On to the Afterlife for Green Church
Looks like it’s curtains for the 109-year-old Green Church in Bay Ridge, which preservationists had been pulling for all summer. The DOB approved demolition permits on Friday, and work will begin to remove the roof and tower. In July, a permit for a seven-story, 72-unit new building was filed. That one, however, is still not…
Looks like it’s curtains for the 109-year-old Green Church in Bay Ridge, which preservationists had been pulling for all summer. The DOB approved demolition permits on Friday, and work will begin to remove the roof and tower. In July, a permit for a seven-story, 72-unit new building was filed. That one, however, is still not approved.
Final Prayers for the Green Church? [Brownstoner]
Deconstruction of Green Church. Photo by cbder.
Clearly a deal with the devil.
No one is questioning the fact that the congregation couldn’t/wouldn’t pay to restore the building.
One of the options refused by the congregation would have:
1) paid them the 9.75M (same as they have now),
2) reserved them part of the property to build a new church (same as they have now) and
3) preserved the building, constructing ‘affordable’ housing (as opposed to demolishing the building and constructing 72 units of ‘market’ priced housing as with the deal that they currently have).
The one request of the congregation for this to have played out was a request that the congregation delay demolition for about 90 days so that the developer could confirm that he could get his funding in place for the affordable part of the project from state and federal authorities (in light of the current real estate and economic situation).
As I had said earlier, the congregation did/does not care about the community or the historic value of the building. They have a deal that already gives them what they want. It would appear that their attitude is: ‘why should we delay 90 days to save a building when we already have what we want.’
It’s the stone. That serpentine stone is seriously deteriorated and would have cost millions to replace or repair. The church just didn’t have the cash.
Steve –
the serpentine stone is only a facade, a curtain wall. It is not load bearing. The church is a brick building. This is not unlike the limestone in yours or the brownstone in mine.
The Rev Emerick did his best to try to convince everyone that the building was literally falling apart.
That being said, serpentine is a very poor building material for external use. It spalls much worse and faster than many other sandstones. This is the reason that you don’t see many buildings standing today constructed with that material. The rarity of this type of construction remaining in our city is percisely the reason why it should have been preserved.
The shame of this situation is two fold: 1) that the congregation was much more interested in every last buck that they could squeeze rather than working with the community to find a situation that world work for everyone.
AND 2) the community in Bay Ridge is not yet preservation minded. Not enough people were even willing to say “This building should be saved, I hope we can find a solution that will work for everyone.”
I feel that at least half of this loss must be blamed on the complacent citizens of Bay Ridge.
As I understand it, the Green Church is actually more of a co-op owned by a handful of parishioners, which is all that’s left of the congregation. They will all share in the proceeds of the sale. Their interest was #1: the money and #2: a smaller church on the property for themselves.
As beautiful as the church is, it desperately needed millions of dollars in restorations because it was literally falling apart. One analysis I read cast doubt on whether it could even be repaired given the ravages of time and the elements on the serpentine stone.
I’d be interested to know why they rejected the other offers. I know some members of the congregation, who initially approved the sale of the church, but are not happy with the proceedings.
The pastor will have to live with his decision for the rest of his life and be know as the priest who killed the green church. I don’t know anyone who didn’t want to see this saved.
I thought the following article in the Eagle summarized nicely the deals that were proposed to save the church:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=23232
Also, ‘Olde Good Things’ was there carting off truck loads full of things. So, if you’re looking for a church pew or the stained glass windows…
I have tears in my eyes.