Our Lady of Guadalupe's Church (New York City)

The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(Photographed in 2011)
General information
Architectural style	Spanish Baroque Baroque Revival
Town or city	Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Country	United States
Completed	c.1850 (as rowhouse) 1921 (facade as church)[1]
Design and construction
Client	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Architect	Gustave E. Steinback (1921 facade as church)[1]

The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as Nuestra Señora de la Guadalupe is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 229 West 14th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Union Square / Chelsea, section of Manhattan, New York City.

The parish was established in 1902 by the Augustinians of the Assumption as the first Spanish-speaking Catholic parish in New York City, serving working-class Spanish immigrants. At the time, that area of 14th street was considered “Little Spain.”^[1][2] The parish was closed in 2003 when it merged with St. Bernard's to create the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe & St. Bernard.

Building

The present (and now closed) church building is a former mid-nineteenth-century brownstone rowhouse. The conversion to a church at or near the founding of the parish created double-height sanctuary. The church also includes a "side chapel, tiny balcony, and clerestory." The monumental facade completed in the Spanish Baroque style or "classically proportioned Spanish Revival façade" was built 1921 to the designs of Gustave Steinback.^[1][3] The "transformation which makes Guadalupe extremely rare, if not unique, in the city spanned two decades and involved several notable architects...."^[1] The AIA Guide to NYC (Fifth Edition, 2010) called it "an extraordinary brownstone conversion.... Its Iberian ancestry is expressed both in the language of its services and in its Spanish Colonial facade."^[4]

The church remained popular with the various Hispanic communities of New York, serving Spaniards, Spanish-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. The expansion of the Mexican population, however, overwhelmed the small church necessitating the congregation's removal to nearby St. Bernard's.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} [Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation], "14TH STREET AND UNION SQUARE, PRESERVATION PLAN" (New York City: HISTORIC PRESERVATION PROGRAM GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 2006,)(Accessed 13 Jan 2011)
2. ^ Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women.. (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.357.
3. ^ ^{a b} Our Lady Guadalupe Organs
4. ^ White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010) (in English). AIA Guide to New York City. American Insitute of Architects New York Chapter (Fifth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-19-538386-7.