Ghost Church on 14th

Under the ghostly plastic, on 14th St. near First Ave., Immaculate Conception Church is being refurbished.  It was built in 1896 as Grace Chapel & Hospital, a mission of Grace Church at 10th & Broadway.

At the dedication Bishop Henry Codman Potter said there were so many immigrants that the neighborhood had "as much work to perform as in uncivilized quarters of the globe."  The complex's architects "favored the later French Gothic, and let loose both barrels..."  [ NY Times via Forgotten New York ]

Original Plan

The church, which was converted from Episcopalian to Catholic use in 1943, now has a grade school.  You have to feel for institutions in the Internet Age -- student reviews complain that recess is terrible at Immaculate Conception.  But even in the early 1900s, a concert organist rated the church's organ "Very poor and cheap both tonally and mechanically.  Terrible." 

(Btw, the history of the Ferris & Stuart organ at that last link, though not at this church, is pretty interesting.)