Community service · Historic preservation
October 20, 2026
Calvary and thirty years of caring for Gramercy
A celebration this Friday, the friendships behind decades of service, and a church with stories to tell.
Dear Neighbors,
For more than thirty years, I’ve known whom to call at Calvary–St. George’s when our neighborhood needed help. Sometimes we needed volunteers. Sometimes we needed musicians. Sometimes we had truckloads of donated supplies and needed somewhere to put them. Behind each call was a friendship built through years of working together.
This Friday, October 23, at 6:00 p.m., the parish will honor me in recognition of my decades of service to the Gramercy Park community during its fiftieth-anniversary celebration at St. George’s Church on Stuyvesant Square. I am deeply touched, and I will accept this honor on behalf of my neighbors, whose generosity and willingness to help have made this work possible.
The photograph above recalls one of the hardest chapters in our shared history. In the days after September 11, Calvary provided space to receive and organize relief supplies. On September 20, neighbors gathered there for a prayer vigil, then walked by candlelight to Brotherhood Synagogue. The church gave us a place to help—and a place to grieve together.
Our partnership continued through relief collections after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, support for the parish’s Common Table meals, and music that brought neighbors together.
Sharing Friday’s honor with my longtime friend and colleague the Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Pike, Rector Emeritus, makes the evening especially meaningful. Tom served with me on the Block Association board and as a Gramercy Park Trustee. I am also delighted to be recognized alongside educator and parishioner Yvonne Sterling, and to join the parish in honoring the memory of Dr. Pamella HoSang, an educator, parishioner, and dear friend of mine.
View the Parish’s Event Details →
Or contact the parish office:
info@calstg.org | 646-723-4178
From our building profiles
Behind Calvary’s Doors
Calvary has been surprising its neighbors for nearly two centuries. Its first church was a small wooden building that the parish moved down Fourth Avenue in 1841. The brownstone church that James Renwick Jr. designed to replace it opened in 1847 with two slender spires above the street.
Inside, a future president, Chester A. Arthur, married in 1859. In the parish house, Bill Wilson attended meetings that helped shape the ideas behind Alcoholics Anonymous. And beginning in 1974, organist Calvin Hampton’s Fridays at Midnight concerts drew listeners through the doors long after most churches had closed for the night.
I hope you’ll enjoy our newly expanded profile, which follows these lives and the buildings they shared, with historic photographs and stories that may change how you see this familiar corner.
Helping neighbors in need, caring for our streets and preserving Gramercy’s history and character are part of the Block Association’s everyday work. Your support helps us continue this work throughout the year. Please consider a gift to the GPBA.
The Gramercy Park Block Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.