Mount Pleasant Residences

 condominium, interesting place

7-story Romanesque-revival residential building completed in 1893 as a church. Designed by John F. Capen, it was originally the Church of the Eternal Hope, and later became the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. Originally built for the Third Universalist Society in 1892-93, one of six Universalist Societies founded in New York between 1794 and 1852. They ceased worshiping in the church in 1908 and since then the building has changed owners and tenants several times.

The front facade is clad in buff-colored brick and white marble, with rough-faced limestone at the base. The lower part is symmetrical, with a service entrance at each end and a gated opening in the middle. White marble sidewalls for sideways-facing staircases descend from the top of the ground floor to this center opening, behind which is s set of red wooden double-doors. THere is a small, round oculus window below both of the diagonal marble sidewalls. The ends of both sidewalls have a marble column, at the tops of which spring three round-arches spanning the recessed area at the center of the lower facade. Above these is a short, red tile roof sloping back toward the upper part of the middle facade. Here there is a row of five narrow round-arched windows with rough-faced stone surrounds set in the brick. At the top is a large round window with a stone surround and a large gable crowning the composition.

On either side of the center section is a projecting, square, brick tower, above the service entrances at the ends. Both towers have a large round-arched window at the 2nd floor, and smaller, paired round-arched windows at the 3rd, each with a rough-faced stone surround. The west tower ends at this level, capped by a steep-sloped pyramidal roof of red tile above a copper band course and stone modillions. The east tower has the same pyramidal roof, but one level higher, above a 4th floor with a trio of narrow round-arched windows. There is a single window on the inward-facing wall of both towers at the 3rd floor (as well as the 4th at the east tower).

The rear facade, where the additional floors were added, has a modern glass wall. The back of the building has a separate church lobby and residential lobby. The upper addition is sloped away from the street on both sides, partially covered by the church façade. The sloping planes are faced in metal and terra-cotta rain screens in front of "ultra-clear 'star fire' glazing'" glass sloped walls. On top is a green roof.

In 2016, a 7-story addition designed by DXA Studio was constructed at the rear of the building containing seven residential condominiums; the congregation remains in the lower levels and sanctuary at the front. It was built for CMC Development Group with Ekstein In a somewhat rare hardship case for the city, instead of completely razing the church, the exterior was retained, an attempt to maintain the integrity of the block

www.landmarkwest.org/mount-pleasant-baptist-church-140-...
cmcdevelopmentnyc.com/portfolio-item/142-w-81st-street-...
dxastudio.com/project/mount-pleasant-church-conversion