The Churches of New York XXI: The Golden Age

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament
152 West 71^st Street

 

The era of 1890-1920 was the Golden Age of Catholic Church architecture in New York. New buildings of unprecedented magnificence arose, and churches of the earlier neoclassical and High Victorian periods often received magnificent new decoration in painting, sculpture and stained glass. The parish church of the Blessed Sacrament is one of the most representative structures of this era – and alongside the earlier church of St Stephen perhaps the most magnificent church in Manhattan not a cathedral  or church of a religious order. The parish was organized in 1887 in what at the time was a semi-rural but rapidly developing outlier of the city. By the time the first parish church was finished in 1900 the Upper West Side was well on its way to becoming one of the most splendid residential areas of the city. The Dakota, the Ansonia and other grand apartment buildings arose in the neighborhood over the years, Broadway here became a wide splendid boulevard and the West Side IRT soon ran nearby. And by 1917-20, when the present church was constructed, Blessed Sacrament was perhaps the wealthiest Catholic parish in the city.1) That wealth helps explain the spectacular cathedral-like structure we find today.

 

The church occupies a difficult site between West 71^st and 70^th Streets. Except for the West 71^st Street façade, Blessed Sacrament church is entirely surrounded and obscured by other buildings. The architect of the church was a 37-year old Columbia graduate, Gustav Steinbach, who had a long career extending to the 1950’s specializing in commissions of all kinds from the Catholic Church.  Blessed Sacrament must be his masterpiece. 2) Steinbach – nomen est omen, as the Germans say – did the architect in planning this edifice reflect on Erwin von Steinbach, the medieval architect of the magnificent façade of Strassburg (Strasbourg) cathedral, also a work inspired by French cathedral architecture? The façade of Blessed Sacrament is also in its own way a masterpiece, with its intricate rose window, elaborate entrance with sculptured tympanum and flanking statues. The AIA Guide to New York City praises: “the vigorous interplay of volume, void and silhouette.” 3) Close inspection reveals some anachronisms – the tympanum reproduces Raphael’s Disputa and except for St. Francis the statues on either side of the main entrance are of post-medieval saints.

Note the rectory on the right.

The view of the apse from 70^th Street is blocked by the parochial school contemporary with the church.   The still functioning school uniquely bears an elaborate carved admonition in Latin to parents on the duty of attending Catholic schools. Could the parishioners understand it? Indeed, we should commend the rectory and school. For these buildings were all erected at the same time as the church as a unified architectural ensemble.

“Parentes Catholicos Hortamur ut Dilectae Proli Suae Educationem Christianam et Catholicam Procurent.” 

 

The façade is a magnificent gateway to the nave of church through a narrow vestibule or narthex. The interior is of great height and length.  The effect of height is accentuated by the grand arch over the sanctuary glimmering in the distance – the interior of this church normally is shrouded in a mystic semi-darkness. The lighting picks out highlights of the decoration – particularly the great Rood over the altar. As was often the case in the Golden Age, the decoration was conceived and executed as part of the architectural plan.

Actually, the layout of Blessed Sacrament is not all that different from a more conventional parish church like St Monica’s, erected at about the same time: a basilica with an apse – here windowless – containing the main altar flanked by side apses with altars to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady. It may seem strange the apse is windowless – undoubtedly the architect took into account the building of the parochial school rising immediately behind it. Uniquely, instead of windows or paintings, the arches of the apse are filled with fine tapestries.

The high altar is intact – it would be a simple matter to move aside the “people’s altar” to allow for celebration of the Traditional Mass.

But the execution in stone of this architecture is of a wholly different and higher order than that found in most sister parish churches of this time. The same holds true of the altars and sculpture such as the enigmatic, moody bust of the virgin on a side wall.

And especially of the wonderful windows by the noted, originally English glassmaker Clement Heaton. It is a program of stained glass that culminates in the glorious, largely non-figurative rose window.4)

Signature of Clement Heaton.

The artistic excellence extends further to the splendid tiled floors:

 

 The eyes of the visitor, sitting in the darkness, are drawn upwards by the dramatic upward sweep of the architecture into the mysterious obscurity of the ceiling and then rest on the illuminated highlights – the Rood, the rose window, and the altars. It is no exaggeration to say that in this church Steinbach, on a more modest scale, has equaled or exceeded Cram’s Gothic contributions to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is one of the few spots in New York where quiet and darkness lead the soul to prayer – contrast the visual and acoustic chaos of the current situation in St. Patrick’s. Furthermore,  this church is always open –  a blessing for the several individuals always to be found here at prayer as well as for the bums getting some much-needed rest.

What is there indeed to criticize about this nearly perfect church? Perhaps only this: it all too carefully planned, a Gesamtkunstwerk with perhaps too much artistic skill and aesthetic economy of means. For, as Catholics, are we not more attracted to other, less planned, less refined churches – like Most Holy Redeemer, St Stephen or even St Patrick’s cathedral:  exuberantly overflowing with accumulated altars, paintings, statues and windows of all kinds of styles and quality?

“Honour” -A bit too “Anglican”?

 

Blessed Sacrament always remained the parish of a residential neighborhood. Perhaps the most famous event associated with this parish happened even before the completion of its first church – the funeral mass of General Sherman in 1891 (did you know he was Catholic?).5) The parish history records other, subsequent funerals for less august personalities. After the 1920’s the Upper West Side surrendered its social eminence to the East side. The immediate vicinity off this parish, while never a disaster, had become by the 1960’s – 1970’s distinctly seedy – think Rosemary’s Baby.  And “Plato’s Retreat” obscenely squatted in the nearby, formerly elegant Ansonia. Now, of course, the wheel of fortune has turned again. The Upper West Side through the 70’s has become one of the most expensive and exclusive parts of New York.  We hope that this parish with its magnificent architecture can continue and expand its rightful role as a magnet of spirituality and culture in the money-hungry boomtown in which it now resides.

 

1) The Catholic Church in the United States of America Vol. 3 at 318 (the Catholic Editing Company, New York 1914)

2)  R. O’Connell, Church of the Blessed Sacrament (Guide)

3) E. Willensky and M. White, AIA Guide to New York City at 306 (3rd Ed., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York 1988)

4) O’Connell, Church of the Blessed Sacrament (guide)

5) O’Connell, Church of the Blessed Sacrament (guide)