From NY1: http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=59110
Neighbors say it’s an important piece of their history, but a nearly 160-year-old church is close to becoming a victim of the wrecking ball. NY1’s Roger Clark filed the following report on the last ditch efforts to save it.
Michael Fiorino has lived in Maspeth for all of his 80 years, but St. Savior’s Church has been around twice as long. “It’s history, as far as I’m concerned,” says Fiorino. That history may be coming to an end. The church – designed by architect Richard Upjohn of Trinity Church fame – and its property were sold last year to a developer who wants to build homes there. The house of worship dates back to 1847, serving as an Episcopalian church and, most recently, as home to a Korean Methodist congregation. Residents say the wooded property, making up an entire block, was an oasis in a neighborhood surrounded by industry. “This is a sound barrier, a sound barrier. We’re just going to wind up with an asphalt jungle, a concrete jungle,” says Maspeth resident Paul.
Instead, residents wouldn’t mind seeing another congregation move in, or have the city buy the property and make it into a park and museum focusing on Queens History.
One of the ways the community has tried to save the church is through asking for landmark status for the building. But the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected the application, saying a 1970 fire at the church resulted in the loss of significant historic fabric. Community leaders aren’t buying it. “The vestibule burned, which is the extension. Some of the tower burned, and part of the roof, that’s it,” says Robert Holden of the Juniper Park Civic Association.
Holden feels there is a bias towards landmarking sites in Manhattan over those in the other boroughs. The commission says more than 400 buildings have been landmarked outside Manhattan over the past three years, compared to 63 in the three years prior to that. Without landmarking, St. Savior’s supporters are investigating other ways to save the place.
“There is a deed restriction on the property – which it can only be used as a church – so they can privately sue to enforce the deed restriction,” says Queens Councilman Tony Avella.
But time is running out. Demolition work, which had been temporarily stopped by the city after asbestos was found in the church’s roof shingles, has been given the green light again. – Roger Clark