The Evangelical Lutheran Savior (Sts. Kyril & Metodi Bulgarian Cathedral) 552 W. 50th St.

 

 

photograph by Farragutful

On the evening of September 4, 1887, fire broke out on the second floor of the tenement building at 552 West 50th Street.  The following day, the New-York Tribune wrote that the flames had spread throughout the five-story building "and early this morning were still burning fiercely."  Tenements in the Hell's Kitchen district like this one were crammed with indigent families.  The article said that fire department officials predicted "that not less than ten bodies were buried in the burning ruins."

Steinhardt & Son erected a "three-story brick ribbon factory" on the site.  A minor labor problem arose in the summer of 1893.  The Evening World reported that some union members "had been insulted at Steinhardt's factory, 552 West Fiftieth street, for refusing to work on Memorial Day."  

On October 1, 1897, Herman von Hollen purchased the building for $12,000 (about $468,000 in 2026).  The buyer was, more precisely, Reverend Herman von Hollen, rector of the Evangelische Lutheriske Heilands Kirche (Evangelical Lutheran Savior Church).  

Born in Hanover, Germany on December 1, 1852, Von Hollen was ordained in 1878.  He married Matilda Lomberg in 1890 and had seven children, three of whom died in childhood.  The Von Hollens relocated to New York City in 1896.  Rev. Von Hollen organized the congregation in March 1897, just seven months before purchasing the factory building.  He had chosen a hardscrabble neighborhood in which to minister, and his was the first Lutheran church in Hell's Kitchen.

Within a month of the purchase, Von Hollen had commissioned the architectural firm of Kurtzer & Rohl to renovate the factory into "a three story brick dwelling and mission house."  The renovations cost him the equivalent of $117,000 today.  The architects' focus was the interior and little of the building's exterior appearance was altered.  In his 1907 Genealogical and Family History of New York, William S. Pelletreau described the Lutheran church:

It is a brick edifice, neatly furnished, with a seating capacity of about four hundred.  The work of the church is in larger degree among a poor class of the German population.

By 1903, the church was known simply as the German Lutheran Christ Church.  The renovated factory is the light-colored brick structure toward the left.  Federation magazine, June 1903 (copyright expired)

The Von Hollen family, a caretaker, a maid, and a housekeeper occupied the upper floors.  

The ruffians of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood were noted for their mischievousness, not their piety, as the newly-arrived German minister soon discovered.  On June 28, 1898, The New York Press reported that he defended himself before Magistrate Kudlich when he was accused by "half a dozen women" of abusing their children.  Von Hollen explained, "that he and his congregation were annoyed by children of the neighborhood, who howled around the church and threw stones and tin cans through the windows during services."

The mothers, "accused the minister of running out of the church and pulling the children's ears," said the article.  The magistrate sided with Von Hollen and dismissed the case, "but warned the women to be careful of their children's conduct hereafter."

Despite the magistrate's order, little changed.  Three years later, on May 18, 1901, The Evening World reported that Von Hollen had discovered two boys attempting to break into the church.  When he confronted them, John Ruck and Charles Kaiser, both 12 years old, pelted the minister with rocks.  It was a substantial assault.  The New York Morning Telegraph said that when Von Hollen appeared in court, "His scalp was furrowed by cuts and his clothing was gore [i.e., blood] stained."  But Rev. Herman von Hollen was what the newspaper described as, "One of the so-called 'turn the other cheek folk.'"  He begged Magistrate Zeller to "give the boys another chance," according to The Evening World.  Zeller told the delinquents that "were it not for Dr. Von Hollen's appeal...he would send them both to the House of Refuge."

Adolph Hernman worked as the caretaker of the property and lived in an upstairs room.  The German immigrant sported "a beard of patriarchal dimensions," as described by the New York Herald.  He, too, would become a target of neighborhood hooligans.  On August 15, 1905, he was walking along West 50th Street with a package when four boys "came up to him and asked for a match," as reported by the newspaper.  When he thrust his free hand into his pocket to get the match, "the four boys grabbed him.  Each one got a fistful of whiskers and the four pulled in different directions."

The reporter presumed that the prank was "exceedingly painful to the flesh, but more lacerating to the spirit."  Hernman found a policeman who "offered himself as the hook if Hernman would walk through the block again as bait."  And sure enough, within a few minutes one of the boys, 16-year-old Charles Kabish, attempted to grab the caretaker's beard.  The policeman rushed in and nabbed him.

