The Abbey Condominiums (New York City, New York)

 condominium, interesting place

103-foot, 6-story Romanesque-revival residential building originally completed in 1888 as St. George Memorial House, a gift from financier J.P. Morgan to the church to serve as its parish house. Designed by Leopold Eidlitz and Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, it was completed over 30 years after the St. George's Church & Rectory. The building has a romantic, picturesque quality complementing that of the earlier ecclesiastical buildings.

Its rich, dramatic quality is largely created through asymmetrical massing and the rough-hewn stones of the facade. Contributing to the asymmetry are the varied roof lines: a low, flat western wing, a steep gabled center section, and a turreted east tower terminating in a tall spire. The original main entrance, at the base of the tower, consists of a round-arched doorway with a prominent pointed-arch enframement flanked by buttresses and projecting up into the 2nd floor. The current main entrance is the western one, with green wood-and-glass double-doors below a transom of three small arched panes framed by diminutive green cast-iron colonnettes. Engaged brownstone pillars frame the doorway, with Gothic light fixtures on either side.

The fact that the adjoining former Pierce House (now a school) has been set far back on the lot permits a side as well as a frontal view of the tower section of the larger building. Each facade of the tower has a large single window at each floor. At the 2nd & 4th floors the windows are round-arched, trefoiled, and enframed by drip moldings on colonnettes, and at the 3rd floor the windows are square-headed and also flanked by colonnettes. The center section of the building, beneath the gable, contains windows at each story corresponding in shape to the adjacent window on the tower. At the ground floor the windows have segmental arches and ribbed enframements. At the 2nd floor in this section, there are two large round-arched, traceried windows containing leaded lights. The two upper floors have arcaded windows which echo the arcades between the turrets of the tower. Projecting band courses between the floors create strong, horizontal
accents.

While the church’s congregation merged with others in 1975, its former parish house found new life as a residential haven. It briefly served as a women’s residence in the 1960s before its eventual acquisition by Herbert W. Hirsch Enterprises in 1996, and transformation into The Abbey in 2005, with 32 condominium units.

www.abbeycondominium.com/