Right here lies in items the stays of St. Saviour’s Church, a Maspeth landmark that has been rotting slowly for greater than 15 years now in a forgotten nook of All Faiths Cemetery in Center Village.
For 150 years, it stood in glory on a hill in Maspeth. For a lot of the final 15 years, it has sat ingloriously inside two graffiti-covered, broken tractor-trailers with flat tires.
Throughout a Dec. 4 go to to All Faiths, a QNS/Ridgewood Occasions reporter noticed the contents — principally moldy piles of wooden stuffed with rusted nails — saved throughout the unlocked trailers, positioned in public view, with no gates or warning indicators close by to ban entry.
That is what stays of a years-long effort by civic leaders, together with outgoing Council Member Robert Holden, to protect a chunk of native historical past. Underneath Holden’s management, the Juniper Park Civic Affiliation (JPCA) led a livid battle to “save St. Saviour’s” in some capability. These efforts spared St. Saviour’s from the wrecking ball, resulting in an settlement to have the church meticulously dismantled and catalogued, then saved away for eventual reconstruction, in a $250,000 effort.
But it surely by no means occurred. The church that after survived artillery hearth throughout the Revolutionary Battle stays in items to at the present time, seemingly was a complete group’s afterthought.
And Holden, who had spoken so loudly in protection of the church 15 years in the past, had little to say on the subject now. When QNS reached out to him for an interview, he declined — declaring “There’s no story here.”
Then-Juniper Park Civic Affiliation President Robert Holden is proven in March 2008 asserting an settlement to have the historic St. Saviour’s Church dismantled, faraway from its Maspeth website and rebuilt elsewhere. Ridgewood Occasions/Picture by Robert Pozarycki
How St. Saviour’s Church obtained right here
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
Between 2006 and 2009, Holden’s JPCA repeatedly rallied the communities of Center Village and Maspeth collectively to cease St. Saviour’s Church from being demolished by builders by establishing it as a historic landmark.
Nonetheless, the Metropolis by no means granted St. Saviour’s the standing, and a scheme distinctive to landmark preservation unfolded: the church was painstakingly disassembled, with every bit labeled and saved away to be rebuilt at a brand new location.
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
Nonetheless, the final report on the church’s rebuilding effort was in 2009, when then-Borough President Helen Marshall and then-District 30 Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley devoted roughly $2 million to its reconstruction. Holden, backed by the JPCA, ran in opposition to Crowley in 2017 and criticized her failure to avoid wasting St. Saviour’s, in the end beating her by a slim margin of simply 200 votes.
“Unfortunately, it appears that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has given up the fight to save one of the most historic sites in the City of New York and Maspeth’s most important landmark. I’m not surprised,” Holden stated in 2011. “While the church still sits in trailers in West Maspeth, the St. Saviour’s historic land now contains warehouses as symbolic and grotesque monuments to the failure of the City of New York and our elected officials to recognize the importance of saving the last remaining landmarks of Maspeth’s history for future generations to enjoy.”
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
St. Saviour’s was based in 1848 on land donated by Rep. James Maurice, an iconic Queens politician of the nineteenth century. Famed New York Architect Richard Upjohn designed the church within the Carpenter Gothic fashion based mostly on unused designs for a church in Manhattan. The land itself was stuffed with relics from the Revolutionary Battle: previous cash and even artillery fired throughout the Battle of Lengthy Island.
“This is an incredible Richard Upjohn church, and at the time, a rare Carpenter Gothic survivor,” stated New York Landmarks Conservancy (NYLC) President Peg Breen. “This was once a wonderful building by a really important architect, and could have been serving some useful function today.”
St. Saviour’s Church because it appeared in November 2025 on the location the place it stood for 150 years, off the nook of Rust Avenue and 57th Highway in Maspeth. Picture by Robert Pozarycki
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
The rift over the church began forming in 2005, after the San Sung Korean Methodist Church congregation offered the land on Maspeth Hill the place St. Saviour’s stood for greater than 150 years.
