A weathered gray stone facade. Enormous arched stained glass windows. A tower reaching for the sky. This is St Ann’s R C Church. Or what’s left of it.
St Ann’s Church once stood proudly in the East Village. Its history stretches back to 1848. Then it was the Twelfth Street Baptist Church. A quick change of hands later it became Temple Emanu-El. In the 1860s St Ann’s Roman Catholic Church took over.
The congregation wasn’t content with the existing structure. They tore down the original building. Only the facade and tower remained. Architect Napoleon Le Brun designed a grand Gothic sanctuary. It was dedicated in 1871. For decades St Ann’s served its community. A school even operated on the grounds.
But times changed. The parish dwindled. In 1983 St Ann’s became St Ann’s Armenian Catholic Cathedral. Twenty years later the Archdiocese announced its closure. A developer bought the building. They planned to replace it with a dorm.
Despite protests from preservationists St Ann’s was largely demolished in 2005. The developer surprisingly kept the 1848 facade and tower. They stand alone. A ghostly reminder of the church that once was. A 26-story dorm now stands behind this architectural relic. This unusual juxtaposition is all that remains of St Ann’s Church a fascinating example of New York’s ever-changing skyline. The facade stands tall a testament to the enduring spirit of the past in the midst of the modern city.