Coordinates: 40°44′21″N 73°59′13″W / 40.739030°N 73.987000°W
Calvary Church, an Episcopal church located at 273 Park Avenue South on the corner of East 21st Street in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the border of the Flatiron District, It was designed by James Renwick, Jr., the architect who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral and Grace Church, and was completed in 1848. The church complex is located within the Gramercy Park Historic District and Extension. It is one of the two sanctuaries of the Calvary-St. George's Parish.
History
The Calvary Church parish was founded in 1832, and initially used a wooden-frame church on what was then Fourth Avenue – which has since become Park Avenue – uptown of its current site. That building was moved to the current location in 1842, and the new Renwick-designed Gothic Revival sanctuary was completed in 1848. Renwick patterned Calvary after twin-towered French cathedrals, but, unlike Grace Church, Calvary was constructed of brownstone. The church's two wooden spires were removed in the early 20th century because of deterioration.
The church complex also includes the "Renwick Gem", a small building to the north of the church which was built as a theatre but used for that purpose only for a short time, and the nine-story Calvary House, east of the church on Gramercy Park North (East 21st Street), also designed by Renwick, and built in 1867.
The family of Theodore Roosevelt lived two blocks away from Calvary Church from 1854 to 1872 – Roosevelt was born in their house in 1858, and Calvary was the church the family belonged to. Other congregants included members of the Astor and Vanderbilt families.
The church enjoys a close historical association with the Washington National Cathedral. In 1896, the rector of Calvary, Henry Yates Satterlee, was consecrated the first Episcopal Bishop of Washington in a ceremony in Calvary Church. Satterlee was instrumental in procuring Mount Saint Alban as the site for the Cathedral, and he laid the Cathedral’s main cornerstone in 1907. The parishioners of Calvary donated the church’s baptismal font to the new cathedral, and it is located in the Bethlehem Chapel.
Calvary has a strong connection to Alcoholics Anonymous: when the Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker was the minister there, from 1928 to 1952, Calvary House was the American center of the Oxford Group, from which came some of A.A.'s major underlying ideas. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of the twelve-step group, wrote: "It is through Sam Shoemaker that most of A.A.'s spiritual principles have come. Sam is one of the great channels, one of the prime sources of influences that have gathered themselves into what is now A.A."
In 1976, facing financial difficulty, Calvary parish merged with the nearby parishes of St. George's Church and the Church of the Holy Communion. The Holy Communion buildings were deconsecrated and sold to pay down the debts of the new combined parish, eventually becoming the Limelight disco, and the remaining two churches continued to operate as Calvary-St. George's Parish. Calvary House is now rented out as offices.
Notable people
Notable clergymen, parishioners, and others associated with Calvary Church have included:
See also
References
- Notes
External links
Retrieved from :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvary_Church_(Manhattan)
