The "Sisters' House" - 664 Sixth Avenue

The 1850 house, now home to the Ridgeway Diner, became the Sisters' House in 1854.  The Sisterhood established the infirmary which would later become St. Luke's Hospital in the abutting house.

In 1846 the forward-thinking Episcopal priest William Augustus Muhlenberg established his "free church" (one in which congregants did not have to pay for their pews), at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 20th Street.  Designed by Richard Upjohn, the Church of the Holy Communion was among the first Gothic Revival buildings in the United States.

That was just one of the far-reaching firsts the church would initiate under Muhlenberg's direction.  According to a December 12, 1885 article in The Churchman, it was "...the first free church in this country, the first to have daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the first to have Holy Communion weekly, the first to have early Christmas and Easter celebrations, the first to decorate the chancel with flowers on festival days, the first to establish a boy choir, the first in the whole English speaking church to introduce a sisterhood, for its sisterhood antedates those of England."

The "sisterhood" mentioned in the article was a group of women who wore habits similar to those of Roman Catholic nuns and who dedicated themselves to church and humanitarian works.  Founded by Muhlenberg in 1845, the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion initially focused on providing health care.

Five years after the Sisterhood was organized, William Johnson filled the rest of the block, to the corner of 21st Street, with modest, brick-faced homes.  Four stories tall and two bays wide, they were comfortable; but in no way on par with the lavish homes being erected on Fifth Avenue, just a block away.


The Sisterhood was running an infirmary in a tenement house at the time.  In 1853 John H. Swift and his wife purchased the house next door to the church, No. 328 Sixth Avenue (renumbered 664 in 1925).  They refurbished it as the Sisters' House in memory of their daughter, Virginia Swift.   The sisterhood moved in in the spring of 1854.  A dispensary was opened in the Sisters' House, and the infirmary was moved into the abutting house at No. 330.

The Sisters' House nestled up to the crenelated tower of the church complex.

While the sisters resembled Roman Catholic nuns, there were significant differences.  The New York Herald, on January 24, 1869, explained "Candidates for admission into the sisterhood, when under twenty-five years of age, must have the written consent of their parents or guardians before entering.  After a suitable probation, they are elected by the vote of the other sisters, and join for a term of three years, renewable or not at their pleasure, and with the late reapprobation of the other members."

In 1858 the Sisterhood's infirmary became St. Luke's Hospital and moved into a newly-completed building on Fifth Avenue at 54th Street.   The sisters continued their work on the Sixth Avenue block.  The house formerly used by the infirmary became the Home for Aged Women, and in 1871 the sisters opened the Day Nursery and Babies' Shelter around the corner at No. 118 West 21st Street, and the Shelter for Respectable Girls and Home for Convalescents in another of the William Johnson houses, No. 332 (now 668).

In 1876 the State Board of Charities described the goals of that facility as "to provide a shelter for unemployed Protestant girls, and a home for those requiring rest before employment again."  One of the sisters explained "The great object aimed is to keep girls from getting into trouble, when they find themselves without means and strangers in the city."

Considering the scope of the women's duties--they also were tasked with "parish visiting, nursing, care of altar service, clergy and choir vestments and embroidery class"--it is astounding that there were only six sisters living in Sisters' House in 1871.  Lay employees of the Home for the Aged and the Babies' Shelter also lived here.


In 1885 the sisters enlarged the Sisters' House with an extension to the rear, designed by architect Henry Marshall, to accommodate a Training School.  The facility apparently served blind clients, especially.    When the improvements were completed, Bishop Henry C. Potter officiated at the opening ceremonies on November 24.

At the time a drastic change in the Sixth Avenue neighborhood was on the near horizon.  The elevated railroad was extended up the center of the avenue around 1878 and by the end of the century massive retail palaces would line the avenue from 14th Street to 23rd Street.

In 1895 the Home for Aged Women in No. 330 still housed 25 indigent women; but before long it was relocated to "the old fashion brownstone dwellings," as described by the New-York Tribune, on West 20th Street, near Fifth Avenue.  The Churchman explained "Sixth Avenue became too bustling; the old women were mewed up."

The church sold off the Sixth Avenue houses, including the Sisters' House, which was purchased by to Josephine Geenen.  While she leased the upper floors to the Church of the Holy Communion for the Sisterhood, she hired architect Patrick F. Grogan in 1898 to install a storefront at street level.  As the sisters came and went in their religious habits, well-dressed women shopped for cloaks and suits in the store.

Josephine Geenen renovated again in 1904.  She commissioned architect Patrick F. Brogan to update the ground floor storefront and add building-wide show windows at the second floor--eye level with potential shoppers about to disembark the elevated train at 23rd Street.

Later that year, in December, Dr. Henry Mottet, rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, announced that the church had an endowment fund of $200,000 and the Sisterhood had one of twice that much (nearly $11 million for the Sisterhood alone in today's dollars).  He told reporters "the parish will never have to move uptown, as many Episcopal and other churches have had to do."

