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New York Architecture
Images- Midtown Holy Cross |
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architect |
Henry Engelbert |
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location |
329 West 42nd St |
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date |
1868-70 |
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style |
Italianite Gothic form with Romanesque Revival touches. |
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construction |
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type |
Church |
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Special
thanks to www.churchcrawler.co.uk
(British and international church architecture site) for generous
permission to use images and info. |
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images |
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West Midtown is punctuated neatly every few acres with modest urban Catholic churches such as this one. Often they fit very neatly into a pocket in the surrounding skyscrapers and present an unusual refuge from a very hectic part of the city. |
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notes |
This church is the oldest remaining building on 42nd Street. However it is the second church on the site, the first building of 1852 being of wood with an iron gable cross which was not such a good idea as it was struck by lightning and the church destroyed by the subsequent fire. The rebuilding took place from 1868-70 to the designs of Henry Engelbert. It has a red brick facade with flanking twin towers in an Italianite Gothic form. Behind can be glimpsed the white central tower and dome which rises to 148 feet. The interior is an eclectic mixture of Georgian classical, Romanesque and Byzantine forms. The nave and aisles are short for their height, only two bays plus the west bay deep, and have gallleries which continue across the transepts. Domed central tower over the crossing and a further bay for choir and side chapels and a full-height east sanctuary with classical paintings and pilaster below but a Hagia Sofia - like row of upper windows.The capitals more Byzantine than classical in design. The mosaics below the dome and in the sanctuary are by Tiffany, as is the stained glass of the clerestory windows and wheel windows of the transepts. The glass in the sanctuary windows was made by Mayer & Co of Munich. |