St. Bart's was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Jr. It was first occupied in 1918. Today it is a low-rise building in a sea of skyscrapers. Goodhue designed the church after San Marco in Venice. St. Bartholomew was founded in January 1835, in the then-fashionable Bowery area of Manhattan. St. Bart's began as part of the Evangelical movement in the Episcopal Church. Evangelicalism opposed the sacramental, ritualistic traditions of the 'High Church,' whose rituals were thought to ape those of the Roman Catholic Church. The 'High Church' was the eastern Episcopal establishment, (read Trinity Church). The Evangelicals emphasized that salvation could come only to those 'who have truly embraced the gospel, have been born from above, and have been the subjects of a radical and thorough change of heart.' At first, growth of the congregation was slow, but by 1872 St. Bartholomew's was large and prosperous enough to build a lavish new church at Madison Avenue and 44th Street which was designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The first building was later embellished with a triple portal (seen here) by Stanford White. When the Madison Avenue building developed structural problems. it was decided to build the present church.
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Jr.
(b. 1869 Pomfret, CT – d. NY 1924
was an American architect and illustrator. He moved to New York in 1884 and began his architectural career as an office boy in the office of Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell. In 1891, Goodhue joined the Boston firm of Cram & Wentworth, as chief draftsman. Wentworth died in 1897, and Frank Ferguson then joined the firm, which was renamed Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson.During the 1890s, the firm worked on a series of churches; All Saints (1894), Brookline, MA; Our Saviour's (1897), Middleborough, MA and St Stephen's (1899), Cohasset, MA. In 1902, Cram (as the writer) and Goodhue (as the illustrator), collaborated on a book entitled 'Church Building,' which inspired church design for decades. In 1902, for James Waldron Gillespie, Goodhue designed 'El Fureidis,' Montecito, CA, a house and estate built as a Mediterranean villa with Persian gardens. Goodhue and Gillespie traveled on horseback together from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. The trip influenced Goodhue's designs (1902) for Sweet Briar College in Virginia and Rice University (1910) in Houston, TX. In 1903, the firm won a competition for work at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY. Goodhue designed a chapel, and Cram designed the riding hall. Goodhue continued his church design: St John's in West Hartford, CT (1907), Christ Church West Haven, CT (1908) and the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, PA (1909). In 1910, he designed the Gothic Revival Church of the Intercession (Broadway and 155th Street, New York). The firm designed St Thomas Church on 5th Avenue and 53rd Street in New York (completed 1913), where Goodhue won the AIA Architects Gold Medal for his design of the main altar screen. The architectural partnership dissolved in 1913. Afterwards, Goodhue designed St. Bartholomew (1914) at 50th St and Park Avenue. He worked on St. Vincent Ferrer for the Dominicans at Lexington Avenue and 66th Street (both in NYC). He was the consulting architect for the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego (1911-1915). In Southern California he designed the Central Public Library, Los Angeles and the Physics Building of the California Institute of Technology in the Spanish style. He designed the Nebraska State Capitol building (1920-1922). Goodhue's National Academy of Sciences Building (1921-1924) in Washington, DC, was his final building. He died only a few days before it was to be dedicated. He is buried inside the Church of the Intercession in New York.
James Renwick Jr.
(b. 1818 NYC – d. NY 1895)
graduated from Columbia College (now Columbia University) at age 17 as an engineer, but he became a prominent American architect. His career was assisted by his father, James Renwick Sr., who was a professor of chemistry and other sciences at Columbia.Renwick first worked as an engineer for the Erie Railroad and then later on the Croton Reservoir, where he was superintendent of construction. With his father's influence, he entered and won the competition for the design of the Gothic Revival Grace Episcopal Church (Broadway and 10th Street) in New York City (1843-46). At that time, the neighborhood was a prosperous residential area, and the church quickly became a landmark. After he designed Calvary Episcopal (1846, Park Avenue South & 21st Street) and the South Dutch Reformed Church (1848-9, Fifth Avenue & 21st Street, destroyed). His Church of the Puritans (1846-7, destroyed) for the Congregationalists, north of Grace Church, was designed in Romanesque Revival style. Other churches in the same style include: St Stephen's (1853-4, 128 E. 28th Street) then wealthiest Roman Catholic Church and the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church (1854-5, destroyed), in Brooklyn. He designed a home for his parents on lower Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village (1849-51, destroyed). Hotels in New York designed by him include: the Clarendon (1850-51, destroyed); the St Denis (1851-2, Broadway & 11th Street), and white marble palazzo, LaFarge House (1852, burnt 1854, rebuilt 1854-6, destroyed.). During this time he also designed the Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago (1849-51, destroyed), and Trinity Episcopal Church, Washington (1850-51, destroyed). He served as the architect for The Board of Ten Governors of Charities and Corrections for the City of New York, for which he planned and supervised the construction of the Smallpox Hospital on Blackwell's Island, the Inebriate Asylum, and the Lunatic Asylum (both on Ward's Island) and the Children's Hospital on Randall's Island. He was chosen as the architect for St. Patrick's Cathedral (his greatest work), which was begun in 1853 and consecrated in 1879. His Second Empire design was chosen for the first Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1859-1871). Matthew Vassar commissioned him to design Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York (1861-5, altered). His Saint Bartholomew's Church (1871-1872, destroyed) was the second Saint Bartholomew's in New York City (Madison Avenue and 44th Street). Renwick was a member of the Century and Union clubs and a member of the Larchmont and New York Yacht clubs.
