A slew of celebs spoke in support of preserving an historic but run-down Upper West Side church during a marathon public hearing on Tuesday — even as members of its own congregation fought just as hard to let it be demolished.
Over 60 people testified at the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s virtual meeting on the fate of West Park Presbyterian Church, the vast majority of them urging the panel to reject a “hardship” application by the church that would reverse its landmark protections. The move would allow for the church to ultimately be sold and demolished to make way for a proposed luxury apartment building.
Actors Mark Ruffalo and Wendell Pierce, filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, rapper Common, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Councilmember Gale Brewer and a parade of Upper West Side locals spoke about West Park’s historical significance and its role in the community as an arts space.
“This church is too important to our community to be sacrificed due to a lack of consideration of alternatives,” said Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat. “If we want to protect beautiful historic buildings, we can’t encourage demolition by neglect.”
Seconding that view, Oscar winner Common spoke about the church’s civil rights history and said he plans to perform there in the future.
“It has served our communities in so many ways and brought people together, brought people together in love and unity and creativity,” he said. “I really hope that we honor this place, that we recognize the value of it and make sure that it stands.”
West Park has been falling apart for years and its congregation has dwindled to just a dozen members, who fought the church’s landmarking in 2010. They’ve argued that the site is beyond repair, its landmark status is burdensome and that its upkeep costs are prohibitive and prevent them from funding other community efforts.
“The burden of maintaining the building has only grown over time, which has taken its toll on the congregation,” said Roger Leaf, chair of the church’s Administrative Commission. “Currently, the church is only able to cover its operating expenses by going even further into debt.”
Instead, they want to be able to sell it to real estate developer Alchemy Properties for $33 million to build a 19-story building of luxury condos with 10,000 square feet for the congregation as a worship and community space.
“For the past 13 years, the congregation has spent time and money trying to keep the building safe and usable,” said longtime church member Marsha Flowers.
“These efforts have cost us our membership, our pastoral support, have taken away from what we could have done as a church for all the mission work that West Park has historically been noted for,” she added.
West Park Presbyterian Church, located at W. 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave., was built in the 1880s and has a long history of social activism. In 1987, it became the home of God’s Love We Deliver, which donated prepared meals to New Yorkers living with AIDS.
It was also the first mainline church in the city to perform LGBTQ marriages, according to GLAAD. The Landmarks Preservation Commission described the church as “one of the Upper West Side’s most important buildings” when it was landmarked 13 years ago.
But the site has become a source of contention in recent years as it’s fallen into disrepair. Preservationists warned that, if the hardship application was approved, it would set a dangerous precedent for other landmarked properties across the city.
Steve Anderson of the Upper West Side Coalition had a rhetorical question for the commission: “And are you preservationists or demolishers?
“We need you to be preservationists,” he continued. “That [church] is a sacred sanctuary, and incredible things go on inside those walls, battered as they may be.”
