The Manhattan Times

Where we worship:

A new landmark of architecture and history

by Adam Garrett-Clark

Now known as Iglesia Presbiteriana Fort Washington Heights, the Fort Washington Presbyterian Church on Wadsworth Avenue and W. 174^th Street stands witness to the ever changing population tides of Washington Heights. 

The Neo-Georgian basilica church now almost 100 years old was handed over to a rapidly growing Latino congregation in 1982, at a time when the English-speaking congregation had dwindled to just 12 members. The group disbanded and made way for La Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Manhattan to take over. At the time, the First Spanish Presbyterian Church of Manhattan was outgrowing its location at Second United Presbyterian Church on Audubon Avenue and W. 172nd Street, and the building had just suffered a damaging flood in its basement.

Twenty-seven years later, based on the church’s exceptional architecture, it was awarded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission last May.

“I think it gives a sense of pride to the Latino community, and the community in general,” said Reverend Carmen Rosario of the decision.

The building will now go before the state review board, during its next meeting on Sep. 15, to determine whether it will take its place in the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

Rosario hopes acceptance as a national site will lead to much needed funding to restore the building.

The elaborately embellished clock tower, once an important element of the neighborhood Rosario has gathered from her elder parishioners, does not work, and cracks in its masonry are undermining its steel supports, which affects the tower’s stability.

The church was built in 1913 from proceeds of the sale of the Old West Church on 42^nd Street. It was designed by Thomas Hastings of the architectural firm Carrère & Hastings that produced a number of renowned structures in the city, including the New York Public Library and the Grand Army Plaza on Fifth Avenue and 59^th Street, among others.

With the Revolutionary War history of the Fort Washington area in mind, Hastings designed the church in what historians described as “a modern replica of an old New England meeting house transplanted to Washington Heights,” according to the Landmarks Commission.

Its columned, rubbed-brick facade, with gabled roofs and classical ornamentation, are typical of an architectural tradition in English churches, ultimately inspired, according to the Landmarks Commission, by the parish churches Sir Christopher Wren built in London after the Great Fire of 1666.

So many years later the church’s design still doesn’t fail to wow Rosario each Sunday as she stands at the pulpit. From her viewpoint, elevated roughly 10 feet in the air on a five-stepped steeple, she can see almost everything. The baby blue wall panels separated by white columns spread into fanning leafs and curlicues as they meet the ceiling. Beyond the red velvet cushioned pews, Rosario can see right out onto Wadsworth Avenue when the doors are opened. Her favorite, she said, is when people stop on the street during her service and poke in to sneak a few lines of her sermon.

Behind Rosario’s elevated pulpit embedded into the blue walls are the golden pipes of the organ. The sound is still beautiful, Rosario said, adding: “That’s one of the things we are most proud of.” The cross hanging behind her was the original cross of La Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Manhattan carried over from its first location.

Twenty-two years ago when Rosario came to visit the church with a friend, the pews now in her purview were packed with parishioners. At its height in the late 1980s the church’s congregation was a mix of Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. 

As the congregation has aged, many parishioners have moved away, similar to how the church’s English congregation faded away a few decades ago. On a good Sunday, Rosario said she’ll see around 60 parishioners, the majority of whom are Dominican.

In the kitchen adjoined to the memorial room, 88-year-old parishioner Nelly Yern is organizing church leaflets. Yern was one of the original members of La Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Manhattan. She said in all the time she’s been worshiping at the church the walls have always remained the same baby blue. 

On the west wall of the memorial room hangs a plaque in memory of reverend Edalisa Fernandez, the reverend who served the church during its biggest growth and for which the memorial is named. Surrounding Fernandez’s likeness are various black and white photos of the congregation’s past. The memorial room also serves as a space for various community groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, to hold meetings and events. Just as the English Congregation did 70 years ago when it converted its basement into a dining room to provide hot meals during the Great Depression, the church remains deeply dedicated to serving the community. That, in Rosario’s eyes, is the real importance of the church. Without that sense of purpose and mission the church provides to the community, all the beautiful architecture is meaningless, she said. “If the church has no real mission, this is just a building.”

The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.