But change was inevitable.  On February 1, 1909 the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion celebrated its 61st anniversary in the church.   That year the Hygrade Lunch Company was operating a luncheonette in the lower two floors of the old Sisters' House; and on April 20 it was announced that the 20th Street houses used as the Home for the Aged were to be demolished and the facility moved to Long Island.

The last to go was the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion.  The sisters finally left the Sisters' House around 1919.  The following year the house was converted by architect Max Muller to a store and factory.  The Church of the Holy Communion managed to survive in its historic church until 1976.

By then the street level of No. 664 had continued to house a restaurant of one name or another, and Department of Building documents restricted the upper floors to "offices."  Despite that designation, the second through fourth floors were actually unsanctioned apartments.  In November 1969 American artist and writer Joe Brainard took the top floor apartment, for instance.

No. 664 is one of the three of William Johnson's 1850 houses that survive.

In 1995 a conversion was completed which resulted in one apartment each on the third and fourth floors, with a restaurant space at ground level and a shop space on the second floor.  The beleaguered structure with its peeling paint, zig-zagging fire escape and hodgepodge storefronts gives no hint that more than 160 years ago it was home to the tireless Sisterhood of the Holy Communion.

photographs by the author
many thanks to reader Jason Kessler for suggesting this post

The Church of the Holy Communion - Sixth Avenue and 20th Street

In the first half of the 19th century the Episcopal Church was still predominant among the Manhattan denominations and parishioners either rented or purchased their pews, a practice that bothered John Rogers.  He envisioned a church where the rich and poor could worship side by side.  After Rogers' death his sister, Mary A. C. Rogers, sought to fulfill his dream--a "free church."

She turned to her brother-in-law, Episcopal priest William Augustus Muhlenberg.  The progressive minded cleric took up the cause.   The plot on the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 20th Street was acquired and architect Richard Upjohn (who was simultaneously working on plans for the new Trinity Church downtown) was commissioned to design the structure.

Upjohn produced a quaint, Gothic Revival building in the style of an English country parish church.  Completed in 1846 and faced with irregular brownstone blocks, its asymmetrical shape and crenelated bell tower along with the small front yard and side garden were picturesque.  Miller's Stranger's Guide to New York in 1866 called it a "singular-looking building of brown stone, in the form of a cross...The interior is novel and imposing, although divested of ornament."

The guidebook was impressed by its "free church" policy.  "Strangers can enter the church with perfect freedom, and seat themselves in any part of it."

Miller's Stranger's Guide to New York, 1866 (copyright expired)

While the neighborhood was essentially undeveloped at the time of the church's dedication, early supporters included such notable New York names as Vanderbilt, Astor and Gould.  From here, Muhlenberg continued his ground breaking ideas.  According to a December 12, 1885 article in The Churchman, the church was "...the first free church in this country, the first to have daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the first to have Holy Communion weekly, the first to have early Christmas and Easter celebrations, the first to decorate the chancel with flowers on festival days, the first to establish a boy choir, the first in the whole English speaking church to introduce a sisterhood, for its sisterhood antedates those of England."

What The Churchman failed to mention was that Muhlenberg also introduced medical care for the indigent, needlework programs for unemployed women, holiday dinners for the needy, trips to the country for poor boys, and founded a charity hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, in the Sister's House.  The sisters were dedicated to nursing and training orphaned girls for domestic service.  In an effort to help educate the poorer of his parishioners, Muhlenberg amassed a large collection of books which later became the basis of the Mulhlenberg Library on 23rd Street.

The charming ensemble of buildings included the 1853 rectory, to the east.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1883 the church, now surrounded by the retail emporiums that made up The Ladies' Mile, hosted the first convention of black Episcopal clergymen.

By the middle of the 20th century the neighborhood around The Church of the Holy Communion had changed from opulent department stores to commercial and industrial businesses.  The former department stores now housed factories and warehouses.  The number of parishioners and the financial situation of the church dwindled.  To head off what he feared could be the destruction of the building, the rector pushed for and was granted landmark status in 1966.  Still, ten years later the church was abandoned and deconsecrated.

In a move that would probably have pleased Augustus Muhlenberg, the venerable church building was purchased by the Odyssey Institute and used as a drug rehabilitation center. 

However, the Institute sold it in 1983 to Peter Gatien who opened the Limelight disco in the church, beginning a period of depravity including drug trafficking , reported sex rooms in the Sister's House, and a connection with the 1996 murder and dismemberment by Michael Alig of Angel Melendez, a regular drug dealer at the club.  The Limelight was closed down by police that year.

Another club, Avalon, opened in the former church for a short period before the building sat empty and neglected again until Jack Menashe renovated it as a mini-mall.  Menashe's transformation, costing $15 million, opened in early 2010 as the "Limelight Marketplace," a mini-mall.  The in the fall of 2014 the building was converted to a gym.

Despite its landmark status, one of Manhattan's architectural masterworks endures continued humiliation.

photographs by the author

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