St. George Greek Orthodox Church - 307 W. 54th Street

Photo by stgeorgenyc.org

When Mayor Hugh J. Grant founded the Narragansett Club (a Tammany Hall-based Democratic political organization), an upper west side headquarters/clubhouse was necessary.  Land was purchased at 307 W. 54th Street and a Romanesque Revival-style building with Queen Anne touches was erected on the lot.  For the two-story, red brick-faced structure over an English basement, architect H. J. Grant added a pressed-metal cornice board, terra cotta ornamentation and bold numerals below the eave announcing the construction date, 1886.  Construction of the building cost $15,000, or just over $400,000 today.

Three years later on January 6, 1889, the group threw a celebration of its third anniversary.  Mayor Grant was in attendance as was “every Tammany man of consequence.”  The New York Times reported, “They were entertained with songs, instrumental music, exhibitions of ventriloquial skill, and speeches.”  Senator Irving Ives concocted an apparently strong punch for the event.  “Everybody had a good time,” said The Times,” but those who looked least at the seductive punch bowl feel the better to-day.”

In addition to its occasional celebrations, the clubhouse was the site of conventions and nominations of candidates for the 14th Congressional District.  On October 5, 1896, John Quincy Adams, who was “related to the well-known Massachusetts family of that name,” was unanimously nominated here.

Almost 20 years to the day after building their clubhouse, on January 5, 1906, the Tammany club sold it to the New Amsterdam Council of the Knights of Columbus.  The heavily-Irish group, which promised to make “extensive alterations to the property,” renamed it The New Amsterdam Building.

With the Knights of Columbus came evenings of serious discussion and debate.  Irish-born James P. Conway, a student of Irish literature, attempted to defend John Millington Synge’s play The Playboy of the Western World here on January 24, 1912.  The Knights, many of whom had participated in the riots following the play’s debut in New York, jeered him for an hour.  Michael Conway, a former member of Parliament, countered Conway and was carried by the crowd from the stage in triumph.



In March of 1912, the Reverend Terence J. Shealy discussed the ills of Socialism, and on January 15, 1913 Mayor William Jay Gaynor addressed the group regarding new issues in the city: subway construction, elevation of the freight train tracks on Tenth Avenue (known today as the High Line), and the lengthening the Hudson River piers to accommodate the newer, larger ships.

By the spring of 1915, the building was the home of the Century Road Club Association.  A cycling club, it not only participated in bicycle races but used the clubhouse for dances and “amateur night” talent contents.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

It was during the Great Depression that the building became an “old calendar” Greek Orthodox Church–“one of a group of churches that split off from the mainline church over a dispute regarding adoption of the western calendar,” according to Father James W. Kordaris, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.  At this time, it was also home to the Hellenic Centre.  In December 1933, a one-man show by Alexander Sideris exhibited oils and water colors of still lifes, portraits, florals, and Greek villages and coast vistas.



photo by firstthings.com

In the early 1950s, the church came under the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and today the little building remains so.  Saint George Greek Orthodox Church conducts services in Greek and English in a space encrusted with murals and icons.  Were it not for the flat ceiling, the visitor might never suspect that the building was not originally intended as a church.  An exquisite iconostasis dominates the space.  Under the floor mat in the foyer, according to Father Kordaris, the Knights of Columbus monogram "KC" survives in the tilework.

Little has changed to the façade since 1886 other than the cross on the eaves and the stained glass window that replaces the original.  The little building whose “joyous ornament is still evident,” according to the AIA Guide to New York City, is a delightful surprise on West 54th Street.