A neighborhood takes shape around its institutions
Pine uses the arrival of churches as one indication of the neighborhood’s growth. By about 1851, he writes, most of the surrounding lots had been built upon and occupied, although some remained vacant. Places of worship became part of the social and architectural setting of the new residential square.
His account follows three institutions in particular: Calvary Church, the Friends Meeting House and the former All Souls church near the Park. Their histories extend beyond Sunday worship into education, relief work and the everyday lives of their neighbors.
Calvary Church
Calvary’s church at Fourth Avenue and Twenty-first Street was erected in 1846 to designs by James Renwick, with its rectory built at the same time. Pine traces its succession of clergy and gives particular attention to Henry Y. Satterlee, rector from 1881 to 1896 before becoming bishop of Washington.
Under Satterlee, Pine describes increased attendance and extensive work on the East Side. The church offered a connection between residents around the Park and people living in the wider neighborhood. The Gramercy Park Block Association’s much later concert collaborations with Calvary–St. George’s belong to a separate chapter of that relationship.
The Friends Meeting House
The Friends Meeting House on Gramercy Park South was completed in 1859, the date given in its Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report. Pine describes its religious and social uses, including a third-floor sewing room where garments were made for formerly enslaved people during the Civil War.
The book also records a mission and school for men in poverty, with breakfast, instruction and recreation. At another moment, neighbors used the Meeting House to discuss a proposed hotel and the residential character of the square. In Pine’s history, the building repeatedly appears as a place where people gathered to act together.
All Souls and the Sanitary Commission
The All Souls church completed in 1855 was designed by the architect Mould with alternating terra-cotta and pale stone, taking inspiration from the church at Monza in Italy.
Its minister, Henry W. Bellows, helped organize and lead the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. Pine connects him with the collection and distribution of food, medical supplies and other comforts for Union troops. His parishioner and neighbor Peter Cooper also consulted him about the founding of Cooper Institute.
The people behind the work
Pine identifies George Templeton Strong as treasurer of the Sanitary Commission and describes Louisa Lee Schuyler’s extensive work on its behalf. He follows Schuyler’s later involvement in nurse training and organized charitable work. Their presence in the account gives a fuller picture of civic service than a list of buildings alone.
Continue with the neighborhood during the Civil War, or explore the Block Association’s present-day Neighbors Helping Neighbors work. These are different organizations and periods, connected here by their place in the neighborhood’s history.
Service beyond the front door
That relationship between a gathering place and its neighbors appears again in Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Meals, books and everyday essentials move through partnerships with institutions that know the people they serve.
Sources
Adapted from John B. Pine, The Story of Gramercy Park, 1831–1921 (1921), printed pages 39–44.