Locals reported that because the congregation purchased the church from the Episcopal Archdiocese in 1995, the historic plot was principally left unattended and lengthy grass grew excessive in opposition to the 100+ 12 months previous timber. Although the group objected, the congregation alleged the price of renovations and maintenance of the previous constructing was too steep, and the Metropolis granted its sale for growth by way of a “hardship application.”
The congregation initially purchased the church for $450,000, and in the end offered it for $10 million, flipping the historic constructing for a slick seven-figure revenue.
Maspeth Improvement LLC purchased the land with the intention of rezoning the world for housing. The corporate would prematurely rip out the timber in preparation for the challenge. Decided, the JPCA and the Newtown Historic Society started the campaign to avoid wasting St. Saviour’s — a battle they’d wage for greater than two years.
Members of the Juniper Park Civic Affiliation protesting in February 2008 whereas looking for the preservation of St. Saviour’s Church. Ridgewood Occasions/Picture by Robert Pozarycki
Protests over St. Saviour’s upcoming demise broke out within the streets, they usually blamed then Councilmember Dennis Gallagher, who preceded Crowley, for permitting the event to undergo within the first place and turning a blind eye whereas the developer destroyed the property.
That fashioned an irreparable rift between the JPCA and Gallagher, whom the group had beforehand honored in March 2005 as its Man of the Yr. The group, underneath Holden’s path, publicly vilified Gallagher as an enemy of preservation and the neighborhood at public conferences and in its quarterly journal, the Juniper Berry.
“It was like the Hatfields and McCoys,” stated James McClelland, treasurer of All Faiths Cemetery after which worker of Marshall. “There was one side, who wanted to compromise, the other side who wanted the full restoration in the park and the whole site… there was name calling, [people] getting thrown out of meetings. It was bad.”
Gallagher responded in type by organizing a rival group group, the Center Village Maspeth Civic Affiliation. In September 2006, members of each teams clashed at a JPCA assembly the place Gallagher’s try to talk was turned apart, and his supporters engaged in shouting matches with JPCA members.
Picture by Robert Pozarycki
Nonetheless, regardless of lower than a 12 months left, Gallagher’s time period was minimize brief after a scandal wherein he sexually abused a girl in his marketing campaign workplace. He was charged in August 2007 with rape, however in the end pled responsible to a lesser cost early the subsequent 12 months, and resigned from workplace.
Covers of the Juniper Berry journal, a publication of the Juniper Park Civic Affiliation, displaying Metropolis Council Member Dennis Gallagher being acknowledged because the group’s Man of the Yr in March 2005 (l.) and calling for Gallagher’s resignation following his August 2007 arrest in a sexual assault case that in the end ended his political profession.
Then-Metropolis Council Member Dennis Gallagher in handcuffs whereas being led to a Queens Felony Court docket room in August 2007 for arraignment on a rape cost. Ridgewood Occasions/Picture by Robert Pozarycki
However the die was already forged for St. Saviour’s, and its date with a wrecking ball was scheduled. It was Holden and President of Newtown Historic Society, an offshoot of the JPCA, Christina Wilkinson who negotiated with the builders on the eleventh hour and struck a deal: disassemble the church in 30 days, or it will get taken down.
The group rallied, present JPCA President Tony Nunziato bought two truck trailers for storage, and Wilkinson, Holden and volunteers helped building employees fastidiously take away and label each single piece, costing town and state a complete of $250,000.
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
“We did everything humanly possible… we all put a lot of time into it to save it,” Nunziato stated. “It’s just that the final frontier had a few drawbacks as far as funding and all. Hopefully, we can pass it on to finally get it done with the new administration and new council people, so we can get more funding to take care of it.”
