St. Saviour's in Maspeth; see more photos here. (Robert Holden)
Updated: Preservationists and community activists alike are rushing against the clock to move St. Saviour’s church so they may honor the deadline for relocating the building. In yet one more turn in the story of the little church that could, the Juniper Park Civic Association, which has led the effort, is pulling out all stops to get the Maspeth church safely to its final resting place, including the equivalent of a preservation SWAT team, which has started its assessment of the building.
Civic association president Robert Holden met with representatives from a building moving company last week. Moving the church in one piece is “cost-prohibitive, with estimates beginning at $150,000—and that’s just to get it down the street,” says Holden. In addition to excavating costs, moving the building intact requires pricey permits for dismantling utility wires and trimming trees. The new site at All Faiths Cemetery is about a mile away.
“Every time, there’s been some little obstacle,” says Holden. “We’ve come to the conclusion to just get it off the site however we can.” That leaves dismantling the church, timber by timber, a task that must begin soon. Though the developer has agreed to extend the end-of-the-month deadline once a good-faith effort to move the building is underway, Holden says “the church is the obstacle to any sale [of the land].”
His group has reached out to the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which is providing emergency funding and technical resources in the way of preservation architects and master carpenters, who must mark each piece and create construction documents. Additionally, Deputy Borough President Karen Koslowitz confirmed approval of $100,000 to fund the move. A private donor who wishes to remain anonymous also provided funding.
“Ideally it would take a month to document and another three months to disassemble, but we’re on a fast track,” says Ann-Isabel Friedman, director of the conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program, adding that even with a full staff, such a rush documentation takes at least week.
“We want to avoid ending up with a pile of splinters,” she said.
Dismantling a building of that size is a last resort, but with skilled oversight, is still preferable to demolition. The effort will be helped by architect Richard Upjohn’s master plans for the church, which are in possession of the civic association. Maspeth Industrial Development has agreed to store the disassembled building until the new site is excavated and funds are raised for reassembling the church.
Says Friedman, “I think this building has been though a lot and its history has just recently been uncovered. Making one or two more interventions are just a couple more chapters in its life.”
The church’s vinyl siding was recently removed, revealing its original Gothic details. Once restored, Holden hopes to apply for landmark status with the city, a request that’s been previously denied because the building did not meet the criteria for designation.
A spokeswoman from the Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to speculate on whether future alterations or restoration would affect the building’s eligibility.
-- Lana Bortolot