Saint John’s Church

STATUS Designated Individual Landmark

1331 Bay Street

CLIENT: Protestant Episcopal Church

ARCHITECT: Arthur D. Gilman

DATE: 1869-71

STYLE: Victorian Gothic

Church Clifton Staten Island Victorian Gothic

St. John’s Church was built in 1869-71 and designed by the prominent architect, Arthur D. Gilman, best known in New York City for his work on the old Equitable Life Assurance Building which formerly stood at 20 Broad Street.

In its style and setting, this charming Church is reminiscent of an English parish church; its prototype is said to have been Holy Trinity, a medieval church, in Stratford-on-Avon, but its detail is Victorian Gothic. This handsome rose-colored granite building is dominated by a tower surmounted by a high spire above the crossing. The spire has always been a prominent landmark for ships coming through the Narrows along the shore of Staten Island, and the church bells tolled a welcome to troopships returning from Europe after World War I.

STATUS Designated Individual Landmark

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Fern Luskin: Lamartine Place Historic District; Friends of Lamartine Place & Gibbons Underground Railroad Site

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Zella Jones: NoHo Historic District; NoHo East; and NoHo Extension

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Erika Petersen: West End Preservation Society

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

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