The New York Herald reported, "Kabish wept a bucketful in court, but Magistrate Finn has seen boys cry before."  The teen was jailed for a day to spend "in meditation upon the evil of pulling whiskers and being caught at it."

In 1907, Rev. Herman von Hollen purchased a one-story brick church on Walton Avenue in the Bronx.  He retained ownership of the East 50th Street structure, and leased it to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Clemens and Mary.  The congregation occupied the building as it collected funds for its own structure.  On November 4, 1911, The New York Times reported that the St. Clemens and Mary congregation had purchased "two old residences" at 408 and 410 West 40th Street.  The article said, "a new edifice for the parish work is to be erected at once."

The new St. Clemens and Mary Church building was completed in 1912.  The consecration ceremony was held on May 26, but it went horribly awry.  The New-York Tribune headlined an article, "Crowded Stand at Church Collapses."  The article said that 3,000 persons panicked as the stands inside the church buckled.  Although 15 people were injured, some enough to be hospitalized, the ceremony went on.

Rev. Herman von Hollen now leased the West 50th Street building to the newly formed Saints Cyrillus and Methodius congregation.  It was founded by Franciscan friars to serve the increasing Croatian immigrant population.  The 1914 The Catholic Church in the United States of America recalled:

On October 16, 1913, this parish was formally established for the Croatians and entrusted to Rev. Ambrose Sirca, O.F.M.  An old church at 552 West 50th Street which was formerly used by St. Clemens' Polish congregation was obtained and dedicated to SS. Cyrillus and Methodius.

On New Year's Day, 1915, The New York Times reported that Von Hollen had sold the property to "St. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church."  Now that the congregation owned the building, it set out to make it look like a proper church.  In April 1915, it commissioned architect Frederick J. Schwartz to remodel the structure.  The New York Herald reported that his plans  "consist of building an entire new front wall, new stairs to the choir, new vestibule, and an addition to the choir loft for a sanctuary and sacristy."  The renovations cost the equivalent of $483,000 today.

Schartz's neo-Gothic design gave nods to the Croatian congregation's roots.  Faced in beige brick and trimmed in sandstone, the facade was dominated by a two-story, Gothic-arched stained-glass window.  The copper-clad steeple atop a square, featureless base reflected traditional Southeastern European prototypes.

The main stained-glass window depicts Saints Cyril and Methodius.  photograph by Carole Teller

The renovated church was dedicated on September 30, 1915.  The New York Herald reported, "and it will be known henceforth as the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius."  The article noted, "This will be the church centre for more than five thousand Catholics who came to the United States from Croatia, in the southern part of Austria-Hungary."

Aloysius Viktor Stepinac was the Archbishop of Zagreb (in Croatia).  Stepinac was imprisoned by the Yugoslav Government in 1946 for accused treason.  Croatian-American citizens protested.  On October 12, 1948, The New York Times reported on the "two young women in Croat peasant costumes" and five young men who picketed the Yugoslav consulate on Fifth Avenue.  The article said, "The young women said they were members of the Stepinac Club of New York, connected with the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius of 552 West Fiftieth Street."

In 1974, the congregation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius merged with that of St. Raphael's Church on West 41st Street and moved into that building.  The East 50th Street structure empty sat until 1979, when it was purchased by the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church.  The diocese made renovations, completed in 1984.  It was dedicated on May 12.

The following day, The New York Times reported that dozens of lay volunteers had "worked countless hours transforming a dilapidated church on the West Side of Manhattan into the showpiece of Bulgarian-American life in the New York metropolitan area."

photograph by Carole Teller

The article said that three artists, "who worked more than 70 hours a week on the project for the last two years," headed the group that embellished "nearly every square inch of the interior of the St. Kiril and Metodi Eastern Orthodox Church."  The main force behind the remodeling, including its financing, was 43-year-old Bulgarian immigrant Anton Russev.  The article said the painting was either done directly onto the plaster walls, or on panels in Russev's Lafayette Street studio.  An official of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church said this was the only structure in the United States "that has been decorated in traditional style with Eastern Orthodox icons."

photograph by Carole Teller

The congregation is still in the building with its riveting history.

many thanks to artist Carole Teller for suggesting this post.