St. Bartholomew
(circa 1st Century)
known as the son of Tolmai, was an apostle. (Bartholomew was called Nathanael in the Fourth Gospel.) Jesus saw Bartholomew coming to him, and said of him, 'Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.' When Jesus told Bartholomew he had already seen him, Bartholomew declared his faith immediately: 'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.'We do not know where he preached. In the third century, Saint Pantænus found a copy of the Gospel of Saint Matthew in India that tradition said had been brought there by him. St. Bartholomew was condemned by the governor of Albanopolis to be crucified or flayed alive. The flaying knife is the symbol for St. Bartholomew in art. Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment,' on the wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, depicts St. Bartholomew holding a knife in one hand and his skin in the other. History records the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 (part of the 40 year French Wars of Religion), when Catherine de Medici authorized the assignation of French Huguenot (Protestant) leaders. This set off the Catholic mob in Paris that murdered thousands of Huguenots, and was followed by murderous regional riots. St. Bartholomew is the patron saint of tanners.
St. Patrick
(b. England 390 – d. Ireland 461)
was a bishop, and is the patron saint of Ireland. As a youth, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates. It is not known where he studied for the priesthood, although he knew and wrote Latin. He organized the Irish Church in Armagh and encouraged the Irish to become nuns and monks. He expelled the snakes from Ireland (there are no Irish snakes). Patrick explained the Trinity (God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost) by using the Irish shamrock. His feast day is March 17th.
Stanford White
(b. 1853 NY – d. NYC 1906)
was one of America's most important architects and a partner in McKim, Mead & White, the Beaux-Arts architectural firm. White was the son of the Shakespearean scholar Richard Grant White. He began working for Henry Hobson Richardson of Gambrill & Richardson in Boston, and worked on Trinity Church there. Then he toured and studied in Europe for 18 months. On his return, he partnered with Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead. The firm was quickly one of the most successful in America. It built the original Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Presbyterian Church, the New York Herald Building, Washington Arch, and the Century Club. The latter two still stand. He built mansions on Long Island, from Southampton to Montauk, in the informal shingle style. He also built primary residences for the social elite (Vanderbilt and Astor) on Fifth Avenue.Unfortunately White may best be remembered for his death. He was murdered by Harry K. Thaw on the Madison Square roof garden because White had had an affair with Evelyn Nesbit (Thaw's wife). The affair had ended before Nesbit's marriage to Thaw, but Thaw was an insanely jealous man who beat her on their honeymoon until she revealed all the details of her former affair with Stanford White. The murder was a scandal. Thaw (a Pittsburgh railroad heir) was twice tried for murder, but in the end he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1926, Thaw (d. 1947) wrote a book called 'The Traitor' in which he attempted to justify killing White. Nesbit (d. 1961) returned to Vaudeville and married, then divorced and finished her life in obscurity. White's reputation suffered for many years because of the circumstances of his death. White had a special four-car funeral train that left Grand Central Station for St. James, Long Island, where his funeral service was held in St. James Episcopal Church. Present at the services were his old partners. Arrangements had to be made to avoid the curious crowds. So hungry was the public for news of his scandalous death that a false rumor went around that a strange woman dressed in white had fainted in the church and caused a scene. His servants were reported to have wept. He was buried in the cemetery next to the church.
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1) St. Bartholomew's Church Map [25]
