Photo of the Day: Church of Saint Mary the Virgin (Episcopal), NYC

On my way to and from work at Rockefeller Center, I usually pass this church at West 46^th Street. The Episcopal Church in New York established the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in 1868 as the parish church for the new residential neighborhood, then called Longacre Square, long since renamed Times Square.

In its first quarter-century, it was located a block south of its current location. Then in 1892, a member of the parish, Sara L. Cooke, made the church the principal beneficiary of her will, allowing the church to move out of its outgrown location. The first mass in the new site was held in December 1895. I photographed this sculpture over its entrance a week ago.