bays are topped by steep-sloped shingle roofs. The extra bay at the east end has a round-arched single-window below a drip molding, and is topped by a small gable fronting the eastern shingle roof.

The church’s south façade is faced in smooth limestone blocks, and its defining features are a blind arched window in the center (below an elaborate drip molding) and two pinnacled turrets framing the gable. There are three low, square basement windows with iron grates, and a subtle band course capping the basement level. The 1st floor has a round-arched single-window flanked by round-arched paired windows that are separated by a colonnette; each has a drip molding above with decorative brackets. At the base of the main gable near the top is an arcade of small arches and brackets, surmounted by multiple rows of dentils and a colonnade. The gable has a central round window, and is topped by a small cross.

The 5-story rectory is adjacent to the west of the church at 424 West 34th Street, clad in red brick above a limestone base. It exhibits a unique mixture of Gothic and Romanesque-revival elements that include a corbelled archivolt over the entrance arch. The round-arched entry has wooden double-doors and a stained-glass fanlight, framed by an elaborately carved, rounded surround. The doorway is approached by a dog-legged stoop winding down and to the left, with stone sidewalls with a pattern of open squares. To either side the 1st floor a bay of large paired windows with iron grilles, and there are corresponding basement windows; the basement areaways are enclosed by iron fencing. The ground floor is capped by a band of multiple rows of dentils, stepping up at the center around the arch.

The 2nd floor has triple-windows with limestone colonnette mullions and architraves with hood-moldings and carved label stops, and a single-window in the middle. The 3rd floor is similar, but with paired windows in the outer bays. The 4th floor has paired windows around a single-window, but without ornament. The steep-sloped shingle mansard at the 5th floor is set off by a stone cornice with ornamental modillions and multiple rows of small dentils. It has three limestone, gabled dormer windows - a double-window in the center, and single-windows at the ends.

On West 33rd Street, the vestry (409 West 33rd Street), the convent (417 West 33rd Street), and the school (421-429 West 33rd Street, but owned separately and described in a separate entry) exhibit the same mix of Gothic and Romanesque-revival details as the rectory. All three are brick with limestone bases, window architraves, and corbelled cornices, and they all have copper dormer windows. Details of the 3-story brick vestry include a large limestone, peaked-roof porch with an arched entrance capped by a corbelled archivolt resting on colonnettes. Large wooden double-doors are recessed within the porch. To the left is a single-window with an iron grille, and above it is a paired window in a limestone surround, with upper transom panes. The next floor has a matching window, while on the right is a similar triple-window. A steep-sloped dormer is set off by a cornice like that seen on the rectory. The mansard has two copper dormer windows with trefoil tracery in the gables.

The 5-story convent to the west of the church is five bays wide. The tall limestone ground floor has a short, grey stoop (with black metal handrails) crossing the basement areaway, leading to an entrance with black paneled wooden double-doors set in a recessed, beveled surround with rounded corners. There is a single-window to either side, with basement windows below. The eastern two bays have shorter single-windows, with a black wooden secondary door below the first one, and an iron gate below the end bay. A statue of Jesus is placed on the sidewalk between these two bays, with an inscription carved on the stone pier behind and above it. The brick upper floors have stone quoins around the windows. The 2nd floor has a tripartite oriel window in the center bay; the other bays on this floor have single-windows with upper transom panes, and there are drip moldings above each window. The 3rd & 4th floors have shorter single-windows in each bay. The 5th-floor mansard is set off by a modillioned stone cornice, and has five flat-topped copper dormers.