Christ Church United Methodist of New York City (New York City, New York)

 church, Romanesque (architecture), 1933_construction

6-story Romanesque and Byzantine-Revival church completed in 1933. Designed by Ralph Adams Cram with structural elements by the Guastavino Fireproof Tile Co., it was intended to look centuries old, with patched limestone and brick walls and pillars that look like they were salvaged from Roman temples. On the south and north facades the limestone on the ground floor displays subtle warm, orange, tan, and yellowish hues, with whiter stone at the edges, and the upper floors are clad in more colorful variegated orange and red stone, cobbled together in smaller pieces.

Most of the east facade on Park Avenue is symmetrical, with an extra section at the north end. The main entrance is the only opening at the ground floor. It has glass double-doors behind paneled wooden outer doors, atop three small granite steps. Two pairs of polished granite columns with limestone Corinthian capitals frame the doorway, the outer ones projected forward of the inner pair (the west column of each pair of dark-red granite, and the east column of each pair is grey). They carry a round-arch over the doors, with intricate and elaborately carved moldings. The archway over the doors is topped by a triangular pediment with a small niche on either side of the arch. Above the double-height entrance, the center section of the 3rd floor has an arcade of five narrow but tall round-arched stained-glass windows separated by slender pink granite colonnettes with stylized capitals, as the cladding shifts to smaller cobbled pieces of more colorful stone. At the 4th-5th levels is a large rose window of stained-glass with stone tracery in the form of 12 circles surrounding a central foil. The large, projecting piers on either side grow gradually narrower toward the top, and are bridged by a round arch over the rose window, which is recessed within the arch. Both piers have a former window opening at the top of the 4th floor, now filled by a stone panel with a chevron pattern, and a slightly smaller window at the 5th floor. The ends of the east facade, next to the projecting piers, have no openings, but there are signboards at the ground floor. Near the top, they transition banding with reddish stone, and then to reddish brick, also with banding. The corners are chamfered at the top of the 5th floor, and the entire 5th floor is topped by a dentiled stone cornice, with the end bays terminating here. The top floor has a recessed loggia fronted by six white stone columns with Corinthian capitals, supporting an arcade of seven small arches between the two large, projecting piers. The piers themselves are clad in plain limestone at this level, each with a rounded niche featuring a scalloped shell design at the top, and end in peaked pediments above carved wreaths. Spanning between them, above the loggia, is an egg-and-dart molding interrupted by a small shield above each column. The slightly-recessed north end bay of the east facade is similarly clad, transitioning from paler, large blocks of stone to smaller, more colorful ones and brick towards the top. It has a signboard at the ground level, and three narrow, round-arched windows spaced between floors above, with a small, round window at the 5th floor, where it sets back. It then rises up above the rest of the east facade as a corner tower, with a bay of paired, arched windows on each face, and angled, limestone corners, with a limestone band courses capping the tower.

Below, the north facade of the tower has three small round-arched windows, and then two levels of single-windows, two more levels of paired windows of the same size, and a secondary entrance at the ground floor, with recessed, paneled wooden double-doors in a limestone surround.

A 4-story north wing extends out from the north facade, clad in darker orange limestone and brick. It has another entrance that has paneled wooden double-doors flanked by small windows, all with a limestone surround in a tripartite configuration. Above the doors is a round-arch with a marble circle surrounded by foliate ornament. The upper floors have triple-windows, divided by thin 2-story columns at the 2nd-3rd floors. The columns have Corinthian capitals and the windows are topped by round-arches at the 3rd floor. Beige stone quoins line the north edge of the facade, and the 4th floor is topped by a stone coping.

The south facade of the church on 60th Street has a service entrance at the west end, with black iron double-gates in a beige limestone bay. The surround and arch on top (with a marble circle) matches the one on the north wing. The east end has a secondary entrance with a paneled wooden door atop a small set of four steps, below a round-arch with a cross surrounded by foliate ornament. To the right is a small window in a round-arched bay of the same size. There are no other openings on the ground floor. The 2nd-4th floors have narrow, arched single-windows at the west end (with a square-headed window at the 5th floor), with the rest of the facade organized into four large, recessed arches between the piers. The western three have pairs of narrow, double-height stained-glass windows at the 2nd-3rd floors, and one such slightly-shorter window (to allow the arches below) in the east bay. A band of triangles in various colored marble runs across the shoulders of these windows, interrupted by the thick piers. The 4th floor within each of the four arches has a centered, round-arched stained-glass window resting on a sill course. The edges of the arches are banded, and the piers are adorned between the 3rd & 4th floors with panels with chevron patterns in grey and white marble, and by marble roundels at the 5th floor, higher than the arches. The west end bay rises to a 6th floor with a peaked roof. The rest of the facade has four arcades of four round-arches, split into pairs by small brick piers, with each pair divided by stone colonnettes. These are recessed behind a balustrade.

Church services began in 1933 but financial impacts of the Great Depression and shortages of World War II prevented the mosaics planned for the interior from being executed until 1948-49. In addition to its operation as a church, Christ Church has operated an early childhood day school since 1949. The church previously used the address of 520 Park Avenue, but when it sold air rights to a new tower being built two lots away on East 60th Street, it also lent its address to be used by the new tower, and instead the church now officially is located at 524 Park Avenue.

In 2019, the church was restored by EverGreene Architectural Arts with Thomas A. Fenniman Architect.

www.christchurchnyc.online/
evergreene.com/projects/christ-church-united-methodist/