NEWS: St. Saviors Advocates file suit to save church
From the Queens Chronicle: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16657790&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=574907&rfi=6
by Rick Archer , [email protected]
A group of civic organizations will be going before a judge later this month to argue against the demolition of a former Maspeth church. The groups have also secured a restraining order preventing developers from doing further work to tear down the former St. Savior’s Church until the hearing.
“It’s a big win for the neighborhood,” said Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association in Middle Village, one of the parties to the suit. On Monday, the association, the West Maspeth Local Development Corp., former St. Savior’s parishioners and nearby property owners filed their suit in Queens Supreme Court. The development corporation’s involvement comes because Frank Principe, its founder and father of its current president, Lee, has been a longtime supporter of preserving the church, Holden said. The suit seeks to prevent Maspeth Development, the owners of the 57th Street property, from going forward with plans to demolish the 150 year old church and replace it with housing. The church was formerly occupied by the San Sung Korean Methodist Church of New York, which owned the church from 1997 until it sold it to Maspeth Development last October. Before that, it was an Episcopal church, founded in 1847 at a time when Maspeth was still a rural suburb of New York City. A dwindling congregation led the parish to close in 1995. The Juniper Park Civic Association sought landmark protection for the property, but was turned down by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which said repairs after a 1970 fire made the church ineligible. Maspeth Development began to tear down the church, but when asbestos was discovered on the site, the Department of Buildings suspended the work. The developers recently agreed to hold off on further demolition, saying they were interested in working out a compromise. The civic association is basing its legal claims on the original 19th century deed for the property, which it says forbids the property from being used for anything but a church. Holden said his group will continue to pursue other avenues toward saving the church, including trying to persuade the Landmarks Preservation Commission to reconsider.