Fort Washington Presbyterian Church stands at the
corner of Wadsworth Avenue and 174th Street, in the Washington
Heights section of Manhattan. I had observed this church for quite a while, on
my way to the subway station at 168th Street, and one day in October
I took this photo.
This photo only gives you some idea of what drew my
eye over time to this religious institution. Fundamentally, it imposes itself on the surroundings: sitting on the crest
of a hill, looking down toward the dip that nearby Broadway takes, with,
looming above everything, its five-stage bell tower, embellished with classical
motifs.
Then there is the look itself of this neo-Georgian
building: buff-colored brick laid in Flemish bond and trimmed with Indiana
limestone, topped off with a “rubbed finish.”
The church, built in 1913 and 1914, was designed by
Thomas Hastings (1860–1929) of Carrere and Hastings. The architect, the son of
a Presbyterian pastor, was sensitive to the nuances of church design.
In 1982 Fort Washington Presbyterian’s congregation turned over the church to the Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Washington Heights, a
Hispanic congregation formed on the Heights in the 1940s. The building’s name
was then changed to Iglesia Presbitereriana Fort Washington Heights. In 1909,
this historic church was designated a New York City Landmark.
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