Christ Church Complex

Picturesquely sited on a wide expanse of lawn, the Christ Church complex, with its church, parish house, rectory, and cloisters, is an outstanding and on Staten Island rare example of turn-of-the-20th-century neo-Gothic ecclesiastical design. Designed by the Philadelphia architect Isaac Pursell, a noted specialist in church and institutional design and apparently his only known works in New York City, the church, parish house, and connecting cloister are modeled on English country parish architecture of the late Gothic period.

The church is also distinguished by its unusually rich stained and opalescent glass windows including works by Tiffany Studios, J. & R. Lamb Studios, Nicola D’Ascenzo, and the Gorham Company. The two-story rectory, originally erected in 1879 to the designs of noted New York church architect Henry M. Congdon (1834- 1922) was remodeled by Staten Island architect William H. Mersereau (1882-1933), in 1909. The three unusually intact buildings are joined by covered walkways or cloisters reflecting the trend among neo-Gothic architects to employ cloisters to arrange churches, rectories, and parishes around a quiet landscaped courtyard reminiscent of a medieval church close.

STATUS Designated Individual Landmark

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City Lore, Folklorist
Bronx Music Heritage Center, Co-Artistic Director

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