Building of the Day: 138 Bleeker Street

The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.

Address: 138 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Central Avenue
Name: St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1907-10
Architectural Style: Spanish Baroque
Architects: Helmle and Huberty
Landmarked: No

This is an amazing church. It towers above the neighborhood, and coming up on it reminds me of discovering one of the Baroque churches hidden on back streets in Rome or Madrid. The AIA Guide calls the towers edible wedding cake. Yeah, it’s over the top, but that’s the definition of Baroque, and it’s SO well done.

The interior of this church is more impressive than the exterior. The photos only begin to show how the Baroque style was translated so well into a 20th-century church.

St. Barbara’s was built for the German Catholic population of Bushwick, and is named for the daughter of one of its largest patrons, brewer Leopold Epping. Over the years the congregation changed from German, to Italian, to Hispanic, and has endured through this neighborhood’s recent rocky history.

The firm of Helmle and Huberty were experts in re-interpretations of Classical and other historic European forms. Frank Helmle, who was educated at Cooper Union, and then worked for a time at McKim, Mead, and White, was a superb architect. He an Ulrich Huberty also designed St. Gregory the Great Church in Crown Heights North, also an impressive Catholic church.

They were also responsible for the Hotel Bossert in the Heights, as well as the Greenpoint Savings Bank, and the Boathouse and Tennis House in Prospect Park, among many other important buildings. This building should be landmarked.