Most Holy Redeemer Church: The Architecture
Once soaring 250 feet high, the steeple of the church of the Most Holy Redeemer has defined Alphabet City’s skyline for nearly 200 years. Picture this spire, the equivalent of a 20–25 story building, in the mid-1800s (as in the image above), when no other structure would have come close to reaching its height in the East Village or anywhere nearby.
The spire of Trinity Church on Wall Street, completed just a few years prior to that of Most Holy Redeemer, reaches 281 feet, and had the distinction of being the tallest structure in New York City until 1890, when the New York World Building, also in today’s Financial District, overtook it. In the years that followed, innovations in steel frame construction led to the city’s first skyscrapers, and our skyline grew from there. But during the mid-to-late 1800s, church spires were the loftiest features puncturing the cityscape, seemingly reaching for the heavens — and Most Holy Redeemer was one of the most recognizable and prominent examples.
Though its tower was marginally lowered to 232 feet in 1913 — still a formidable height in a neighborhood of predominantly four-to-six story row houses, tenements, and modest apartment buildings — the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer remains a prominent landmark of the East Village, still visible from numerous vantage points. The tower is a central feature of the church building, with clock faces on all three visible sides, topped by a copper-domed belfry and gold cross.
The church was originally designed in the Byzantine Revival style with red brick facades. A three-story rectory to its east was connected to the nave via an enclosed one-story gallery. The symmetrical primary facade was divided into thirds by four prominent pilasters, with a wide, deeply recessed central entrance flanked by two nearly identical, but narrower, entryways. The building’s highly ornate facade often led to it being classified as a cathedral rather than a parish church. When it first opened, The Evening World described the church as “the most imposing edifice of its kind in the country,” and “a magnificent monument of ecclesiastical architecture.”
Minor interior alterations to the main church building occurred in 1884 when Father Andrew Ziegler, the newly appointed pastor, added new marble flooring, altars, and a communion railing to the already ornate sanctuary, which featured original intricate stonework, statuary, and stained glass crafted by German artisans.
In 1913, architect Paul Schultz was commissioned to modernize the church and rectory. He resurfaced the exterior facades with granite and Indiana limestone, which is as it appears today. The configuration of the primary facade of the church, including its three prominent round-arched entrances, was retained, and elaborate Romanesque Revival-style architectural details were added. The rectory was extended to four stories tall, and its primary facade and that of the gallery connector were faced with rough-hewn granite. Paired, arched windows at both the gallery and rectory were enframed in smooth limestone that matches the finish of the main facades of the church, introducing visual continuity across the buildings. The resulting somewhat eclectic design of the church, as we see it today, is a mix of the original Baroque Romanesque design and the Byzantine Revival-style features dating to this early 1900s renovation.
Above the doorways, double-height masonry openings, similarly recessed and with semicircular arches that mirror those of the grand first floor entrances, feature paired, arched stained glass windows set between slim Corinthian columns. The center opening is topped with a rose window, while the two side openings feature simpler circular windows above their arched stained glass. It is believed that at least some of the stained glass, found in abundance throughout the building, was imported directly from Germany.
Most Holy Redeemer’s religious and cultural history rivals its architectural and visual prominence, all contributing to the value of the building and its deservingness to become an individual NYC landmark. Join our campaign to save the building and secure its landmark designation, and stay tuned for part two of this blog series, where we’ll delve into the layers of cultural heritage present here. You can also read more details about the building and its significance in our Request for Evaluation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and by attending our October 20 lecture (or subsequently, watching the recording) on the subject — click here for details.