Christabel Gough, a notable activist on this planet of architectural conservancy, had donated a further $50,000 to NYLC to plan the disassembly and even create blueprints for its reconstruction. Gough, now 87, was disillusioned to listen to the standing of the church — however after a protracted profession in conservancy, understood the difficulties.
Christabel Gough with an previous St. Saviour’s protest signal as she donates her archives to New York Preservation Archive Venture. Courtesy of New York Preservation Archive Venture
“It’s no reproach to him if he never managed to do it,” Gough stated on Holden. “Many historic churches have serious problems, all over America now… it’s not an easy situation. So many people are no longer active within their churches anymore, if they’re even affiliated with one at all, and that takes its toll on the architecture.”
‘All that for nothing…’
Elizabeth Crowley was elected in November 2008 to the Metropolis Council seat Gallagher beforehand held. In that historic election that noticed Barack Obama elected president, the Democratic Crowley defeated the incumbent, Anthony Como, a Republican and former Gallagher assist who gained the seat in a March particular election.
Holden closely criticized Crowley in his marketing campaign for failing to rebuild St. Saviour’s. In 2011, Crowley devoted almost $2 million in funding from her workplace and the borough president to repurchase the St. Saviour’s website for a park and rebuild the church at All Faiths Cemetery. Nonetheless, the property value was valued at $5 million. Wilkinson spearheaded in depth fundraising efforts, contacting elected officers and extra, finally reaching $4.5 million in funding. But it surely was too little too late.
Crowley deserted the St. Saviour’s website for the park challenge and set her eyes to a close-by plot one-third the scale owned by Martin Luther Faculty, who she stated have been prepared to promote. The 12 months got here to an finish, no park website was bought, the church remained in its trailers, and the St. Saviour’s website was developed into 4 giant warehouses.
The debacle was a blemish on Crowley’s file, permitting Holden to clinch the 2017 election by 200 votes. The unique website gone, he vowed to revive St. Saviour’s to its former glory.
“It will act as a great community center for generations to come and a chapel,” Holden informed the Ridgewood Occasions in 2008.
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
Nonetheless, Queens Group Board 5 Managing Director Gary Giordano said the plan to rebuild St. Saviour’s has not been included as a capital funds request “any time recently.”
McClelland stated Holden approached All Faiths Cemetery in 2020, claiming to have secured the funding to construct the church on the property and the trailers have been briefly moved — then returned to the identical location.
Alicia Vaichunas, Holden’s deputy chief of employees, stated he requested her if the property she owned could be an appropriate plot for St. Saviour’s, however in the end to no avail.
Wilkinson, who spearheaded the St. Saviour’s website park challenge, had no data of any funding efforts to rebuild the church because it was dismantled.
“All that for nothing,” stated McClelland.
In the meantime, Councilmember-elect Phil Wong, Holden’s funds director and successor, has but to reply for a remark if he’ll proceed his boss’s efforts to safe funding.
Breen stated nobody has approached NYLC about St. Saviour’s for years, however that they nonetheless have the blueprints for reconstruction and will probably be sending somebody to All Religion’s to find out if its nonetheless possible. Whether it is, McClelland said the cemetery continues to be open to constructing it on its land.
“We would love to have a historical church on site for people to go and pray when they’re burying their loved ones, I think it’s the perfect marriage,” McClelland stated. “But we don’t have millions of dollars of expendable money to fund this project.”
The challenge would value thousands and thousands, and in line with Breen, would require a non-profit bigger than NYLC to see it by way of and function it sooner or later.
Nunziato stated the church’s bell, which Holden beforehand informed the Occasions had gone lacking earlier than the disassembly, is in a “safe location” and hopes sufficient of the wooden might be salvaged to not less than construct the previous bell tower as a tribute to the as soon as nice church and the group’s valiant effort to put it aside.
Although St. Saviour’s could by no means really be saved, its scattered items nonetheless stay within the coronary heart of Center Village as a rotting relic of occasions previous.
Picture by Patrick Stachniak
